There is little to like about the book but for its exquisite writing and prose. It is not easy to write 170+ pages with little happening, yet with such vivid descriptions, which at some points acquire an exceptionally beautiful texture and tone. [On others, when Chaudhari is describing some of the female characters though, he ends up being the typical male author with problematic and limited descriptions.]. The sense of alienation, of homesickness, of loneliness comes through strongly and is rel...

Loved the final chapter, about his good friend Sharma.

The introduction seemed very appealing, the actual content was alright. Perhaps I’ve missed the whole point. The writing is beautiful, elegant with some really unnecessary adjectives thrown in for no real reason. There’s something cold or mean about the author , an air of arrogance which I find very unattractive.

Not for everyone; slow description page by page but it takes you back to places you’ve never been ....magnificent

This is all form, no function. 134 pages of wonderfully crafted rambling prose with more relative clauses than hair on my head. There were occasional delights in the initial third. But after that I was so tuned out, nothing made sense.Not the book to kickstart a reading year!

There is little plot to this short novel. Instead the author uses a succession of descriptions from the narrators' past in Oxford and India to paint the story.

Meticulously structured and exquisitely finished like notes of a raag - is it Maand, Sarang or Madhuvanti? Is it “transfiguration of the mundane” or an exquisitely beautiful spectacle unfolding in words? Either way, its damn good writing that I sadly discovered only after all these years.

Feelings of haunting nostalgia upon completing it.

2007 bookcrossing journal:A Raag, as far as I could make out, is some kind of poetic song from northern India??This book is about Indian students, one, the narrator, in particular. They are studying at Oxford University. Each chapter stands alone and it could be a collection of short stories with an ongoing theme almost. There are aspects of life in Oxford, their relationships etc, and well as chapters about life in India, in Bombay and Calcutta. The chapters jump about from different time perio...

This is my first Amit Chaudhuri book. I like these kind of "Kazuao Ishiguro" style books that are basically about recollections of episodes of life but not necessarily in a linear way but more weighted by impact on the memory. Good read.

The book is like a raagamaalika that demands and pushes you into a Zen mode to cherish it. There are few to no dialogues in the book (I wish there were more), but the author never failed to appreciate his memory back in the 80s eloquently. The nostalgia back and forth, from India to England, is told in a melodic manner with his observation of the people, and the environment he encounters. His sensitivity to details will make one appreciate the details in their lives too.

Afternoon Raag by Amit Chaudhuri is replete with robust descriptions of place, both India and England, razor sharp characterizations, and some of the most beautiful and illuminating writing on Hindustani music. However, the book is largely devoid of a traditional plot. A faceless narrator shifts back and forth between his college days at Oxford and his childhood home of Bombay and his family's new home in Calcutta and through it all Chaudhuri vividly evokes each of these places and the people th...

The quiet tone and pace of this book is entirely appropriate for the reminiscent and nostalgic nature of the story. I was fascinating to see the juxtaposition of two worlds, both geographically and in terms of the life of childhood and early adulthood. I enjoyed it.

A wonderful lilting read. Amit Chaudhri's ability to make even a description of a rainy afternoon in Oxford or the meandering of his music teacher chasing a raag something special is enchanting and endearing.To me - an Indian migrant now living in UK but on a visit to my home town in India - this was specially heart warming.

Afternoon Raag is not a great musical journey but it left some nuances of poetic joy and memories to cherish for.Narrator is an Indian student and entire novel revolves around him and two other girls,a love triangle and Oxford university.Sometimes you can feel the university area vividly as if you are studying there and enjoying the beauty,exploring the unexplored.Each chapter stands alone and it could be a collection of short stories in general.Chapter 20 describes Kolkata rather Calcutta.Here

Delectable.

Loved this beautiful, dreamlike meander through Oxford, Bombay and Calcutta. It would’ve got 5 stars, but a chapter late on from a secondary character’s point of view give me a taste I wanted more of.

If it weren't for the effortless felicity of Chaudhuri's prose, I wouldn't have been able to get beyond page 2 of this rambling showcase of inaction disguised as fiction. But how long can one cover up the absence of even a semblance of a plot with clever turns of phrase? Luckily he seems to have discovered that you can only get away with for some time and has now widely started calling his work as 'essays' instead of fiction.

From the start “Afternoon Raag” reminded me of V.S. Naipaul’s “The Enigma of Arrival” in that I found it equally unspeakably pedantic. The following are just two examples of what I mean by that :Amit Chaudhuri on getting on a bus :“Once, I took a double-decker to Cowley Road, it was like entering another life, right from ascending the wide berth of the foot-board at the entrance, clutching with great immediacy the pole-vaulter’s pole that rose there from the floor, ignoring the stealthy staircas...

What I loved about the book was the nuanced sensory detail in every paragraph, whether Chaudhuri's protagonist was describing the alienation of being a student abroad in Oxford or describing his increasingly vivid memories of the home left behind and the consequent alienation to that land rooting itself within him. Its a strange book, with no real plot which leaves threads hanging so that the protagonist's sense of detachment and alienation enters the reader. Well-woven prose - a pleasure to rea...