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What Members Thought
I am giving this four stars even though it wasn't a full 4 stars for me. I enjoyed the first 60% more than the last 40%....however I can still appreciate the clever, satirical writing throughout.
The Great Indian Novel is a retelling of "The Mahabharata" in 20th century India...The books starts in the 1930s and works its way up through the 1970s. We see actual historical Indian figures like Ghandi and Nehru recast as characters from the Mahabharata. I am somewhat familiar with Indian history lea ...more
The Great Indian Novel is a retelling of "The Mahabharata" in 20th century India...The books starts in the 1930s and works its way up through the 1970s. We see actual historical Indian figures like Ghandi and Nehru recast as characters from the Mahabharata. I am somewhat familiar with Indian history lea ...more
A very ambitious story which I think succeeded. Modern Indian history is reset to the ancient epic the Mahabarata. Some of the characters are identifiable to me with their real counterparts, but I'm sure more would be were I more familiar with India and the Mahabarata. For me it was a 'four minus' stars book. I think I would have preferred it somewhat shorter than its 420 pages.
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This is a book from 1001 list and it is a satire that covers the time period or English imperialism (1930s, WWII, Independence, Ghandi, Nehru, Indira Ghandi) to the post Indira Ghandi. The book is written in structure like Mahabharata with 18 chapters and characters that r/t those in Mahabharata and those of actual history. Sometimes you can guess who the characters are. If you want help, the wiki page has a great chart. I enjoyed reading this book about Ghandi, Nehru, Indira and learning about
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I began this in trepidation for my knowledge of either modern Indian politics or the Mahabharata were exceedingly sketchy. But I found the puns, sly allusions to novels about India written in English, and the lampooning of modern political leaders hugely entertaining, despite much of the cleverness being way above my head.
Aug 15, 2011
Judith
marked it as to-read
Apr 10, 2013
Seamus Duggan
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Sep 10, 2015
Sandeep Singhal
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Jul 08, 2016
Anna Fennell
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Dec 15, 2016
Claire
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Apr 27, 2017
Bryan--The Bee’s Knees
marked it as boxall-list-only
Jan 13, 2018
Sorobai
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Jun 02, 2019
Yvonne
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Jan 07, 2021
Kayla Tocco
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