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Ambitious and far-reaching

Customer Rating:

Seeing `Shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize' on the front cover was both tempting and off-putting - tempting because it's interesting to see what attracts the attention of the judges and off-putting because, dare I admit it, I've sometimes found their choices more than a little tedious. `Sea of Poppies' is an ambitious work set in the time of the Opium Wars. Once I'd got through the first chapter, half-skimming the annoying pidgin English, it was obvious that this was going to be a fascinating read. As more characters are introduced, their stories and the problems they each have to overcome become more and more intriguing. In a slow crescendo of overlapping fortunes, the writing reaches an exciting climax and then abruptly stops, leaving, as others have commented, so may loose ends that this feels like the first part of a long book rather than the standalone first book of a trilogy. Nevertheless, I shall be back for more when the second part is published. The characters are mostly well drawn and, despite their numbers, easily distinguished. Some are more real than others: Deeti, for instance, the young Indian rescued from her husband's funeral pyre, who flees her home village and eventually joins a group of migrants aboard the Ibis; and Zachary Reid, the half-breed American who escapes life ashore as a carpenter to become a sailor aboard the Ibis. By the time the ship leaves Calcutta with its cargo of migrants and convicts, Zachary, whose mixed origins are known to only a few, has risen to the rank of second mate. On the other hand, it is hard to feel any empathy with Mr Burnham, the merchant who deals in opium and the transportation of convicts, and Mr Crowle, the irascible first mate on the Ibis. Both are stereotypical of an unpleasant and prejudiced breed. Apart from the occasional lapses into pidgin English, which I always find displeasing, the book is well-written and fast-paced. The cramped and evil-smelling conditions in the dark of the hold feel so real that it is easy to imagine yourself there, among the migrants for whom the ship is their universe for the last third of the book. I thought it an excellent read and would thoroughly recommend it.

A curate's egg

Customer Rating:

The Sea of Poppies is a bit of a curate's egg - parts of it are excellent. Amitav Ghosh promises a seafaring epic on a grand scale, and the characters are drawn at some length. We begin in the poppy fields of 1830s India, and one immediately thinks of the epic Traffik TV series. We have similar expectations for a novel charting the flow of opium around the world, perhaps stopping by the opium dens of Shanghai and the mansions of England en route. But by about half way through the novel, it seems that characters are still being introduced and described in slow but rich terms. And there's no sign of the sea until the final third of the novel, making one wonder whether the beautiful hardback cover is entirely representative. The story, though, is intricate and generally well told. There are quite a number of characters and it can be difficult keeping them all in mind and remembering exactly how they inter-relate. This is especially difficult as they have a habit of being known to one another by different nicknames, formal names or pseudonyms. Amitav Ghosh does leave signposts around from time to time to help the reader keep track, but once all the characters converge on the ship - The Ibis - it can be confusing. And to add to the intrigue/confusion, we have to remember what race or what cast each character really is, is pretending to be, and who knows the truth and who doesn't. What a tangled web... Of the various characters, a naïve, fallen Raja - Neel - is especially intriguing. Although he is clearly a victim of circumstance, he is beautifully vain and arrogant, even when it requires self sacrifice. Early on, for example, he hosts a dinner party at which he cannot eat, as is unable to eat in the company of people of lower caste. Even after he has lost his money and his status, he still displays enough sensitivity and taste to ensure he loses the reader's budding sympathy. And the various other characters are all sufficiently different to carry such a complex plot, although one or two of them (Benjamin Burnham and Mister Crowle, for example) do fall dangerously close to stereotype. And perhaps the exact status of Baboo Nob Kissin - and his various demons - might have been a little clearer. Now other reviewers have commented on the language. The lascars (ship's crew) talk in a pidgin language that can almost be understood. But there is also a liberal peppering of Bengali and perhaps other South Asian languages. Sometimes this is in the form of nouns - even great long lists of types of boat or types of opium - and sometimes it is whole sentences rendered in italics. This seems to be a common trait with Indian novels - Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss was similar. And for people who don't speak the language, it is increasingly irritating. The writer should be able to create an atmosphere of exoticism and distance (both in time and space) through careful descriptions and choice of English vocabulary. It shouldn't be necessary to have to resort to foreign language to create the atmosphere in this way. And it doesn't seem to happen to the same extent in books from - or set in - other parts of the world. And the other Achilles heel is the ending. It is fairly obvious from early on in the final section (The Sea - the final 150 pages) that the story is too complex and not yet sufficiently intertwined to be resolved in the remaining pages. We still see new characters - major characters - being introduced. And when the ending does come, it is really unsatisfactory leaving questions unanswered and major characters in jeopardy. It seems this is to be the first part of a trilogy, but that wasn't clear at the outset. And by all means write a trilogy, but in a good trilogy, each volume should stand on its own merits. This doesn't. This is a slow read. There are many pages, and the pages seem to be quite full and the linguistic tics make it difficult to get into a rhythm. Somewhere in there is a wonderful story waiting to be told, but as a first instalment, this doesn't quite feel as though it repays the effort required to get to the end. Yet credit has to go to some of the characterization and some of the individual scenes which ranged from the amusing to the appalling. Three and a half stars?

Good foundation for the sequels

Customer Rating:

A true epic in the making, 'Sea of Poppies' is a hefty saga in the same genre as 'War and Peace' and 'A Suitable Boy'. The Indian setting particularly reminds me of the latter, though I actually prefer 'Sea of Poppies'. The first of a promised trilogy, the novel has a slow start as it introduces the many different characters and threads. It's only once you're halfway in that you begin to feel that you know the characters. They are a diverse group, in terms of social standing and cultural background, brought together by the sailing of a ship from northern India to Mauritius. Characterisation is generally good though there were a couple of characters that I found rather implausible. The plot is rather patchy due to the plethora of characters, who begin with separate story threads, and as soon as it picks up momentum when the characters come together, the story ends. But it's still highly readable, especially in the second half. One thing seriously lacking is a glossary. The text is full of unusual words, such as specific shipping terms, which are used constantly and I found impeded my understanding in several places. These aren't even the type of vocabulary that can be looked up in a dictionary. Therefore I think the inclusion of a translation of the terms would be really helpful. As mentioned earlier, the end is very abrupt. Even though it is intended as the first volume of a trilogy, so the story will be carried on, I felt that as an individual novel it needed a more defined ending. Otherwise it might as well all just be one big book. However, criticism aside, it is an ambitious project and it is nice to find a new novel that covers not just a single storyline/set of characters but sets out to capture the essence of a particular place and time. The writing is good and it is always pleasing to read, even despite my slight frustration with the odd vocabulary. I have high hopes for the sequels, which shouldn't suffer so much from the slow starting problem, as this book has provided a very solid foundation to build from. I suspect in years to come it will be judged as part of the trilogy and probably fare better - as a stand alone novel in its own right though I'd mark it down to a 3 star.

"If it is God's will that opium be used as an instrument to open China to his teachings, then so be it."

Customer Rating:

When the Ibis, a "blackbirder" leaves Calcutta and sets out across the Bay of Bengal, carrying "indentured migrants," the seas darken and become stormy. As the ship tosses and conditions deteriorate, the ship becomes a microcosm for life on land, full of tumult and unexpected twists of fate, and each person's heart is laid bare. Everybody aboard is escaping from something, so anxious to put their problems behind them that they see no choice but to submit to the atrocious living conditions and sometimes sadistic overseers. Set in India in 1838, at the outset of the three-year Opium War between the British and the Chinese, this epic novel follows several characters from different levels of society who become united through their personal lives aboard the ship and, more generally, through their connections to the opium and slave trades. Deeti Singh, married as a young teenager to a man whose dependence on opium makes him an inadequate husband and provider, is forced to work on the family's opium field outside Ghazipur by herself, though she fears her sadistic brother-in-law. Zachary Reid, a young sailor from Baltimore has left America because his status as an octoroon has led to constant harassment by other American sailors. At the opposite end of the scale is Benjamin Burnham, who owns the Ibis and engages in the opium trade. Formerly a slave trader, Burnham now transports exiled prisoners and coolies, and he has acquired enormous wealth and a lavish lifestyle impossible for him in England. Among his acquaintances is Raja Neel Rattan Halder, the zemindar of Raskali, who, accustomed to the unimaginable opulence that upper caste Brahmins assume is their right by birth, has paid little attention to his dwindling resources, and he has now accumulated debts. Ghosh depicts the lives of these characters and their acquaintances in extravagant and thoroughly researched detail, bringing to life Deeti's misery, the expectations for her within her husband's family, and the customs which she must honor, for example. He fully describes buildings, their contents, bath facilities, dining customs, religious practices, the inside of a slave ship, and even the importance of omens, but he never forgets his obligation as a story-teller, continuously presenting one highly dramatic moment after another. Stories of piracy and cruelty, often growing out of the opium trade, exist side by side with more personal stories of love and nobility. Ghosh's use of local patois creates a rich and colorful atmosphere, and episodes of humor live side by side with episodes of terror. The first book in a projected "Ibis trilogy," this historical novel pulses with life, and as the novel comes to a satisfying close, Ghosh keeps several doors open, suggesting the direction he will take with this novel's sequel. n Mary Whipple Glass Palace (An Arcadian novel) The Shadow Lines The Hungry Tide The Circle of Reason Incendiary Circumstances: A Chronicle of the Turmoil of Our Times

A wonderful read, a wide perspective

Customer Rating:

I love this book. It continues to resound in my head, weeks after I've finished reading it. I am so happy that there are two more treats to come (it's the first in a trilogy). This book lured me in. I was gripped from the beginning but somehow, I became more gripped as it went on - that's what I mean by 'lured'. The prose is very unassuming, almost diffident, and at times I felt that I was floating along on it. At first, the many non-English words were very noticeable but after a while, they became part of the texture, and I actually started understanding a lot of them. What I think I truly loved is the multipleness, the geography, the plot, and the underlying convictions about identity. Multipleness: all those people (who are still very vivid in my memory) from all those different walks of life; I just loved jumping from person to person; normally, I find this movie-like back-and-forth in novels jarring but in this novel, I really enjoyed dipping into every new episode in every character's life and anticipated what was to come next. Geography: it really struck me how the very complex and alive place evoked in this novel (a particular part of India) moved the 'West' to the margins. The plot: great, great stuff. I was surprised by some of the plot twists, and towards the end, exhilarated by the Aristotelian reversals. How exciting! Finally, identity: At one point, a character says how she is not just one thing or another; she has many aspects. There is a wonderful refreshing perspective here that goes against the grain of contemporary obsession with 'finding your [one] identity'. In this wonderful novel, people are allowed to be lots of things. Truly recommended most highly.