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The Elephanta Suite by Paul Theroux (view source)
Revision as of 11:27, 3 September 2020
, 11:27, 3 September 2020no edit summary
{{infoboxsortinfobox1
|title=The Elephanta Suite
|sort=Elephanta Suite
|date=August 2007
|isbn=978-0241143667
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>0141029587</amazonuk>|amazonusaznuk=0141029587|aznus=<amazonus>0618943323</amazonus>
}}
Not to be mistaken for one of his dozen or so [[The Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey Around the Coast of Great Britain|travel books]], ''The Elephanta Suite'' is in fact the 29th work of fiction by Paul Theroux in the past 40 years. As its title hints, it is a suite of three interlinked novellas. The main link is their location: India. The literal suite is also part of a Mumbai hotel briefly occupied by people in each story, which also share some minor and major characters.
The stories, with their brevity, colours, flavours and smells, their seething desires and sudden violence, maintain our interest enough to convey the complexities that lay beneath. As a writer known best for his travels, Theroux maybe doesn't surprise us that much about the American-Indian nexus, or about the two nations themselves. But he is perceptive enough about the lies we tell ourselves, and the truths we accidentally discover, to make this book as rewarding and revealing, multifaceted and mysterious as India itself.
For another angle on Indian cultural clashes of an earlier period, you could try [[Coronation Talkies]] by Susan Kurosawa. A book that takes a journalistic look at, among other things, the realities beneath India's economic boom, is [[ Freedom Next Time]] by John Pilger. You might also appreciate [[The Village by Nikita Lalwani]].
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