The Shadow Lines

This is a wonderful piece of work. I was off to a slow start - but after the few pages I got so engrossed in the book, I couldn't put it down till I had finished it. Events from different eras, and happening in different parts of the world are beautifully woven into a coherent narrative. I was really impressed by this unique style of traversing space and time in a non-linear fashion. The main characters are well etched out. The book would be best appreciated by those who have spent time in India (and know of its unique lifestyle!) and have also had a taste of the western world. However, it is a wonderfully told story, and I would recommend it to one and all.

"The Shadow Lines" by Amitav Ghosh was written when the homes of the Sikhs were still smoldering, some of the most important questions the novel probes are the various faces of violence and the extent to which its fiery arms reach under the guise of fighting for freedom. Ghosh's treatment of violence in Calcutta and in Dhaka is valid even today, more than ten years after its publication. What has happened recently in Kosovo and in East Timor show that answers still evade the questions, which Ghosh poses about freedom, about the very real yet non-existing lines, which divide nations, people, and families.The story of the family and friends of the nameless narrator who for all his anonymity comes across as if he is the person looking at you quietly from across the table by the time the story telling is over and silence descends. Before that stage arrives the reader is catapulted to different places and times at breath taking tempo. The past, present and future combine and melt together erasing any kind of line of demarcation. Such lines are present mainly in the shadows they cast. There is no point of reference to hold on to. Thus the going away - the title of the first section of the novel - becomes coming home - the title of the second section. These two titles could easily have been exchanged.The narrator is very much like the chronicler Pimen in Pushkin's drama Boris Godonow. But unlike Pushkin's Pimen this one is not a passive witness to all that happens in his presence, and absence. The very soul of the happenings, he is the comma which separates yet connects the various clauses of life lived in Calcutta, London, Dhaka and elsewhere. The story starts about thirteen years before the birth of the narrator and ends on the night preceding his departure from London back to Delhi. He spends less than a year in London, researching for his doctorate work, but it is a London he knew very well even before he puts a step on its pavements. Two people have made London so very real to him - Tridib, the second son of his father's aunt, his real mentor and inspirer, and Ila his beautiful cousin who has traveled all over the world but has seen little compared to what the narrator has seen through his mental eye. London is also a very real place because of Tridib's and Ila's friends - Mrs. Price, her daughter May, and son Nick. Like London comes alive due to the stories related by Ila and Tridib, Dhaka comes alive because of all the stories of her childhood told to him by his incomparable grandmother who was born there. The tragedy is that though the narrator spends almost a year in London and thus has ample opportunity to come to terms with its role in his life, it is Dhaka which he never visits that affects him most by the violent drama that takes place on its roads, taking Tridib away as one of its most unfortunate victims.Violence has many faces in this novel - it is as much present in the marriage of Ila to Nick doomed to failure even before the "yes" wor

Rarely one comes across a book that moves one's emotion and intellect with it's powerful yet beautiful and extremely poignant language. The story effortlessly moves back and forth in time, portraying the contrast of the times and places of the two stages of the protagonist's life, beautifully bringning the evolution of a character in particular and humanity in general. The characters of this story are too real to be fictitious, who are all very complex and yet simple enough to be idnetifiable with our own experiences. The climax is amazing, unpredictable, and very touching, living fully upto the expectations raised in the building up of it, and more. It leaves the reader with a twich of nostalgia that one feels after coming across a beautiful creation. DON'T MISS IT.

This is one of the best novels I have read, maybe the best. Not only is the main character portraited flawlessly, but the story is so engaging that I could not put it down. The deeper meaning of the book is portrayed well. I love the idea of "Shadow Lines," or the idea that borders are simply imagined. The language is also beautiful.

I loved this book. It involved me completely. The complex narrative, with its time shifts, is a tremendous achievement. The book is incisive and funny, yet touching, profound and humane. It depicts India and its paradoxes perfectly. The horror of communal disharmony is brought out through the eyes of a child, during a bus journey to school and back during a riot, through a moving and mesmeric haze of incomprehension. I found this the strongest part of this book. Read it.