A Son of the Circus

I almost bailed out after the first hundred pages of this book, and should have followed that inclination. When one keeps dozing off and dropping the book on one's foot, it's seldom a good sign.

There are, undeniably, some very funny moments here, generally based on cultural misunderstandings. The "American hippy" girl's taxicab ride into Bombay from the airport is laugh-out-loud funny, and scattered moments like this (along with Irving's gift for creating memorable characters) kept me slogging along well after any real interest in the plot fizzled out.

There's a murder mystery, and a subplot about twins separated at birth, and frequent reminders about the toilet habits of homeless people in large cities. There's a side trip through the world of "Bollywood" movies, and the existential dilemma of a man born to one culture but reared in another, who tries to maintain his balance with a foot in each.

But mostly, there are just words -- thousands of them, pouring over the defenseless reader like a tsunami. In the end, perhaps, it's best just to stay away from the literary shoreline here.

Never finished Never cared

I totally loved this book. Funny and poignant it enveloped me in a side to India that is usually only described fleetingly. The characters were drawn so well and I will miss them dearly. John Irving is such a good writer that I always feel a little bereft at the end of his novels and this book is no exception. I know the length seems daunting but I couldn’t still listening to it so I got through it in good time, so I can’t recommend it highly enough

Where’s the rest of the book?? This recording is incomplete!

A little slow for me to get into, but quite entertaining once I did. Dr. Durawalla was very endearing once I got used to him Nancy, Patel, Rahul and the inimitable twins Dahor and Martin, were wonderfully drawn characters. The plot was a little weak as far as I was concerned, though.

People keep telling me to read Irving, but up to now I've never really got into one of his novels. I picked this one up on holiday and made the effort to stick with it: I'm not completely convinced, but it was probably just about worth finishing.I found it rather long and rambling, but with patches of very engaging detail. Research is clearly one of Irving's strengths, but he doesn't seem to be good at discarding material he doesn't need. Of the big plot threads, the one about emigration and deracination wasn't particularly interesting, but I did enjoy the way the book plays around with the conventions of crime fiction and with the way in which the narratives we construct about other people can come back and affect our and their lives.