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The Immortals
 
 

The Immortals [Kindle Edition]

Amit Chaudhuri
2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Review

What a cast of humankind is conjured up... Chaudhuri is a master of social comedy, painting swift pen portraits even for minor characters... Ultimately, the final open-ended scene rests with the young man, fiction's most likeable malcontent, in his room in London, wrestling with questions he has no answers for' --Sunday Business Post

'The Immortals is an important novel... There is a filigreed, Jamesian quality to Chaudhuri's work, an urbanity and aesthetic style not often associated with Indian fiction... In Chaudhuri, we get an intense moral and psychological realism, a honed treatment of the fleeting specificities of everyday life' --Times Literary Supplement

'Chaudhuri's particular art lies in rendering beauty from normality.' --Financial Times

'Chaudhuri's exquisite, highly-nuanced, often very funny novel--after all, as unfamiliar to me as NJ is to Bombay--somehow took command of my thinking, my vocabulary, my sense of what's important and what should be. This kind of surrender is rare, and is what I always seek in fiction' --Richard Ford

'Comic, affectionate, regretful, but, under the veil of Chaudhuri's courteous, sympathising style, very drily aware... Delicate and judicious' --Glyn Maxwell, London Review of Books

A writer whose fiction is as beautiful as a classical ballet . . . a command performance. Even in the context of contemporary Indian writing in English, much of which is outstanding, Chaudhuri is the best... yet again he has shown that his fiction, which draws on themes of family and time, is as real as it is beautiful... Chaudhuri is a rare artist and an inspiring writer' --Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

'The lyrical quality of Chaudhuri's writing is striking. The imagery is vivid, the humour deliciously oblique... The great strength of the novel is the truthfulness of the emotional landscape... It invites honourable comparison with Thomas Mann' --The Times

'Chaudhuri's prose has a luminous, unforced elegance which is consistently engaging and wholly delightful . . . Its spheres of enquiry possess universal appeal which resonates beyond the confines of this accomplished and absorbing novel' --Spectator

Review

'Asian fiction continues to make a big splash; Amit Chaudhuri's The Immortals is a tale of three Indian musicians.'

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 469 KB
  • Print Length: 354 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0307454657
  • Publisher: Picador (1 Jan 2010)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B003E2UQPA
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #254,437 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Amit Chaudhuri
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By Gabrielle O TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (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.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Benjamin TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (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.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By P. McCauley VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (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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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Well Crafted, Somewhat Unengaging
There have been a considerable number of very gifted, and successful writers emerging from South Asia in the past decade. Read more
Published on 21 Jan 2010 by pjr
Winding Path to Nowhere
This reminds me of the book 'Love and Obstacles' I read a few months ago, in that there is no central plot but rather a series of stories and characters. Read more
Published on 13 Dec 2009 by Carl Spencer
Pretty but tiresome
Chaudhuri's prose sparkles - that's beyond question. This book features some of the most stylish descriptive passages I've seen in a long time. Read more
Published on 25 Nov 2009 by Mr. Di Zendle
Beautifully written but unable to sustain interest
The Immortals is a somewhat meandering tale of life in middle class Bombay which uses the many facets of indian classical music as a descriptor of the life of the novel's... Read more
Published on 21 Oct 2009 by J. Aitken
A 'difficult' read ....
Having tried several attempts to read and get 'into' this novel I have to say it is one that I have had to put aside as a "not read" . Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2009 by BusyReader
I admit (temporary) defeat.
I have to admit, with great sadness, that I've temporarily given up on this book. I have read about a third of it and I find that I am not engaging with it at all. Read more
Published on 17 Sep 2009 by Mrs. H. V. Minor
A Quiet Pleasure.
I enjoyed this book for the quality of writing, for its evocation of place, and for the seriousness of its intent (not that the odd wry smile didn't get dragged out of me). Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2009 by Michael Mooney
I tried and i failed
The title of this book is promising and it starts really nicely and is full of beautiful phrases that really capture the soul and essence of the book. Read more
Published on 29 Aug 2009 by Ms. E. Blankson
Life's too short to read a boring book
First the positive - the language and style of writing is absolutely superb. That's it unfortunately.

There's no plot or any purpose to this story. Read more
Published on 27 Aug 2009 by zenadox
Beautiful Prose But A Dedicated Read
The hardcover version of this book feels beautiful - an attractive cover with gold embossing and good quality paper used for the pages - it gives the impression of a weighty tome... Read more
Published on 26 Aug 2009 by Sunshine
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