Amitav Ghosh's River of Smoke: The second of the Ibis trilogy
After Song of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh's second novel The River of Smoke was published, and was one of the great novels of the twenty first century Indian English literature. He is now writing the third part of his Ibis trilogy.
AMITAV GHOSH took nearly three and a half years to write the second book of his Ibis trilogy. He spent several weeks in Guangzhou and learnt some Cantonese to depict the background of the novel which is set in Fanquit town. Most of the action occurs in Guangzhou. Like the Sea of Poppies, the novel which deals with opium trade in China is also not a single linear. Like Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, the relationship between Sea of Poppies and River of Smoke is a ‘tangential one’ as Amitav Ghosh himself describes it. The mash-up of fact and fiction works, coalescing into a narrative shaped by cataclysmic historical events but inflected with small-scale personal drama beautifully works here in the novel. The first 50 or so pages of the novel unfurl in a series of semi-comic, scene-setting vignettes that place us firmly in multiple successful expeditions to China. The novelist shows how considerable wealth is created in the process.
COMMENTS
(1)
Guest
To earn points for your comment sign
in now.
Amitabh Ghosh always mesmerises with his writing. The research in his books is awesome and his descriptions are lively as well as minute. I got hold of the Hungry tide and became a fan of his writing.
Nice descrition of the Ibis series sir. I've read the Sea of Poppies...lovely it is. Soon I'll read the second one.
Thanks for the review.
Merinews Picks
Not finding what you are looking for? Search here.
