pattieod's review against another edition
5.0
I would never recommend this book to anyone, because I'm pretty sure it's a love-it-or-hate-it type of thing.
Like a drugged dream, it wanders among the stories of people involved with an opium den in Bombay (the author feels very strongly about not calling the city Mumbai) in the later half of the last century. There's not really a plot, and there's enough constant ugliness to put some readers off, and only one character you might like. But I tend to judge books by how long they stay with me, and this one haunted me and continues to do so.
Not generally a fan of Booker Prize nominees, which I often find tedious ("OK, I get it: Colonialism is/was bad.") But this one blew me away - I'm glad I didn't know anything about it or about the nomination when I grabbed it off the library display while waiting in line to check out.
Like a drugged dream, it wanders among the stories of people involved with an opium den in Bombay (the author feels very strongly about not calling the city Mumbai) in the later half of the last century. There's not really a plot, and there's enough constant ugliness to put some readers off, and only one character you might like. But I tend to judge books by how long they stay with me, and this one haunted me and continues to do so.
Not generally a fan of Booker Prize nominees, which I often find tedious ("OK, I get it: Colonialism is/was bad.") But this one blew me away - I'm glad I didn't know anything about it or about the nomination when I grabbed it off the library display while waiting in line to check out.
balaenoptera's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
perching_cat's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
lazygal's review against another edition
1.0
This wasn't so much a "read" as a "DNF" - the plot, such as it is, centers around a 1970s opium den in Bombay (at least that's where most of the 100-ish pages I got through are centered), and we start to meet Dimple, a eunuch, and Mr. Lee, the Chinese owner of the den. As one might expect from this setting, the prose is somewhat hallucinatory and the timeline non-linear.
The problem wasn't that so much as that there was no narrator or, for me, another hook to bring me into the story. I kept wondering why I should care about these people, this setting and, ultimately, I didn't. Perhaps this would have worked better for me as a novella or short story.
ARC provided by publisher.
The problem wasn't that so much as that there was no narrator or, for me, another hook to bring me into the story. I kept wondering why I should care about these people, this setting and, ultimately, I didn't. Perhaps this would have worked better for me as a novella or short story.
ARC provided by publisher.
skull_in_connemara's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
clmckinney's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This is the story of 70s Bombay and the drug culture. It follows a cast of characters that all have backstories that lead them down the road to narcotics. Sometimes Thayil is funny, deep, and insightful. It felt like I was in a haze when I was reading this book. I liked how by the end of it, we find out what happens to most of the people that occupied the book. This has been on my shelf for ages, and I am glad that I read it. I give it a 4/5.
_pickle_'s review against another edition
1.0
I didn't like this. I couldn't get into the lyrical, drug hazed writing. I couldn't follow the rambling structure or plot. When I finished it, my main feeling was one of relief. I think it's more that I didn't like it, rather than it's a bad book. But it didn't strke me as worthy of winning the Man Booker, at any rate.
soniek's review against another edition
4.0
A story of one of the dark, sick, ugly sides of Mumbai. Set in Old Bombay, it's a non-linear story of its characters and follows them through decades of their lives. I realized halfway that this book can be called an Indian counterpart of Trainspotting. Both have managed to bring out the gloom, wretchedness and stark ugliness of drug addiction. Actually even if one removes drugs and crime from the plot, regular life in Mumbai (be it old or new) is wretched and ugly enough to make me gloomy. Maybe Mumbai is a drug in itself. And that sort of resonates from time to time in the book.
I love that the plot isn't very cliched. It does tend to ramble on at times. But it doesn't disappoint overall.
I love that the plot isn't very cliched. It does tend to ramble on at times. But it doesn't disappoint overall.
gargi's review against another edition
5.0
No matter how many American/British novels I read, I always come back to South Asian fiction, and when it is this good, you just don't want to put it down.
Thayil presents a very interesting, side of the metropolis of Mumbai, or Bombay as it was known then. I have never read any book like this! It takes the reader through 1970s Mumbai, its opium shacks, and the social class it creates.
Narcopolis is not just about the chaos and the squalor, it is about the order, and maintaining things as they were.
Thayil presents a very interesting, side of the metropolis of Mumbai, or Bombay as it was known then. I have never read any book like this! It takes the reader through 1970s Mumbai, its opium shacks, and the social class it creates.
Narcopolis is not just about the chaos and the squalor, it is about the order, and maintaining things as they were.
nellday's review against another edition
4.0
I really only picked up this book up because I liked the cover. But I ended up enjoying it heaps: sometimes I don't like it when poets write whole books because it's all a bit dense, but this guy balances the whole richly-textured-vignette thing with the actual-narrative-that-kind-of-makes-sense thing in a way that is satisfying.