In Custody

Rating:
Summary: Interprets the standard of Urdu Poetry very elegantly.
Review:

I have read the novel, and watched the movie also. To me both seemed great. But, its absolutely not for those people who are ignorant with the standard of Urdu Language and Urdu Poetry. Urdu Language is a mixture of different beautiful languages, including Arabic and Persian. In my opinion, people related to literature, who do not understand Urdu Poetry are missing something very important.

This novel In Custody is a story of a teacher who is asked by his friend to go and take interview of a very famous Urdu Poet, Nur Saahib. He was inspired by Nur Saahib poetry from his childhood, but when he meets him, Nur Saahib is not the kind of man he had an image of. Anyways, as he was bound to take his interview he does his best to do it, but different difficulties rose from Nur Saahibs wives, friends and other characters. Ultimately in the end, Nur Saahib sends his collection of Poetic Pieces to Deven (The person who interviews), and leaves this world.

Asad I Khan.

Rating:
Summary: Desai's In Custody is tedious
Review: Although Desai's In Custody is well written and intelligent, it is tedious and dull. The many important images (ie: the role of women, and the dead language- Urdu) presented in the novel are hard to find. The book is time consuming and boring.

Rating:
Summary: A very interesting look at new versus old
Review: I always feel like I've read something good if I'm still trying to interpret it weeks after I've finished it. Such is the case with "In Custody." On one hand, it's a very entertaining, almost slapstick account of a poor chump who serves badly at a less-than-stellar academic institution. After finishing it, though, I've been doing a lot of thinking about new versus old theme in particular... [There] are very valid questions today, which makes this a timely read.

Rating:
Summary: Delightful, light-handed academic satire.
Review: I haven't seen the film, and I'm not a student of Urdu poetry, but I really enjoyed this book. In fact, it's the only truly delightful, light-handed academic satire I've ever read. You'll find none of the hit-'em-over-the-head-in-case-they-miss-the-point nonsense of Jane Smiley's Moo and none of the archness and linguistic density of Alexander Theroux's D'Arconville's Cat. Desai employs a gentle, kind humor and simple, but totally controlled, style to create two memorable characters who will long outlive more fervid attempts to show the sometimes ridiculous lengths to which academics must go to achieve their goals and the goals thrust upon them.

Rating:
Summary: Baffling and pointless
Review: IN CUSTODY was the December selection of my book club, and when we met none of us knew why we had spent the time on this novel. The novel tells the pointless story of Deven, an Indian college instructor, who has the opportunity to interview the great Urdu poet Nur. His efforts to interview Nur are ultimately -- after many misadventures that may be supposed to be funny --fruitless. Nur himself turns out to be a broken, querulous old man, and Deven is the same whining weakling at the end of the book that he was in the beginning. The characters are completely unsympathetic; the prose is dry and occasionally deliberately obscure. All our book club could find to discuss was how in the world this book got shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and how in the world anyone could make a movie of it.

Rating:
Summary: Good depiction of real life
Review: It's been a while since I've read it, but am inspired to write about it since this book is far superior to the one I'm reading now by the same author (Journey to Ithaca). I loved this book. I feel that Desai truly captured the feeling of a bygone time (which was bygone already in the story). The frustration the poor lecturer felt at his failed attempts to record the great Urdu Ghazal master, which led to one disaster after another...poor loser, is felt by the reader. If you've ever been to India, you can just imagine the setting, the streets, the buildings, the city where the lecturer goes to make his recordings. The underhandedness of the Master's mistress, and the drunken stupidity of the "chumchas" is so typical, as is the nagging wife of the lecturer who just doesn't understand his artistic pursuits. Desai gave this book a wonderful ending too. Despite all that went wrong, the Master still saw through his drunken haze the sincerity of the lecturer and left him "In Custody," of his compositions. A masterful, bitter sweet ending.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful novel
Review: Touching and wonderfully funny. "In Custody" is woven around the yearnings and calamities of Deven, a small-town scholar from Mirpore in the north of India. An improvised college lecturer, Deven sees a way to escape from the meanness of his daily life when he is asked to interview India's greatest Urdu poet, Nur. But every attempt will only end up in desaster.
A beautiful book, mingling melancholy, disappointment and lots of humour. I recommend it most warmly.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful novel
Review: Touching and wonderfully funny. "In Custody" is woven around the yearnings and calamities of Deven, a small-town scholar from Mirpore in the north of India. An improvised college lecturer, Deven sees a way to escape from the meanness of his daily life when he is asked to interview India's greatest Urdu poet, Nur. But every attempt will only end up in desaster.
A beautiful book, mingling melancholy, disappointment and lots of humour. I recommend it most warmly.