Freedom Song : Three Novels

Rating:
Summary: Highest Praise
Review: As someone whose childhood reading included Banaphool and Bibhuti Bandopadhaya(notably Adarsha Hindu Hotel), for me Amit Chaudhury's Freedom Song is another celebration of lyrical prose. I managed to read the British publication of the novel by the same name. As many reviewers have complained,here nothing happens in terms of events, yet everything seems to evolve in to a tapestry of human emotions recollected in tranquil prose. If you like to read Robert Ludlum or Stephen King instead of Chekov or Maupassant then dont waste your time and effort on Freedom Song. For the Indian readers I can say if you are missing Satyajit Ray since his death, here is an ersatz Ray. For the American audience this book can be described as some kind of a Jerry Seinfeldesqe rendition of middle class Calcuttans. Like Seinfeld no subject is a taboo for the writer including the undercurrents of Hindu nationalism surfacing in the Marxist state. However there is a slip showing in the facts narrated in this book. Writer alludes to middle class bengalis from Calcutta going away to Darjeeling and Gopalpur for vacations and pilgrimage respectively(page 51). If he meant Gopalpur in the neighbouring province of Orissa, then he must have meant Puri,with its sea beach and Jagannath temple. As some one hailing from there I can vouch for the bengali tourists flocking to Puri all year round in their Calcutta colors. I could not resist the temptation to include some of my favourite excerpts from the book.: >> But then during the curfew, when shops and offices,and everything else had been closed -ten days of nothing happening-.....It was as if a train they had been on had halted somewhere unexpectedly and they had been forced to take a holiday. She had found that he was not interested in discussing what was happening at all-the riots, the anger, more interested in rereading old copies of the Statesman which he had accumulated during the last week in a drawer. >>Pigeons rose suddenly into the sky between the buildings; their conversation evaporated rather than ended; the child began to make sounds as if it had had enough. (NOTE: Child is inanimate here and is referred to as it). >>When the meeting with the 'girl' and her parents was set to take place at an open air cafe near Salt Lake, Bhaskar, oddly,seemed both indifferent and cooperative and full of nimble self-assurance. >> Though the last cook, whose fragrant preparations of goat's meat and fish head dal were well known, had died two years ago of cholera, the present cook too had a reputation.>> >>But it was as if his recent eloquence in politics had left him inarticulate about personal matters. >>No one could decipher from her serenity that she had already seen in the same capacity a cost accountant, a marine engineer, and a lecturer.... >>'What did you think of her?' His mother put this question to him a few days later, deliberately absent-minded, as if she were questioning the air. A mongrel's bark followed the silence.

Rating:
Summary: Bengali schmaltz leaves bad aftertaste....
Review: Chaudhuri's prose may be poetic but it is also insidiously sentimental. A saccharin-sweet view of Calcutta that leaves you craving for something more substantial. For great Indian writing try the salty, wry humour of Rushdie or Arundhati Roy's beautiful 'God of Small Things', a book that is not afraid to examine the darker side of post-colonial India.

Rating:
Summary: Enchanting
Review: I came across this book in the college bookstore by chance and decided to buy it. I must say it was an extremely good decision. This is one of the most relaxing and beautiful books that I have read so far. Especially the first novel, "A strange and sublime address", was the one which I especially liked. I too, like Chaudhuri, used to live in Bombay and used to visit Calcutta every year during the summer vacations, and reading Chaudhuri was like reliving my own experiences once again. Chaudhuri in all three of these novels has no plot or particular story to tell, but goes on to describe day to day living and experiences. This is what I liked most in his novels. He brings out beautifully the modes of thinking and subtleties in behavoiur peculiar to the culture of the Indian middle class. Reading this book would give anyone a pretty thorough insight into the life of the educated urban indian middle class. In short, if you want to read a book without any melodrama, wherein all you have to do is surrender yourself to its prose and let its narration of seemingly ordinary events weave its magic around you, leaving you thoroughly refreshed in the end, then this set of three novels by Chaudhuri is definitely the one for you. Chaudhuri is excellent and is definitely in league with the other great Indian novelists such as R.K.Narayan who write about India and her life with such mastery and exquisite craftsmanship in the English language.Absolutely enchanting reading.

Rating:
Summary: A writer of wonderful prose.
Review: I have read one of the three novels in this collection separately and I will jot down my thoughts of it here. I will definitely try to read the other two as well since I was very impressed with Mr. Chaudhuri's novel Afternoon Raag which I will give my thoughts on here: This book is not very large but it packs a big punch! It is esentially the reminescences of an Indian student in Oxford. The power and beauty of the book lies in the wonderful descriptions contained herein. I grew up in Oxford (and it is where I enjoy being the most even now) and Chaudhuri captures the essence of the town beautifully. His free-flowing, beautiful writing is what makes this book such a delightful read and it is an wonderful way of losing oneself in memories of one of the prettiest places in the world to live in. In addition the author intermixes his experiences of Oxford with his memories of India and especially of his time with his music teacher. A delight.

Rating:
Summary: childhood memories revived
Review: It would not do justice to merely chew and digest this book (to borrow a cliched quote). Rather like a fine moist chocolate cake or cognac perhaps, swirl forever and drench in its vivid flavours. Being son of a Bengali expatriate family myself, AC's narrative about a small boy's summer vacations in Calcutta are not just beatifully picturesque but also remarkably coincident with my own recollections of similar surroundings from many years past. The description of life as a graduate student in a foreign country and of the institution of arranged marriages are similarly revealing. One just hopes that his future novels have a storyline to match his prose.

Rating:
Summary: Picturesque
Review: It's poetic, it paints a picture... but it doesn't have much of a plot. How's the for some "p" words? I enjoyed it and Chaudhuri does have an eloquent turn of phrase, but I'm still kind of wondering what the point was. It seemed more like snapshots of the lives of Indian families than actual novellas. Freedom Song is a collection of three novellas: A Strange and Sublime Address, An Afternoon Raag, and Freedom Song. I dunno... maybe they're all just too smart for me (that is entirely possible).

Rating:
Summary: Poetic...
Review: While I thouroughly enjoyed the poetic prose of this novel, I was a little perplexed by its seeming lack of plot. No doubt the descriptions are awesome and Chaudhuri has a mean turn of phrase, but I kept waiting for the point to come across and, for me, it never seemed to. It's beautiful, but I like a little more action.