An excerpt of an excerpt:
Sartaj walked stiffly to the window. Beyond the fizzing yellow lamps in the compound of the neighbouring building, there was the darkness of the sea, and far ahead, a sprinkling of bright blue and orange that was Bandra. With a good pair of binoculars, you could even see Nariman Point, not so far across the sea but at least an hour away on empty night-time roads, and very far from Zone 13. Sartaj felt a sudden ache in his chest. It was as if two blunt stones were grinding against each other, creating not fire but a dull, steady grow, a persistent and unquiet desire. It rose into his throat and his decision was made.
Twelve minutes of fast driving took him through the underpass and on to the highway. The open stretches of road and the wheel slipping easily through his fingers were exhilarating, and he laughed at the speed. But in Tardeo the traffic was backed up between the brightly-lit shops, and Sartaj was suddenly angry at himself, and wanted to turn around and go back.
And with that, Sartaj Singh is back. He is the police inspector whom you might remember from “Kama,” one of the five novellas that make up Vikram Chandra’s superb second book Love and Longing in Bombay. Chandra’s new tome Sacred Games, a Big Bombay Novel about cops, the underworld, and the meaning of life, was released in India earlier this month. From the excerpt at Rediff.com, which is taken from the first two chapters, it seems Chandra is back in full form: the tone, the pace of the writing feel very much like those of Love and Longing. The big question will be how it all plays out over nearly 1,000 pages. I found Chandra’s first novel, Red Earth and Pouring Rain, too long: the stories within stories within stories, the jumps back and forth from medieval to modern times, from Mughal battlefields to American college campuses, got overwhelming and messy. Love and Longing, by contrast, had a formal structure that disciplined the plot lines and helped the writing soar. It’s my favorite of all the post-Midnight’s Children wave of Indian writing in English.
There are not many reviews out yet: Apparently everyone is still digesting the book. Here’s the bottom line according to Suchitra Behal in The Hindu:
Sacred Games will tempt even the most reluctant reader with the incredible enthusiasm of its huge cast, the energy of its characters and the plots and subplots that make this many-layered story so memorable. Written with a rare combination of humour and anger, it is easy to see why this will become a popular book bordering on the classic.
Here’s Nilanjana Roy in Business Standard:
With a little help from your friends: Sacred Games is thoroughly enjoyable, and Chandras protagonists are gripping. Detective Sartaj Singh is still sharp, but hes older and more cynical than when we met him first. Ganesh Gaitondes story starts out being the stereotypical rags-to-tax-free-riches gangster saga, but Gaitonde evolves, suffering depression, inflicting betrayal, reaching for philosophy or the fresh new virgin of day, according to need. But this is still a 900-page-long book, and your stamina might flag around the 400-page mark.
Nevertheless, Roy ultimately assesses the book as well worth the effort. Here finally is a comment from blogger Jai Arjun Singh, whose report is well worth reading in full:
At one level, Sacred Games is a fast-paced thriller driven by conversation and incident (this aspect is stressed by the delightfully lurid cover, complete with gaudy title font and portraits of Gaitonde and Sartaj that bleed into each other, the faces sharing a common eye). But running between the pages of this book is another, more thoughtful, more cynical narrative about the nature of identity, and the endless and unknowable workings of action and reaction. This second book is driven by the characters’ interior lives, their attempts to make some sense of their world, and their inherent nihilism.
Sadly, those of us here in the US must wait until January for the release of the American edition. In the meantime, perhaps readers in India could share their impressions of the book. Maybe you might even purchase a copy and send it to us? (Note to KP in Kerala: hook a brother up?) At any rate, I am looking forward to this book, and I confess my expectations are very high.
