The Great Indian Novel 1st Edition

I bless the day I had picked up this book and casually leafed through its pages. The very first paragraph gets you hooked- "India is not a developing country but a country in the advanced stages of decay." I dont think any other line in the written history of English could define India in a better fashion.
The book has clubbed the plots of Indian Independence struggle and Mahabharata with such finesse that you would be transported into a magical realm where you would be viewing the Indian Independence struggle run by Mahabharata characters.
The plot is a masterpiece. But that is just the beginning. The lanuage is (for better words) awesome...the aptness of the adjectives, the quirk of the phrases makes for escatic read.
I wonder why this book has not grabbed the bestseller status. It is sad since I consider this book a must read for every Indian across all ages, regions and class. Anyhow, if you come across this book...do yourself and your friends a favour and read it- for its a rare insight into the Indian hinterland.

The first thing about this book is the fact the less you know about the history of India from 1920 onwards, the less sense it will make to you. So if you don't know much about post independent India or the struggle for independence, consider reading up on those first.
That said, this is a brilliant effort at drawing a parallel between the greatest Indian epic and our recent history, and at places it is amazing, how a scene from Mahabharata can be transposed into chapter from Indian history, and how it all fits in ...
there are lot of dull patches in the book. At lot of places the parallels seem forced and labored, lot of chapters are too long drawn and soporific and the fact that you're always looking for the major events from the epic being depicted in some form leads to some disappointments. The humor is good most of the times, but there are patches of what you can call - cheap comedy.
Overall it is a book with a very different taste. It takes for labored reading at places and there will be points when you'd want to quit, but at the end, most of it seems to make sense. There are subtle areas where Tharoor's views on certain historical events have crept in, if you know our history well, and you watch out for these, you can spot them.
Takes an effort to finish, but on the whole, worth that effort.
Recommended.

All the controversies surrounding the author apart,one has to appreciate the book for its intelligence and the creativity.Blending India's arguably the greatest mythology with India's greatest achievement of the past century is a difficult task in itself but to do it by using many of the freedom fighters and matching them up with one historical character from Mahabharatha is to put it in a simple way 'ingenious'.Shashi Tharoor proves that he is an intellectual of the highest order with this book.You might love the book,or hate the book but putting it aside as just another average work is impossible.

Never thought that a casual pick-up from book kiosk would turn out to be the most memorable reading in my life.

This book is all superlative adjectives redefined. Sheer brilliant writing. The plot, the narration and the language - the prose (and verse) just blows you away. It's unbelievably weird why this book isn't a best seller while many pop novels are.

Please, just read the book and note down how many times you shook your head and paused, marveling at the genius.

I guess the consequence is that one may start comparing every other book read with this book's standard.

This is, perhaps, not the best work of the author of midnight to millennium. But the way he recasts the story of mahabharatha into the Indian political scene, before and after independence, is remarkably hilarious. He finds a counterpart for most of the major Indian politicians in the epic, and intertwines them together sensibly to come up with yet another wonderful book. If you like unadulterated humour and follow Indian politics with some enthusiasm, you can't miss this book.