- Hardcover: 481 pages
- Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd; 1st edition edition (28 Mar 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0241141699
- ISBN-13: 978-0241141694
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 16.5 x 4.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,061,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Impressionist
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The anti-hero of The Impressionist, Hari Kunzru's daringly ambitious first novel, is half-English and half-Indian. In the Raj of the 1920s the racial and social divides are enormous but Pran Nath is able to bridge them, crossing from one side to another in a series of reinventions of his own personality. He begins as the spoilt child of an Indian lawyer but circumstances thrust him out of his pampered adolescence into the teeming and dangerous life of the streets. After a bewildering period as one of the pawns in Machiavellian political and sexual scheming at the decadent court of a minor Maharajah, he escapes to Bombay. There he is taken up by a half-demented Scottish missionary and his wife but prefers to slope off to the city's red light district whenever he can. During a time of riot and bloodshed the chance of recreating himself as an English schoolboy, destined for public school and Oxford, presents itself and he takes it. Even this is not to be his final transformation, however.
In some ways Kunzru is almost too ambitious. There is so much crammed into the pages of The Impressionist that some of it, almost inevitably, doesn't work as well as it might. However, as the shape-shifting Pran Nath moves from one identity to another, knockabout farce mixes with satire, social comedy with parody. And, beneath the comic exuberance and linguistic invention, there is an intelligent and occasionally moving examination of notions of self, identity and what it means to belong to a class or society. --Nick Rennison
Review
Breathtaking in scope and peopled with a cast of fantastical characters, this debut from the young heir apparent to Zadie Smith's throne is undeniably impressive. It tells the story of Pran Nath - a 'blackie-whitey' (i.e. of mixed parentage) who is cast from the family home when the identity of his real, English father is discovered. He is then taken in by some eunuch prostitutes, that being one of the more normal fates to befall him. Set in India in the early decades of the 20th century, it captures well the everyday madness of that bewildering country, but for some, the endless hyphenated names, digressions into Moghul history and bizarre scene upon bizarre scene will be too much. One exotic dish in a restaurant is enjoyable - 10 in a row can begin to cloy.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Impressionist is Hari Kunzru's debut novel and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. It tells the remarkable story of a young boy, Pran Nath, born in India at the beginning of the twentieth century and destined by way of mixed parentage to a long and complex journey in search of his true self. Thus, Kunzru's meditations on identity, race, the British Empire, and anthropology are woven into a plot which sees Pran pushed and pulled by a mixture of fate and chance through Bombay, Oxford and Africa.
This plot, loose though it is, moves along at an astonishing pace and is aided both by Kunzru's marvellous rendering of myriad characters and by his tragi-comic wit tinged with elements of farce. Read it twice - once for the humour, pathos and sheer exuberance, and again for the intellectual vigour which may well be lost in the sheer excitement of the first reading.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
...as it happens it is just ok. Hari Kunzu writes brilliantly, though the use of the present tense and more importantly that constant sarcastic detached tone of his create a distance between writer, reader and characters.
Most disturbingly, it feels like the author almost forgot his main character until 2/3 of the book, getting lost in "impressionistic" descriptions of a miriad of other characters, who give him the chance of exercising his impeccable characterisation style. Pran/Rushkana/Clive/Robert is almost a puppet, without a point of view and almost without emotions, until he comes to England (and I wasn't sure whether this was a deliberate point, of the kind "you only get to think about your identity and your self in the civilized West"?).
So what is supposed to be a story of lost identity and cultural displacement ultimately becomes just a quick succession of unrelated episodes, in which sexual identity ultimately plays a far bigger role.
This is not to say i did not enjoy this book: the story is often entertaining and the rythm is mostly well paced.
However, I felt almost cheated that with such brilliant material in his hands, with such a good story and obvious literary skills to support it, this book was ultimately so superficial and "cold".
As if, like his hero, in a desperate attempt to be a great western success, it had forgotten its soul and identity somewhere along the line.
Most disturbingly, it feels like the author almost forgot his main character until 2/3 of the book, getting lost in "impressionistic" descriptions of a miriad of other characters, who give him the chance of exercising his impeccable characterisation style. Pran/Rushkana/Clive/Robert is almost a puppet, without a point of view and almost without emotions, until he comes to England (and I wasn't sure whether this was a deliberate point, of the kind "you only get to think about your identity and your self in the civilized West"?).
So what is supposed to be a story of lost identity and cultural displacement ultimately becomes just a quick succession of unrelated episodes, in which sexual identity ultimately plays a far bigger role.
This is not to say i did not enjoy this book: the story is often entertaining and the rythm is mostly well paced.
However, I felt almost cheated that with such brilliant material in his hands, with such a good story and obvious literary skills to support it, this book was ultimately so superficial and "cold".
As if, like his hero, in a desperate attempt to be a great western success, it had forgotten its soul and identity somewhere along the line.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The most wonderful aspect of this book is the reader's slowly growing awareness that this is not "just" another plot-driven novel with exotic locations and an unusual protagonist facing life-changing decisions, however fascinating they may be. It is also a deeply engrossing and carefully constructed tour de force which uses an exciting plot and a good deal of humor to make statements about the essence of selfhood, the importance of national and cultural identity, and, ultimately, our definitions of civilization and civilized behavior.
In a daring move, Kunzru throws the conventions of characterization to the winds. Instead of bringing his main character alive by showcasing his uniqueness and highlighting his different personal perspective on the world and its history, Kunzru does the opposite. In Pran/Rukhsana/Chandra/Pretty Bobby/Jonathan Bridgeman, he gives us a character who becomes, during the novel, less unique, more stereotypical--a man who sees life "in general" and from the perspective of whatever society he inhabits, a man who accepts the judgments and morality imposed upon him, acting, ultimately, "For God and England and the Empire and Civilization and Progress and Uplift and Morality and Honor."
Set primarily in the latter years of World War I and in the turbulent 1920's of the British Raj in India, the novel introduces Pran Nath Razdan, the beautiful, spoiled, and arrogant son of a wealthy court pleader in Agra. Banished from his home when his true status as a half Anglo is discovered, he must adapt to changed circumstances to stay alive. As the chief hijra of Fatehpur tells him when he assumes the role of Rukhsana and enters the harem of the Sultan, "We are all as mutable as the air! Just release...your body and you can be a myriad! An army!"
In successive roles in other locations, he learns to create impressions, to become stereotypical of the cultures in which he finds himself, to be whatever someone wants him to be, from a male prostitute and procurer in India to a student at Oxford and an assistant to an anthropologist in Africa. Along the way, he learns that it pays to be British--while the reader sees the extent to which British colonialism and arrogance have indelibly changed the world for the worse.
Satirical touches (not the least of which are some of the characters' names), broad humor, and irony make reading this story a continual delight, despite the author's occasional lapses into irrelevant background material for some of the characters. The descriptions are vibrant, the observations of human nature are incisive, the message is important, and the conclusion is wonderfully appropriate. This is a book which escapes the bounds of its plot to make an important anticolonial statement and promote respect for other, non-western cultures. Mary Whipple
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A tale of many stories
In his impressive and successful novel, Hari Kunzru explores the nature of identity. For some people a sense of belonging is very strong, whereas for others such feelings are mere... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Philip Spires
Loved it
This book is very gripping although it loses momentum towards the end, you can become completely absorbed by it. Read more
Published 10 months ago by A. M. Golding
Brilliant story, but a flat ending
I enjoyed this immensely. As other reviewers have said it's beautifully written and there is a lot to empathise with, including the central character's strange combination of... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Chris Rust
A good read
This was a good read, but like other readers have commented I felt the ending was lacking. Wouldn't stop me recommending it to others though - enjoy!
Published 12 months ago by Sarahwoo
This should be made into a film
This book just blew me away... it is brilliant on so many different levels. As a study of the Raj and British Imperialism it is sensitive and spot on. Read more
Published 15 months ago by O
The Impressionist
This is the first novel by this writer and sometimes it displays the faults common with first attempts i.e. Read more
Published on 13 May 2009 by Simon Woods
Race, identity and empire
This is the rollicking tale of Pran Nath, the spoilt and cruel son of Pandit amar Nas Razdan who is besotted by him - and is especially proud of his son's pale skin. Read more
Published on 16 Mar 2009 by Wynne Kelly
Dreadful
I was greatly looking forward to this read having seen so many good reviews of it, but crikey was I disappointed. Dreadful book, and one that I didn't bother to finish. Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2009 by Catherine Wilson
scenes of empire
This starts out as a particularly grim book, with the outcast antihero
finding himself in different types of sexual slavery. Read more
finding himself in different types of sexual slavery. Read more
Published on 19 Mar 2008 by Cole Davis
A remarkable first novel
Ronald Forrester is an English forester in Simla, India, where he came to see what life was like in, ironically, a country without trees. Read more
Published on 19 Aug 2007 by HORAK
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