Love and Longing in Bombay : Stories

Rating:
Summary: Praise is way overblown
Review: The stories in this collection are not an "easy read", however, once you are in and underway each is gripping. I enjoyed the Bombay setting, usually the upper class or newly emergent middle class (computer programmers for example) - something that is different to the usual view of India. Nevertheless, each had something to say about the state of India: the lost world of detatched housing, which reminded me of the "History House" in God of Small Things, police brutality, secret homosexualand inter-religious love for example. I thought the story about social climbing was hilarious. The book-keepers in the computer story reminded me so much of the tailors in A Fine Balance.

Not as much a tour de force as A Fine Balance, but an enjoyable, and at times very poignant read.