The Immortals
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Review
'If the Man Booker Prize ran to form, we could begin to draw up the shortlist for 2009... The Immortals?' --Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
Review
'Asian fiction continues to make a big splash; Amit Chaudhuri's The Immortals is a tale of three Indian musicians.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Clever but ultimately unsatisfying,
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This review is from: The Immortals (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
The Immortals is a novel set in the heart of the world of the Bombay middle class: music teacher Shyamji, son of an acclaimed musician, enters the lives of the bored and affluent Senguptas. What happens? It's hard to say. With great attention to detail Chaudhuri paints each character with a careful but not always sensitive brush - middle-aged wife Mallika is a frustrated singer; teenage son Nirmalya is disaffected and irritatingly interested in philosophy in a superficial way; the father of the house is one-dimensional in his suit, tie and air-conditioned white Mercedes.
Stephen Abell wrote in the Telegraph that it is a novel of 'the mortal and the mundane', which I think is a very good way of putting it and sums up much of the feel of this book. It is hard to say what is wrong with The Immortals but something just doesn't work as it should, at least for me as a reader. It is a finely crafted piece of work in many ways and well-written, though I found the use of Hindi and Bengali phrases throughout a bit frustrating as these didn't always sit well within the English narrative and it wasn't always clear what these meant or why Chaudhuri had chosen to use Hindi rather than English. For me, they added little to the novel but were sometimes frustrating. At a higher level, throughout the novel I found myself getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of progression. Yes, characters died or moved - but essentially there was no movement whatsoever in the core of the book; the aspects that the book centred around. Maybe that was the point and maybe it was very clever, but I found the lack of any pace or resolution unsatisfying.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoy the sheer beauty of the prose,
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This review is from: The Immortals (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
The story centres around Shyamji, singer and musician, the son of a notable singer; one of his students, Mallika, the wife of a successful businessman who herself has a voice that could make her famous; and Mallika's son Nirmalya, an increasing loner with high ideals and a critical outlook. Yet as the story unfolds we encounter many other characters, and as each is introduced given a clear image of that individual, however brief a role they play in the story.
The story follows the relationship between the various characters, and in particular the three mentioned, at a time when Shyamji and Mallika have attained what they will, and Nirmalya has yet to prove what he will achieve, as he considers his future and the direction of his education will take. Mallika looks to Shyamji to promote her as a singer, in turn Shyamji sees in Mallika a source of security, while Nirmalya regards Shyamji with the the shy reverence due his guru. It is the fine attention to detail which characterises Chaudhuri's writing, and which enables him to convey so vividly the sights, sounds and smells of India. It is a beautifully written book, with three main protagonists who each has his or her own appeal. It is a story about ideals, perceptions and realities. It is above all a story to be enjoyed for the sheer beauty of the prose.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
That's all well and good, but where's the plot?,
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This review is from: The Immortals (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
This book is well written, very well written. Which makes me feel quite bad about having to admit how little I enjoyed it. What you find is a group of characters, serendipitously tied together by the theme of music or through some family tie, but who don't really offer much in the way of interest to the reader. There are a few stories, but no underlying plot. The narrative essentially takes you nowhere, leaving you feeling frustrated and bored.
Novels can sometimes be good despite a lack of obvious plot, but generally you need characters who can carry it, or some kind of amazing theme. As opposed to ones you couldn't care less about, and a somewhat unexplored theme. It even makes music feel dull. Once again the prose is nice, but, honestly, read something else.
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