- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Atlantic Books (13 Mar 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1848871236
- ISBN-13: 978-1848871236
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 78,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Between the Assassinations
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Product Description
Review
"'The joy of reading Between the Assassinations derives from the life he breathes into his characters... They are fraught with conflicting desires that time after time end in violence, madness or stifling frustration... This is fiction at its most ambitious and incisive and every bit as impressive as his debut.' Sunday Telegraph 'Adiga...has boldly gone where few Indian writers choose to venture, casting his gaze beyond the complacent smugness of middle-class drawing rooms to the anger and squalor lurking in the underbelly of urban India.' Vikas Swarup, Guardian 'Wonderful... With Between the Assassinations, Adiga has demonstrated that he is an important literary talent, a writer capable of evocation without extravagance, a sensitive chronicler of modern India.' Telegraph 'Lively and keenly observed.' Sunday Times"
Product Description
This is the dazzling second book from the winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize and Nibbies 'Author of the Year' Aravind Adiga: one of the summer's most eagerly anticipated paperbacks and an Atlantic Superlead title. Nestling on India's southern coast lies the town of Kittur. Ranging through the city's streets and schoolyards, bedrooms and businesses, its inner workings and its outer limits, through the myriad and distinctive voices of its inhabitants, Aravind Adiga brings an entire world vividly and unforgettably to life.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is billed as a novel, but it isn't really that. It is a collection of short stories all set in the same location. One might think of it as a constellation arrangement (in Benjamin's sense) in that the stories are connected, but only indirectly, via the eye of the observer. I think some people have been disappointed by this book because it isn't as satirical as White Tiger, but in many ways that is what makes it a better book. There is a real honesty to this book that is quite disturbing. It doesn't sugar coat things, nor does it create false tales of redemption like Slumdog Millionaire. If it has a single theme it is this: the very poor don't get to make mistakes, one error of judgement is fatal.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Aravind Adiga follows up The White Tiger, his brutal dissection of Indian society, with yet another offering.
This time it is a collection of short stories that share a common theme - endemic corruption at all levels among public servants and a look into the flaws of the Hindu caste system, where so-called 'untouchables' exist.
Despite the country having made rapid strides in the last century, I'm afraid this book reinforces the enduring presence of these social attitudes in India today.
I felt this book was darker than the White Tiger, and lacking its lighthearted narrative and the naivete of its protagonist.
This time it is a collection of short stories that share a common theme - endemic corruption at all levels among public servants and a look into the flaws of the Hindu caste system, where so-called 'untouchables' exist.
Despite the country having made rapid strides in the last century, I'm afraid this book reinforces the enduring presence of these social attitudes in India today.
I felt this book was darker than the White Tiger, and lacking its lighthearted narrative and the naivete of its protagonist.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I liked this book a lot - it's not a novel, more a collection of short stories, partially linked, set in Kittur, a fictional city in southern India.
The characters are so well observed I wondered if they were real people with their real stories. Somehow all the stories are an exercise in disappointment - for the characters, not the reader - thwarted ambitions, frustration and resignation all are well articulated.
Each chapter is interspersed with facts about Kittur (as if you are reading a travel guide), which takes the reader out of the immediate reality of life in Kittur and into observer status - only to be thrown right back in again into another story of hard life.
I liked it just as much as White Tiger.
The characters are so well observed I wondered if they were real people with their real stories. Somehow all the stories are an exercise in disappointment - for the characters, not the reader - thwarted ambitions, frustration and resignation all are well articulated.
Each chapter is interspersed with facts about Kittur (as if you are reading a travel guide), which takes the reader out of the immediate reality of life in Kittur and into observer status - only to be thrown right back in again into another story of hard life.
I liked it just as much as White Tiger.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brief lives.
I share the disappointment of those readers who expected this to be a novel but I'm glad that my ignorance led me to buy what is a deeply thought-provoking and skillfully written... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Valentine Gersbach
fascinating and entertaining
If anyone enjoyed White Tiger then this book is for them, each chapter is different and interesting in its own right
another book which is difficult to put down
another book which is difficult to put down
Published 2 months ago by Mark Barker
Easy to dip in and out of
Having read White Tiger, I was eager to read another Adiga novel. This one was a little different, but equally compelling. Read more
Published 4 months ago by pinky
Intriguing form
Aravind Adiga's White Tiger won the Booker Prize and was notable for its intriguing form. I thought it would be a hard act to follow. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Philip Spires
Brilliant Black Comedy of Manners Throws Laser-Bright Light
"Between the Assassinations" comes to us as a collection of short stories, set between the assassinations of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi (1984-1991) in the city of Kittur, "on India's... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Stephanie DePue
Dark and poignant
Anyone expecting the acid wit of White Tiger is not going to get it from this book. Set in the city of 'Kittur' Between the Assassinations tells the stories of a multitude of... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Christian
Resonant, enveloping, could not put it down
Clever premise, finely crafted vignettes of a fictitious town. Creates a credible life in a fictional world. Read more
Published 6 months ago by iliketowatch
Woeful prejudice
Unfortunately, Adiga repeated the same mistake he made in White Tiger and that was to fail to keep in check his dislike of the Muslim half of India. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Harius
An Indian Dubliners
The title of this book refers to the time between the assasination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Ghandi in 1984 and the assasination of her son and successor, Rajiv Ghandi, in... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Adam Bartleby
Interesting snapshot of life in India
This book is the story of a city, rather than of characters. It's essentially a collection of short stories, the only theme connecting them are that they all seem to examine the... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mr. Neil D. Armour
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