such a drag

Not everyone can capture the slice of Calcutta so well. The narrative is intense, choice of words simple yet sharp, making the characters lively. It also has a surprising pace, which makes the book addictive, almost irresistible. Consequently, this book can’t be put away unfinished, easily. The story has a stickiness too, an immediacy of loss, or acceptance, that is central to all our lives, regardless of race, religion, or the part of the world we inhabit—and contrary to what stickiness might c...

A sedate portrait of inter-generational relationships in a Bengali family.Some reflection on development and change in India as well but nothing sensational.

Sorry, this book just did not work for me...though the author's voice was lucid, the book meanders into nothing.....thoroughly disappointed. I am not one to put too much emphasis on plot points in a tale. Character development and a sense of connect with the reader is of vital importance though. I have LOVED books where pretty much nothing happens, which is a true reflection of the daily mundane life...where pretty much nothing happens. But the beauty lies in the details, which was completely mi...

Some great descriptive language, but I struggled to stay interested.

A book that is perhaps as challenging to review - and by review I mean judge - as it was to write. Chaudhari's restraint is stifling at times; his minimalist narrator divulges little; and the reader, while understanding the rationale of the repose of the novel, invariably ends up asking for a little let-go. But apart from the fettering of the narrator, there is something more structural that one may also decipher and unequivocally cede to the writer: the dexterity of design inherent in the incep...

Lots of memories of Kolkata.

It's a typical Amit Chaudhuri book in which nothing seems to happen and yet everything does and you cannot wait for the story to move forward. There's a lot of food being discussed in the book - gur, luchis, fish, daal, sandesh, slivers of pumpkin and potatoes fried with onions and black jeera, parshe, lightly buttered toast, kissan marmalade freckled with orange rind.Some lovely lines that stayed with me:Who can tell the exact changes that take place in people, which are possibly unknown to the...

Oh Calcutta! I go weak in my knees whenever I pick up a book on the dilapidating city of erstwhile grandeur. This Sahitya Akademi Award winner tells the story of a man living in USA, who after getting divorced comes to visit his parents in Calcutta and then goes back. Or goes to Calcutta and comes back. And nothing major happens in between this coming and going. But what we are shown is an understated and subtle vision of a small Bengali family. Chaudhuri's charm is in the depiction of daily cho...

Amit Chaudhuri's 'A New World' is one of the dullest books I've read in a long time. It tells of Jayojit, a divorced NRI spending a couple of months with his son visiting his elderly parents in Kolkata. Jayojit is returning to his old world - India - not as the successful American academic he is but rather as a shamed divorced man who's not really sure where he fits any more.It is very slow moving and almost nothing happens. There are plenty of opportunities for him to bond with his son or with

Not a bad little book. It’s scarcely your standard novel, or even novella (it’s only 200 pages), but it evokes life in an Indian city quite well.If I sound unconvinced, it’s because I am at many levels. I’ve never read a book with such a thin plot. Lecturer of Indian origin returns home to Calcutta with his son to spend the summer with his parents, lecturer goes back to America at the end of it. That really is about it. The characterisation is pretty shallow, and the central character’s personal...

Slightly pointless, well-written but pointless. Meandering and slow, deeply atmospheric but that is pretty much all about it.

The unbelievably beautiful Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said this book is "Unbelievably beautiful". I'd have to be unbelievably unintelligent to not take her word for it. I was taught by Mr Chaudhuri for a week last month, but most of what I learned from him about writing is by reading him.

Didn't work for me. I looked forward to the afternoony, dilapidated imagery that is possible and expected of Calcutta, but the plot seemed to drag, offering no new insights to a tried-and-tested literary setting. I often expect complex characters when reading simpler plots, but this one lacked a sense of both. Even the characters seemed to drag. The passage where the narrator decides to stroll down Ballygunge, about halfway through the first half of the novel, could've been the starting point, a...

Unrivaled rubbish.

Jayojit Chatterjee arrives in Calcutta on holiday with his seven year old son Bonny after a divorce. He stays with his parents, a retired Admiral and a housewife. Thus ensues two months of bonding between mother and son, mother and grandson, father and grandson etc. The thing to be treasured in this book is Chaudhuri’s delicately nuanced descriptions of dislocation and the disorientation that comes with the adoption of a new (Western) nation while still held by memories set in another India. As

I can't believe I spent this much time reading it .... almost a month ... one simple word to describe it "boring"... and I'll keep it here

It is so boring book. It seems that there is no such story! Joyjeet and his son came to calcutta and then the story seems to be detained in a small flat house of Joy's parents. Even the descriptions of the housing complex and the out side calcutta lanes devoid any thing new. Almost half of the book lacks any story.I wonder how Amit Chowdhury became a writer of so called 'International repute'!!!

Having bought this book on a bookshop in Calcutta years ago when I spent a few weeks there trying to trace some history about my father’s deceased parents following his death I could picture and relate to Jayojit’s descriptions of life in Calcutta. The book engaged me and I empathised with all of the members of the family in their unfulfilled lives. I was waiting for something really dramatic to happen in the story. When it didn’t I wasn’t really disappointed but relieved that nothing bad happen...

Did not work for me one bit. Tried my best to find something I could appreciate in the 200 pages but no, I did not see the point in anything at all.This being the author's first book I read, it wasn't a happy initiation. The book meanders around details and does not tie them to any meaning; it was like going on a road trip inside your own house.I think I understand what Chaudhuri was trying to do here - a portrait of Bengali family life sounds like something I want to read, but the unconvincing