Thriller and social study in one

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	• Sacred Games: A Novel (P.S.) Vikram Chandra Harper Perennial, 2007 - 992 pages average customer review:based on 57 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A good read

Being in the habit of reading books literally from cover to cover, including the recommendations, I find that Sacred Games does not live up to the exuberant praise lavished on it by its literary critics. Vikram Chandra certainly has the gift of storytelling, and his interweaving of different storylines that seem unconnected at first but then come together in odd places and moments is very skillfully done. The plot is captivating enough to make one wish to read on an on to see the story unfold (though the end is a little disappointing), and therefore the novel's 936 pages don't make it too long. Yet, much as I admire Indian novelists writing about life in what is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating places in the world, I don't consider this novel about criminals, actresses, policemen and gurus in Mumbai a literary work on the level of, for example, Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy.

One of the main reasons is that the novel fails (in me, at least) to stir up emotions, as an outstanding novel should (and Seth's did). Also, Sacred Games contains, apart from a lot of swearing and street slang that doesn't elevate the text, an overly generous sprinkling of words and phrases in Hindi, as well as numerous references to things cultural - expressions, places, people, songs, movies etc. - that are only understandable to Indians, so that non-Indian readers can't help but miss out on these bits and pieces. Clearly this book, though written in English, is meant for an Indian and not a foreign readership. Too bad. These flaws notwithstanding, Sacred Games is a good read if you like crime novels, but not one that should be extolled as a great literary work.

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Thriller and social study in one

Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games combines the attractions of genre literature with a meticulous social portrayal of that most fascinating of countries: modern India.

The novel's chosen format is that of a detective story, with ex-playboy, philosophically inclined Sikh police inspector Sartaj Singh chasing the tail of Bombay's most notorious gangster boss. We are also given the gory and satisfyingly prurient tale of the gangster's rise to chiefdom. But it is best never to betray too much of a thriller's plot. Suffice it to mention that the storyline takes on nationally and even internationally threatening dimensions, as well as going through the Bombay mob and the police's more modest, everyday battles.

The pace never flags through the book's massive 900 pages. No doubt Chandra is a capital storyteller, but this also owes something to the author's evident knowledge of his subject and acquaintance with the travails of the Bombay police force; one can feel the author has sweated and put in the hours for his reader. And beyond this, whole swathes of Indian society are put under the microscope. This is no set-piece version of sacred, historical India. What we have is an equally brutal and endearing, and invariably contradictory picture of a country in full transformation. Sacred Games ranges from the Bollywood scene to Bengali slums, from Naxalite battlegrounds to new-rich condominiums and from the Singhs' family farm in Maharashtra to the corridors of power in Delhi. It even manages to make the inevitable expository piece about the partition tragedy realistic and appealing.

The writing is elegant without - surprisingly for such a tome - being wordy, granting a large place to dialogue. It contains a number of English Indian words, but while this leaves the non-native curious, it isn't detrimental to his or her comprehension or enjoyment. I was warming up to my own imagined ending, to be disappointed that the author chose another direction. On reflection, though, Chandra's moralistic but not moralising denouement is much better than mine.

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Good work by Vikram Chandra

This book is hard to keep away. I managed to finish the book in 3 days and my workouts and work suffered for those three days. I have a problem with the galis (cuss words) though in every other sentence and seems superfluous. Overall a well researched book and would definitely read more from the author in future.

An absorbing read, but . . .

I was having such a satisfying read, until that late chapter on "two deaths" that contained the back-story about Aadil. That was a grind for the most part and unnecessary to the story, but managed to leave me with a visual image about the event that led to his life of crime (and death of Katekar) that I'm still trying to purge from memory. I wish someone had warned me about that, but since nobody did, I'll put in this 2 cents for anyone else who doesn't enjoy being bored and revolted: when you reach that chapter, skip ahead about 40 pages to part II where it starts talking about Sharmeen. It's tragic enough in itself to think about everything Navneet lost from her life, but at least will leave you more comfortable with the book.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

A policeman, a criminal overlord, a Bollywood film star, beggars, cultists, spies, and terrorists?the lives of the privileged, the famous, the wretched, and the bloodthirsty interweave with cataclysmic consequences amid the chaos of modern-day Mumbai, in this soaring, uncompromising, and unforgettable epic masterwork of literary art.

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