- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Viking (4 Mar 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0670918504
- ISBN-13: 978-0670918508
- Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 470,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
A gripping tangle of politics, murder, bribery and betrayal (Observer )
A young writer to watch (V. S. Naipaul )
Naipaul's praise is rare enough to be notable; and Taseer lives up to it. Among the sharpest and best-written fictions about contemporary India (Independent )
A coolly accomplished, pulsating account of modern-day Delhi (Guardian )
Scathingly comic, disquieting, ironical. Vicious fun (Spectator )
Part thriller, part investigation of male friendship, part exploration of the tension between traditional values and modern liberalism in Indian society. Assured, engaging, highly readable (Sunday Times )
A subtle, cleverly observed comedy of manners that turns into an altogether edgier and more sinister narrative (Literary Review )
A brooding tale . . . desire, greed and murder all feature (Daily Mail )
A young writer to watch (V. S. Naipaul )
Naipaul's praise is rare enough to be notable; and Taseer lives up to it. Among the sharpest and best-written fictions about contemporary India (Independent )
A coolly accomplished, pulsating account of modern-day Delhi (Guardian )
Scathingly comic, disquieting, ironical. Vicious fun (Spectator )
Part thriller, part investigation of male friendship, part exploration of the tension between traditional values and modern liberalism in Indian society. Assured, engaging, highly readable (Sunday Times )
A subtle, cleverly observed comedy of manners that turns into an altogether edgier and more sinister narrative (Literary Review )
A brooding tale . . . desire, greed and murder all feature (Daily Mail )
Product Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2010
A controversial No.1 bestseller in India, The Temple-goers introduces us to a sensational new story-telling talent - and a shocking new side of Indian society. It tells the story of two young men from very different sides of the tracks: one cast adrift in a world of fashion parties, media moguls and designer labels, the other who reveals to him the city's hidden and squalid underbelly. But when a body is found floating in the canal and one of them is accused of the murder, some deeply unsettling truths begin to emerge, exposing their friendship and the dark and troubled heart of the city in which they live...
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Producing a work which captures the nature of being Indian in modern India seems to be fascinating writers there at this present time. Be it through the non-fiction reportage style of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found or the fiction of the likes of The White Tiger the theme looks set to fascinate Indian writers for some years to come. Astish Taseer's novel tries to address the issue and uses the outsider's return to do so.
Taseer is billed as something of a rebel by the publishers here yet his book never quite hits these heights. He addresses issues such as the rejection of arranged marriage, homosexuality, and the independent single and educated women but in a way which sees them as a checklist. The book's key themes struggle with the issue of modern India's headlong clash with its history and how it can reconcile the two - although it really does take a while to work out that this is what the book is actually about - and so for all the suggested contemporaray edge the book ploughs a somewhat conservative furrow. It's also a story about an unlikely friendship with a curious sexual frisson to it which the writer seems somewhat afraid to fully explore.
Yet the biggest issue is that the idea of the old and the new Indias is wrapped in something oblique, it's as if Taser doesn't want to express an opinion one way or another. I saw flashes of an India I recognised - it's a contradictory place both illogical and wondrful at the same time and filled with a people who absolutely adore their nation - Taser's book never quite gets the tone right in a way that Suketu Metha's "Maximum City" does. Perhaps it's a subject better suited to non-fiction at the moment, or perhaps the setting of Delhi doesn't quite give the same sharp contrasts as Mumbai does.
For all that it's a pleasant read, although perhaps not a good enough one to make you want to return. There is a point in this book when the protagonist receives a rejection from his publisher which descirbes the fictional novel he's been working on as "seriously flawed" and to "work on developing clarity and simplicity to its style". Oddly after finishing the novel one might, at times say the same about "The Temple Goers" itself.
Taseer is billed as something of a rebel by the publishers here yet his book never quite hits these heights. He addresses issues such as the rejection of arranged marriage, homosexuality, and the independent single and educated women but in a way which sees them as a checklist. The book's key themes struggle with the issue of modern India's headlong clash with its history and how it can reconcile the two - although it really does take a while to work out that this is what the book is actually about - and so for all the suggested contemporaray edge the book ploughs a somewhat conservative furrow. It's also a story about an unlikely friendship with a curious sexual frisson to it which the writer seems somewhat afraid to fully explore.
Yet the biggest issue is that the idea of the old and the new Indias is wrapped in something oblique, it's as if Taser doesn't want to express an opinion one way or another. I saw flashes of an India I recognised - it's a contradictory place both illogical and wondrful at the same time and filled with a people who absolutely adore their nation - Taser's book never quite gets the tone right in a way that Suketu Metha's "Maximum City" does. Perhaps it's a subject better suited to non-fiction at the moment, or perhaps the setting of Delhi doesn't quite give the same sharp contrasts as Mumbai does.
For all that it's a pleasant read, although perhaps not a good enough one to make you want to return. There is a point in this book when the protagonist receives a rejection from his publisher which descirbes the fictional novel he's been working on as "seriously flawed" and to "work on developing clarity and simplicity to its style". Oddly after finishing the novel one might, at times say the same about "The Temple Goers" itself.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
A writer returns to India to resume his relationship with his girlfriend and start another, less easily defined relationship, with his personal trainer. And that's about it. Despite attempts at other wordliness - the main protagonist sharing the author's name, a setting that is strange and unknown to many readers, and themes that include social inequality and the issues around mixed heritage - this novel is slow, dull and lacks empathy. Everyone knows everyone, no-one seems to like anyone, and no-one seems to do much. I was not engaged by any of the characters, but found them all annoying in their own shallow, self-absorbed ways. Maybe I just don't get it. However, I normally enjoy contemporay foreign writing as a way to absorb other cultures whilst enjoying a well-written story. The Temple-Goers just didn't do this for me.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Yet another example of a mundane book given the 'permissible hyperbole' treatment so it sounds like the best thing since the invention of paper. The writing is pretty average with an over-emphasis on boring details describing everyday things we are all familiar with. The characters are largely uninvolving and unexciting, the plot hard to discern (if there is one: I certainly couldn't find it), and any sense of dynamic is missing. It seems the main character could, in fact, be the author, and the book very much reads like someone writing about his life with the addition of a fictional edge. If this is the case, then unfortunately for the reader it is a very boring life, and the added fictional element does not liven it up by any significant degree. Occasionally there is a glimmer of something interesting, either by way of character or an event, or an example of new and old India grinding together, such as with the caste system, but it barely disturbs the soporific tempo of this disappointing novel.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Lacks direction.
The Temple Goers describes the awkward and uneasy realtionship between the main protagonist Aatish and his personal trainer Aakash. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Doh
This book was a big disappointment.
Despite the poor story line I kept on reading till the end stupidly thinking it was building up to something, but it never did. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mrs Fields
Dull
I rarely give up on books, but 80 pages in I have to force myself to pick this up, and I can't be bothered to exert the effort anymore. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Lendrick
Self-indulgent
I have thoroughly enjoyed Taseer's previous writings and having visited India, such books as The White Tiger and Maximum City have gave me a hunger to consume more on this diverse... Read more
Published 20 months ago by A. Betts
Started off well then faded a bit
Taseer's book is the story of murder played out against the back drop of modern privileged Indian life. Read more
Published on 10 May 2010 by A. Macfarlane
neither engaging nor particularly interesting
I had high hopes for The Temple Goers. The promise of murder and corruption are always a good start; alongside this it threatened an exposé of the heart of new India's... Read more
Published on 30 April 2010 by Mr. J W
Nostalgic for the future
Aatish's return to Delhi describes a new and weird awakening in him, an outsider in his own city, he goes looking for trouble which he finds in the form of his personal trainer... Read more
Published on 16 April 2010 by Dickie Greenleaf
Perceptive and thoughtful but action-packed
A fascinating novel that looks at the nature of modern India - how it has changed, and how it is continuing to change - through the lens of a young man returning to India after... Read more
Published on 15 April 2010 by Gabrielle O
Oddly compelling
This was unlike any other book I have read. It manages to combine the everyday with the surreal and somehow it just works. Read more
Published on 13 April 2010 by Laura Smith
A disappointing read
The Temple Goers comes with high praise and a strong marketing strategy. It includes, for example, encouraging praise from V.S. Naipaul, an exquisite stylist and writer. Read more
Published on 11 April 2010 by Angus Jenkinson
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