Amitav Ghosh?

[John Bailey]

On that postcolonial vibe... I'm reading Amos Tutuola's My Life in the
Bush of Ghosts and it's goddamn magnificent. Would put it on the same
shelf as 1001 Arabian Nights, Salman Rushdie's stuff, maybe even
Ishmael Reed and John Barthes, but the style really is all on its own.
Written in a kind of pidgin English that some writers disparaged as
playing up to Anglo stereotypes of African writers but which Nigerian
commentators have said is an incredibly assured and deliberate
literary strategy. It's such a good read. Very short too.

On Thu, Dec 31, 2015 at 12:10 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks very much. I am interested in all genres, to answer a question posed,
> but in this query I was merely hoping for direction, suggestions. I do hope
> to read about Indian soldiers in the British Army, and also see how this
> experience is akin to the Irish.
>
> Reading Ireland and Postcolonial Theory with Afterword by Edward Said,
> Edited by Carroll and Patricia King. Many parallels of the Irish and Indians
> are presented in the essays and Ghosh is cited several times.
>
> I've been reading a bit more from India and Indians in in the Americas and
> how the Irish, Irish in the Americas experience may be compared and/or
> contrasted. I am also interested in Latin American Literature, especially,
> of course, Literature from Brasil.
>
> On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 12:02 PM, Becky Lindroos <bekker2 at icloud.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> > On Dec 29, 2015, at 6:33 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > want to read one novel. any suggestions?
>>
>> Amitov Ghosh has written several goodies of historical fiction,  but The
>> Ibis Trilogy, is far and away the best.  I’d say go ahead and read book 1,
>> Sea of Poppies, and see what you think.  It’s  "about” the set-up for the
>> 1st Opium War in the Calcutta- River Ganges and there’s a chunk which takes
>> place on an island in the Indian Ocean.  This one was short-listed for the
>> Booker Prize.  Book 2, River of Smoke - keeps the story going into the Opium
>> War,  is almost as good - but I kind of fell down on book 3,  Flood of Fire,
>> which develops the war itself,  because a several years had passed between
>> readings and the story continues.  But all three have won their own awards
>> and lots and lots of excellent reviews.
>>
>> Bek
>
>
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