- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (30 Nov 1972)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140034900
- ISBN-13: 978-0140034905
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 10.8 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 803,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Desani's 'AAHH' is one of the first, and still finest, examples of métèque writing. Métèque is a somewhat derogatory term for an author writing in English but whose native language is something else. Although, 'AAHH' is in English, Desani blends it with his native Hindi to create a comical, lyrical prose style that has served as a template for subsequent Indian writers such as Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy. Desani's book was almost never published because sniffy English publishing companies told him his grasp of English wasn't good enough. Thankfully, someone eventually saw sense, and what emerged was the archetypal classic of English language Indian literature.
'AAHH' is the story of the title character's search for enlightenment in India. There are seven chapters, each beginning with the words of a 'wise man'. The chapter subsequently describes Hatterr's encounters with a series of fraudulent gurus, and follows his disastrous attempts to put their teachings into practice. His ever-reliable friend Bannerji is on hand with much more down-to-earth wisdom of his own, and politely digs Hatterr out of the holes the wise men have dug for him.
'AAHH' is a classic in every sense of the word. Apart from providing the archetype for 50 years of Indian literature, it stands alone as a wonderful read. It is funny and profane , yet also wise and pithy. The language is some of the most lyrical I have read, and it flows easily off the page. H.Hatterr and Bannerji are among the great comic creations in world literature. This is a must for fans of Indian literature, but, much more than that, it is a wonderful, funny, sad book, easy to read but strangely profound, and deserves a much higher profile as a twentieth century classic.
'AAHH' is the story of the title character's search for enlightenment in India. There are seven chapters, each beginning with the words of a 'wise man'. The chapter subsequently describes Hatterr's encounters with a series of fraudulent gurus, and follows his disastrous attempts to put their teachings into practice. His ever-reliable friend Bannerji is on hand with much more down-to-earth wisdom of his own, and politely digs Hatterr out of the holes the wise men have dug for him.
'AAHH' is a classic in every sense of the word. Apart from providing the archetype for 50 years of Indian literature, it stands alone as a wonderful read. It is funny and profane , yet also wise and pithy. The language is some of the most lyrical I have read, and it flows easily off the page. H.Hatterr and Bannerji are among the great comic creations in world literature. This is a must for fans of Indian literature, but, much more than that, it is a wonderful, funny, sad book, easy to read but strangely profound, and deserves a much higher profile as a twentieth century classic.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a fascinating and unusual exploration of dislocation, loneliness and the search for the meaning of life from the perspective of one of literature's most unusual heroes. H. Hatterr is living a sad and lonely half life in London while he remembers his life in India where, spurred on by his loyal friend Banerrji, he encounters the Sage of the Wilderness who turns out to be a confidence trickster of the first order and sets the pattern for all his subsequent encounters with fake gurus, sadhus and wise men. With each new adventure Hatterr learns more of the contrasts and contradictions within both his own life and that of man in general.
His encounters with women are no less successful. Married to the 'Kiss curl' who 'fails' to deliver him a much wanted son and heir and who variously leaves him, returns brandishing a shot gun and entertains gentlemen in Hatterr's own home, Hatterr's opinion of women does not get off to a good start. It deteriorates rapidly with each new encounter as Hatterr is tormented by his inability to regulate either his lust or loathing for the females in his life.
Ultimately, as the novel draws to a close the reader is made aware of both the fragility and the strength of this man who can laugh at misfortune, be profoundly affected by beauty and by the friendship of Banerrji and who is acutely aware fo the contradictions that underpin man's existence.
This book is definitely worth the effort. Desani's language is extraordinarily evocative of the fragmentation that constitutes Hatterr's life. Desani combines words in a way that is seldom seen in literature today, a language he describes as 'rigmarole English'. A particular favourite is the description of the untimely awakening of a sleeping man:
"Such an ugly ants-in-the-pants reaction!
A dead dynamo, in sudden post mortem posthumous motion."
This book was hugely popular on its first publication in 1948 and 3 years after the death of G. V.Desani, and despite its sporadic disappearance from bookshops, remains one of the finest pieces of early Indian writing in English.
His encounters with women are no less successful. Married to the 'Kiss curl' who 'fails' to deliver him a much wanted son and heir and who variously leaves him, returns brandishing a shot gun and entertains gentlemen in Hatterr's own home, Hatterr's opinion of women does not get off to a good start. It deteriorates rapidly with each new encounter as Hatterr is tormented by his inability to regulate either his lust or loathing for the females in his life.
Ultimately, as the novel draws to a close the reader is made aware of both the fragility and the strength of this man who can laugh at misfortune, be profoundly affected by beauty and by the friendship of Banerrji and who is acutely aware fo the contradictions that underpin man's existence.
This book is definitely worth the effort. Desani's language is extraordinarily evocative of the fragmentation that constitutes Hatterr's life. Desani combines words in a way that is seldom seen in literature today, a language he describes as 'rigmarole English'. A particular favourite is the description of the untimely awakening of a sleeping man:
"Such an ugly ants-in-the-pants reaction!
A dead dynamo, in sudden post mortem posthumous motion."
This book was hugely popular on its first publication in 1948 and 3 years after the death of G. V.Desani, and despite its sporadic disappearance from bookshops, remains one of the finest pieces of early Indian writing in English.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
All About H Hatterr is unlike anything else. It is a comic novel, written by an Indian (1947) who had vast linguistic resources at his disposal, but chose to write a novel which has resemblances to Sterne's Tristram Shandy and Flann O'Brien's At Swim Two Birds. What one person finds funny might not be comic to everyone else (humour is very personal), but H Hatterr's Candide-like adventures are minor classic encounters with near-disaster. Taking advice from 7 Indian sages in 7 Indian cities, Hatterr courts disaster seven times, only to return to his friend Bannerji to discuss what went wrong afterwards. A book that has been praised by TS Eliot, Anthony Burgess, Salman Rushdie and Saul Bellow, All About H Hatterr might not be to everyone's taste, but it is a classic comic novel. I wish I had discovered it years ago. It deserves wider exposure. The New York Review of Books has done a service by bringing it back into print.
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