The Last Jet-Engine Laugh - Softcover

Joshi, Ruchir

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006551874 ISBN 13: 9780006551874

Publisher: Flamingo, 2002

Synopsis

The most arresting Indian novel since Arundhati Roy’s ‘The God of Small Things’.

Thirty years from now, old Paresh Bhatt settles down to drink an espresso (made, somewhat ostentatiously, with real water), and reflects on the key moments of his life. But even as Paresh recalls his parents' courtship during the freedom movement of the 1930s, his daughter, Para, is in the air – a crack fighter pilot in the belligerent Indian airforce, mounting raids against the Pak-Saudi alliance…

Sharp, modern, fluent and varied, this is a debut novel from India of an utterly original kind. Joshi has found a style and a form in which to say new things about the Indian experience in a new manner.

About this title

About the Author

Ruchir Joshi is a trained and practising filmmaker in India. Born and raised in Calcutta, he now lives in Delhi.

From the Back Cover

It is the not-so-distant future, and in the belligerent wannabe superpower that is India, Para, a tomboyish fighter pilot, flies sorties against the Pak-Saudi alliance. She has been trained to kill, to be a deadly instrument for the military ambitions of the ultra-modern, ultra-competitive state. And yet it is less than a hundred years since her smart sarcastic, principled grandparents met on a non-violent demonstration against British rule in Ahmedabad, falling in love as they were trampled by mounted police. There only son Paresh, grows up to drift through life, torn in different directions all at once, though he does produce an entirely spirited, directed daughter – Para.

How did India get Para from her grandparents? And what happened to the generation in between, of Paresh and his peers? Moving between crowd scenes and midair battles, between sexual farce and social embarrassment, Joshi maps the arcs made by these four striking characters, by the family they make up, and by their country, across a complex and confused century.

Joshi's writing is sharp, loose, fluent and varied. 'The Last Jet-Engine Laugh' is a novel that is jaded and yet principled, ribald and yet serious, vigorous yet sensitive. It feels authentic, considered and moving at all times. It marks the arrival of a writer whose prose is fresh, as surprising and as distinctly original as any to come out of India in the last two decades.

Edition details

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0006551874
• ISBN 13: 9780006551874
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400