- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Picador USA; Reprint edition (Aug 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312253761
- ISBN-13: 978-0312253769
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 13.7 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,806,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I enjoyed The Better Man for the look it gives the outsider of village life in India. The class system is both implicitly and explicitly rendered, as is the stultifying atmosphere which grips the village and many of the characters.
Though the author attempts to enter the psyches of her characters, they are poorly drawn in my opinion, and the ending -- greatly at odds with the rest of the book -- is dashed off in a few paragraphs as though Ms. Nair had to come up with something because the presses were running.
The book held my interest for about two thirds of the way, because I like reading about very foreign cultures. But past that, I was in a hurry for it to end.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
High-school drama in disguise
31 May 2004
Format:Paperback
I enjoyed the descriptions of daily life in an Indian village. Other than that, this book had a lot to dislike. For starters, the language was too contrived: "...she let him grope the curves of her breasts and tease the nubs into nibbly nuts..." "Then in Bhasi's eyes, Mukundan saw the star he had sought in the heavens shine and burn". The storyline was equally aggravating. This could have easily been the plot of a high-school movie: newcomer (Mukundan) is scared and wants nothing more than belong. He makes friends with a dweeb (Bhasi), who is genuinely concerned about him. He finds true love (Anjana). But when the "in" clique starts paying attention to the newcomer, he mistreats those who care about him. Through a series of events, he eventually realizes what a rat he's been and makes ammends.
Honestly, i'd rather watch or read the high-school version!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Who is this for?
19 Nov 2001
Format:Hardcover
With many a fiction being released with exotic corners of the world in the backdrop, `The Better Man' has the entire recipe for a potential blockbuster in that category, but for some reason fails to emulate even a `God of Small Things'. The reason, I believe lies in the basics of writing: the author failed to identify the audience of the book. With the globalization taking the literary world on stride, it is hard, but still important for the producer (author) to clearly identify the consumer (reader) for success (effective communication).
The story of Kaikkurussi has all the ingredients for an interesting netherworld tale. There is the curious Bhasi who can look into the minds and cure them with the help of exotic herbs and pure commonsense. There is the protagonist Mukundan, who discovers and rediscovers himself with the help of Bhasi. There are the images of death, tyranny, submission, defiance and ultimate tragedy of the various other characters with the Kerala social setup in the background. But the author fails to build the necessary background for a person unfamiliar with the society to digest all this. At the same time, for a native, the book does not provide anything new or exciting as there have been similar books written before, albeit in the local vernacular. It appears Anita Nair had the former category of readers in mind.
I would point to Marquez's Macondo (One Hundred Years of Solitude) as the epitome of the stories of other lands, factual or fictitious. It is amazing how skillfully and seamlessly Marquez weaves the strands of the land, people, society, culture and times of Macondo with a strong story line in the foreground. May be that is a little unfair a benchmark to new writers like Nair.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Entertaining account of village life in India
25 Feb 2001
Format:Hardcover
Set in the Malabar region of Kerala, this story shows how Nair can weave imagination with realism. Mukundan Nair, the protagonist returns to his village to be overshadowed by his tyrannical father. His fear of his father does eventually diminish with the end of the book as he emerges as the better man. But on the way, he enlists the help of One-screw-loose Bhasi who plies him with herbs and at one point has him sitting in a clay urn which is in the shape of a woman's womb, so that he can be born again without his emotional hangups! Mukundan is a man whose character is under attack. He can succumb to greed and flattery, but he doesn't. He wins the respect of the villagers without loosing his own self-esteem. Nair is a natural storyteller but what I like is that she doesn't turn India into exotica.
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