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Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found [Paperback]

Suketu Mehta (Author)

3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 5 Sep 2005

Bombay's story is told through the lives, often desperately near the edge, of some of the people who live there. Hitmen, dancing girls, cops, movie stars, poets, beggars and politicians - Suketu looked at the city through their eyes.

The complex texture of these extraordinary tales is threaded together by Suketu Mehta's own history of growing up in Bombay and returning to live there after a 21-year absence, and in looking through the eyes of his found the city within himself.

Part memoir, part journalism, part travelogue, and written with the relentless observation and patience of a novelist, Maximum City is a brilliantly illuminating portrait of Bombay and its people - a book as vast, diverse, and rich in experience, incident, and sensation as the city itself.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } Bombay's story is told through the lives, often desperately near the edge, of some of the people who live there. Hitmen, dancing girls, cops, movie stars, poets, beggars and politicians - Suketu looked at the city through their eyes.

The complex texture of these extraordinary tales is threaded together by Suketu Mehta's own history of growing up in Bombay and returning to live there after a 21-year absence, and in looking through the eyes of his found the city within himself.

Part memoir, part journalism, part travelogue, and written with the relentless observation and patience of a novelist, Maximum City is a brilliantly illuminating portrait of Bombay and its people - a book as vast, diverse, and rich in experience, incident, and sensation as the city itself.

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Product details

Paperback: 608 pages
Publisher: Headline Review; New Ed edition (5 Sep 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0747259690
ISBN-13: 978-0747259695
Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 3.9 x 19.8 cm

Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 162,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Books > Travel & Holiday > Countries & Regions > Asia > India > Bombay

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Review

Pick of the Week - 'If there's been a more striking snapshot of the changing face of Asia, I've never read it. With energy, wit and endless reserves of empathy, Maximum City leaves you desperate to see Bombay for yourself...'

(Sunday Times 20050904)

'... it is Mehta's enthusiastic and intrepid self at the centre of his narrative that lends his account its appeal and memorable poetic charge.'

(Observer 20050904)

'Mehta's extraordinary, and extraordinarily rich book, is both testimony and warning; a snapshot of a city full of vitality and hate.'

(The Telegraph 20051009)

'Combining an insider's knowledge with a visitor's detachment, he prises open the rotten underbelly of the city to expose an unforgettable picture of depravity, greed sectarian strife and corruption. This is a stupendous book'

(Mail on Sunday 20051023)

From the Publisher

Short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars

3.8 out of 5 stars

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing and fascinating 25 Oct 2005

By Avidreader

Format:Paperback

I picked up this book at the airport in a rush ahving read some good reviews of it. It's a difficult book to catergorise: part-travelogue, part memoir, part politico-sociological study, but altogether more than that. It offers a fascinating insight into one of the world's largest, most vibrant and most chaotic cities. The author is an Indian who spend his early years in Bombay (Mumbai) and then his adolescence in New York. Having made a name for himself as a writer in America, he returned to Mumbai to write a book.

The first few chapters cover his culture shock and the difficulties of adjusting to India for someone from the US. Then he covers the politics, crime, pleasure and entertainment parts of Mumbai, always meeting an engrossing cast of characters and always allowing them to tell their own story. Some are hit-men, some are dancers/prostitutes, some policemen. He helps Bollywood producers with their scripts, chats to gang bosses, befriends a transvestite bar-dancer and meets corrupt and dangerous politicans.

It is no rosy-eyed view of the city, or India, and in parts the author's righteous indignation at the corruption in India is apparent, but for the ordinary people that make up his story he is amazingly non-judgemental, leaving it to the reader to decide.

My only criticism is that sometimes the author is a shade bumptious, a shade too self-satisfied, but it is rare and doesn't really spoil a marvellous book.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Mumbai will never be the same again... 9 May 2005

By "solid_tech"

Format:Hardcover

Sukhetu Mehta's book Maximum City has continued to surprise me with its frank and startling probes into the dark heart of Mumbai. Politicans, gangsters, police, assassins, bar-line girls, prostitutes, the Filmi crowd and business men all have their stories told in Metha's un-self-conscious style. I have been a frequent vistor over the past few years but now Mumbai will never be the same to me or anyone who reads this book.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent 3 Jan 2006

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

This is an excellent book about a teeming city with many layers and the author has been able to identify and show us those layers in a readable, yet authoritative way. There is no book quite like it on Bombay or, for that matter, any other major city, bar perhaps London. It will, I am sure, set the standard for books about other big cities for a long time to come. Even those who know Bombay will find something new this book which covers every aspect of Bombay life you can imagine, including what it is like for the expat or 'returning' Indian to return to live there. Mehta has a good eye for the minutae of life and always deals with it in a good humoured way. My only beef is that it is overly long, and, because it was many years in the writing, is somewhat dated in parts - this is particularly the case when talking about local politicians and Bollywood stars, where the configuration of who is up and who is down has changed, in some cases quite radically since the book was researched. For these two reasons alone, four stars instead of five.

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› See all 20 customer reviews (newest first) on Amazon.co.uk

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars A surprising disappointment

With a cover illustration similar to the view from the nearby retiring rooms I am very familiar with, I did anticipate a more down to earth account of the complex life in this... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Tony Roberts

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read. I recommend it.

The city inside out, examined by a writer with an insider and outsider viewpoint. I found it riveting. A must for anyone visiting the City

Published 3 months ago by M. V. Williams

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and insightful account

A visitor to India sees the energy, the beauty and the magnificent variety of this vibrant country. This book gives a measure of the sinuous undercurrents and political threads... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Michael Bamford

4.0 out of 5 stars A mixed bag - and a very large one

I've spent a very little time in Bombay so was interested to get a feel for that huge teeming city. Mehta a journalist returning after a long absence provides both an insiders and... Read more

Published on 20 Jan 2011 by Lendrick

2.0 out of 5 stars Maximu City Bombay lost and found

Fairly readable. A shorter version would have achieved better result. Only Indians could understand the way it was narrated. Read more

Published on 2 Jan 2011 by Mr. S. S. Khatu

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book

This book evokes Bombay even better than Shantaram. Short of being there you won't get a closer experience.

Published on 9 Feb 2010 by Mrs. J. M. Balfour

3.0 out of 5 stars Snapshot

Am trying how best to review this book and the one word that keeps coming to mind is 'snapshot' Mehta provides a vivid snapshot of Mumbai during the 2 years he spends there as an... Read more

Published on 9 Sep 2009 by R. Mehta

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Insightful

This book was amazing. I felt like I was living in Mumbai whilst reading it, (and I've never been there before)! Read more

Published on 25 Feb 2009 by Pardeep Deol

3.0 out of 5 stars a better title for the book would be "Bombay - The other side of the...

I bought this book because the title intrigued me and it was a Pulitzer finalist and so I was expecting something perhaps special and comprehensive. Read more

Published on 4 Jun 2008 by Ash

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read,

This book certainly peels away the layers of what it is like to live in Bombay, a City like no other in the world. Read more

Published on 16 Feb 2008 by Barry Donnan

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