Book: Slumdog Millionaire
Nov. 16th, 2010 10:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livAuthor: Vikas Swarup
Details: (c) Vikas Swarup 2005; Pub Black Swan 2009; ISBN 978-0-552-77535-9
Verdict: Slumdog Millionaire (Q&A) is rather charming, though a bit simplistic.
Reasons for reading it: I rather liked the idea of the book, based mainly on people talking about the film when it came out.
How it came into my hands: Library.
Slumdog Millionaire is very easy to read, with larger than life characters and lots of high drama. It presents a portrait of India which doesn't shy away from the less palatable parts, covering extreme wealth disparity, inter-religious violence, prostitution, corruption, violent crime, and deliberate maiming of children so they can earn more money as beggars, but everything is sort of packaged in a way that makes it accessible to a western reader and not too distressing.
Ram is clearly supposed to be a Kim sort of character, a lovable rogue who uses his accidental exposure to anglo culture in order to perpetrate mischief. This doesn't quite work, because he's a bit too much of a Mary Sue, but not to the extent that it's horribly irritating. I enjoyed his slightly madcap series of adventures, and the framing story of how his colourful life let him just happen to know all 12 answers for the equivalent of Who wants to be a millionaire? is gimmicky but still cute. Even though the book rather starts with the ending, there were plenty of unexpected twists on the way there. It's hardly a realistic story, but I think the last chapter went a bit too far with its extreme coincidences.
All in all, Slumdog Millionaire is enjoyable fluff.
Details: (c) Vikas Swarup 2005; Pub Black Swan 2009; ISBN 978-0-552-77535-9
Verdict: Slumdog Millionaire (Q&A) is rather charming, though a bit simplistic.
Reasons for reading it: I rather liked the idea of the book, based mainly on people talking about the film when it came out.
How it came into my hands: Library.
Slumdog Millionaire is very easy to read, with larger than life characters and lots of high drama. It presents a portrait of India which doesn't shy away from the less palatable parts, covering extreme wealth disparity, inter-religious violence, prostitution, corruption, violent crime, and deliberate maiming of children so they can earn more money as beggars, but everything is sort of packaged in a way that makes it accessible to a western reader and not too distressing.
Ram is clearly supposed to be a Kim sort of character, a lovable rogue who uses his accidental exposure to anglo culture in order to perpetrate mischief. This doesn't quite work, because he's a bit too much of a Mary Sue, but not to the extent that it's horribly irritating. I enjoyed his slightly madcap series of adventures, and the framing story of how his colourful life let him just happen to know all 12 answers for the equivalent of Who wants to be a millionaire? is gimmicky but still cute. Even though the book rather starts with the ending, there were plenty of unexpected twists on the way there. It's hardly a realistic story, but I think the last chapter went a bit too far with its extreme coincidences.
All in all, Slumdog Millionaire is enjoyable fluff.
