- Hardcover: 448 pages
- Publisher: Hutchinson (1 Jun 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0091796563
- ISBN-13: 978-0091796563
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.6 x 4.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,964,377 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
"The heat and vitality of the Caribbean burn off the page."
"-Guardian"
"-Guardian"
"From the Trade Paperback edition."
Review
"The heat and vitality of the Caribbean burn off the page."
"-Guardian" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"-Guardian" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
There an osmosis-like process that happens through reading this book. I started off knowing very little about Trinidad but by following Ved's story I've absorbed all manner of things about the social and political set-up there.
Ved is an attractive protagonist and Niala Maharaj really succeeds in `cross-writing' herself into a man's mind. One of the clever tricks she pulls off is to have Ved take his life down a route that the reader can see is wrong for him without ever losing credibility.
Ved is surrounded by characters so well-defined that I believe they probably exist in real life. Their antics tug at your heart-strings and they make you laugh out loud. Ms Maharaj is equally at home writing comedy and tragedy and both abound in this book.
It's a rattling good story well told. It captures the heat and heart of the Caribbean.
Ved is an attractive protagonist and Niala Maharaj really succeeds in `cross-writing' herself into a man's mind. One of the clever tricks she pulls off is to have Ved take his life down a route that the reader can see is wrong for him without ever losing credibility.
Ved is surrounded by characters so well-defined that I believe they probably exist in real life. Their antics tug at your heart-strings and they make you laugh out loud. Ms Maharaj is equally at home writing comedy and tragedy and both abound in this book.
It's a rattling good story well told. It captures the heat and heart of the Caribbean.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Much of the new writing out of the Caribbean seems to be stuck in a timewarp: the childhood memoir, the coming-of-age novel. This is a great exception. It's a first novel, from a writer I think we will be hearing a lot more of.
She writes beautifully, and the story moves fast, much of it through dialogue reminiscent again of Naipaul (the skilful, often comic dialogue of "Miguel Street" and the other early books). And Maharaj has solved perfectly the problem of dealing with a second-language or "dialect" culture. The dialogue is easy to read, doesn't get bogged down in phonetic imitation, and catches exactly the rhythm and nuance of Trinidadian talk.
Some readers, especially impatient ones, won't like the way Maharaj works into the main narrative. No opening "teaser" chapter followed by prolonged flashbacks, no fancy tricks with multiple voices or points of view. This is a straightforward linear narrative, rich and almost Dickensian; you have to stay with it. If you wonder in the early pages where things are going, don't despair, you'll soon find out.
Although this is a deeply serious book about a beleagured hero and a beleagured culture, it never takes itself too seriously. It is often very funny, the story itself is human and compelling, and the pace hardly slows. For a feel of real contemporary Caribbean life, start here.
She writes beautifully, and the story moves fast, much of it through dialogue reminiscent again of Naipaul (the skilful, often comic dialogue of "Miguel Street" and the other early books). And Maharaj has solved perfectly the problem of dealing with a second-language or "dialect" culture. The dialogue is easy to read, doesn't get bogged down in phonetic imitation, and catches exactly the rhythm and nuance of Trinidadian talk.
Some readers, especially impatient ones, won't like the way Maharaj works into the main narrative. No opening "teaser" chapter followed by prolonged flashbacks, no fancy tricks with multiple voices or points of view. This is a straightforward linear narrative, rich and almost Dickensian; you have to stay with it. If you wonder in the early pages where things are going, don't despair, you'll soon find out.
Although this is a deeply serious book about a beleagured hero and a beleagured culture, it never takes itself too seriously. It is often very funny, the story itself is human and compelling, and the pace hardly slows. For a feel of real contemporary Caribbean life, start here.
Format:Paperback
I completely agree with the positive points detailed in the previous reviews: the book is vivid, full with realistic characters, and provides a good description of life in Trinidad.
But I couldn't get over page 93, I felt that the story of Ved is just a bit too smooth and happy to be realistic. It's rather a tale with realistic scenes. And it's too lenghty: these 93 pages could be summarised in one sentence "everything went well, the business was growing rapidly, Ved was popular". I'm not carrying on with reading, I cannot anticipate to get any deep experience out of it.
The problem might be that I've started it after finishing another book which was more complicated and its topic was more serious (The Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller).
All in all, Like Heaven is good for light entertainment, but I wouldn't say it is a serious book.
But I couldn't get over page 93, I felt that the story of Ved is just a bit too smooth and happy to be realistic. It's rather a tale with realistic scenes. And it's too lenghty: these 93 pages could be summarised in one sentence "everything went well, the business was growing rapidly, Ved was popular". I'm not carrying on with reading, I cannot anticipate to get any deep experience out of it.
The problem might be that I've started it after finishing another book which was more complicated and its topic was more serious (The Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller).
All in all, Like Heaven is good for light entertainment, but I wouldn't say it is a serious book.
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