aphrohead_b...
Price: £6.39
In stock
the_book_de...
Price: £8.19
In stock
50 used & new from £0.01
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
The Zigzag Way
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

The Zigzag Way (Hardcover)

by Anita Desai (Author)
2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


18 new from £0.01 30 used from £0.01 2 collectible from £6.95
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 3 used & new from £14.38
Paperback (Export/airport Ed) £5.99 £5.99 19 used & new from £0.01
Audio Download (Unabridged) £18.56 £12.99

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Death of Mr.Love

The Death of Mr.Love

by Indra Sinha
4.8 out of 5 stars (4)  £5.99
Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard

by Kiran Desai
4.6 out of 5 stars (8)  £4.78
Animal's People

Animal's People

by Indra Sinha
4.8 out of 5 stars (24)  £7.88
The Village by the Sea

The Village by the Sea

by Anita Desai
3.7 out of 5 stars (7)  £4.47
Hell's Heroes (The Demonata)

Hell's Heroes (The Demonata)

by Darren Shan
4.8 out of 5 stars (17)  £6.47
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Chatto & Windus; First Edition edition (2 Sep 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0701177438
  • ISBN-13: 978-0701177430
  • Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.2 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 749,299 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #24 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > D > Desai, Anita

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Daily Telegraph

'She is one of the best English language novelists of modern times' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.


Daily Telegraph

'She is one of the best English language novelists of modern times' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
See all Product Description

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)
See all 3 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Zigzag Way
46% buy the item featured on this page:
The Zigzag Way 2.5 out of 5 stars (4)
Blinded/Missing Persons: AND Missing Persons
16% buy
Blinded/Missing Persons: AND Missing Persons 4.0 out of 5 stars (2)
£7.99
Celtic Myth
15% buy
Celtic Myth 2.5 out of 5 stars (2)
£1.49
Witness to History
12% buy
Witness to History 4.5 out of 5 stars (2)
£14.44
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A luminous novel set in Mexico, 3 Nov 2006
By Philippe Horak (Zug, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Eric O'Brien is an uncertain and awkward young man, a would-be writer and a traveller in spite of himself. Happy to follow his more confident girlfriend Em to Mexico, he is overwhelmed with sensory overload and gradually seduced by the strangeness, the colour, the mysteries of an older world and its celebrations of the Dia de los Muertos. He finds himself in a curious quest for his own family in a ghost mining town, now barely inhabited, where almost a hundred years earlier young Cornish miners worked the rich seams in the earth. Until Pancho Villa and revolution came to Mexico.
A recording of this novel is available from BBC Audiobooks and Eleanor Bron's reading is truly breathtaking. Highly recommended.
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing really, 31 Dec 2008
By E. Smith (U.K.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Zigzag Way (Paperback)
Having not read any of Desai's books before, but having heard good things about Desai, this book was a major disappointment.

The writing was predictable, the characters one dimensional and 'formulaic', the use of the Mexican setting and 'day of the dead' did nothing for the storyline and did not do the vibrant country and culture justice.

I may give other books of Desai's a go, but this one was not very good sadly.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2.0 out of 5 stars A skeleton of a book, 7 Nov 2008
By Sonia (Delft, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Zigzag Way (Paperback)
The Zigzag Way is a short novel about a young man who follows his scientist girl friend to Mexico, in order to get inspiration for his writing. When in Mexico, he comes across Dona Vera, a haughty European woman, that runs a anthropological research centre in Mexico and holds a grudge against the past mining companies and workers in the region. This encounter prompts Eric to search for his family's mining past, particularly his paternal grandmother.

After finishing this book I was confused. It seems like the story had only just begun. I was expecting to learn more about Eric and his choices, and particularly why he was reaching out to the past, but the author did not elaborate. Also, no explanation was given for Dona Vera's behaviour, there are only some references to ghosts from the past, but it all goes by so quickly, that it's almost as if the author got fed up with writing the book and decided to cut it short, a point one of my fellow reviewers also made.
I could not identify with any of the characters, because I don't feel I was given the opportunity in so short a novel. Also, I found the prose unnecessarily complex and lyrical.

I think this could have a been a great novel if the author had put more life into it. Unfortunately, it reads like a skeleton of a book, a framework that needs to be reworked and expanded.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars disappointing
im happy i didnt buy this book and only got it from the libary because what i waste of money it would have been. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Karen

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject











i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.