Freedom Song: Three Novels - Softcover

Chaudhuri, Amit

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375704000 ISBN 13: 9780375704000

Publisher: Vintage Books, 2000

Synopsis

"An immensely gifted writer....Crammed with breathtaking sentences, sharp characterizations, comic set pieces, and melancholy grace notes." --The New York Times Book Review

Freedom Song--which collects three of Chaudhuri's novels--celebrates the rhythms of modern India. A boy's visit with relatives conjures the melancholy comforts of family. An Indian student at an English university contemplates the conflicted relationship between an immigrant and his homeland. And the task of marrying off a "problem" son illuminates the complex community of cultures that is modern Calcutta.

Chaudhuri's novels offer simple plots that unfold into dramas of profound emotional resonance. And in prose that has won Chaudhuri comparisons to the master stylists of this century but that emerges as fiercely his own, Freedom Song announces a young writer of extraordinary gifts.

About this title

Review

Amit Chaudhuri's Freedom Song is a masterpiece of the telling detail--in one paragraph he accomplishes what might take other writers entire volumes. Consider, for example, this description of family life:

Monday morning came like a fever. Chhotomama would be at the dining-table, eating a rapid meal of dal, fish, and rice, trying to avoid chewing as much of it as possible before he rushed to work. Then he would rush upstairs where a pair of polished black shoes would be waiting for him like a long-promised gift. He would spend five minutes persuading his feet to enter the shoes, or the shoes to swallow his feet. Over and over again he would shout "I'm late!" in the classic manner of the man crying "Fire!" or "Timber!" or "Eureka!" while Saraswati and Mamima scuttled around him like frightened birds.

The plot is slight and almost inconsequential--a young boy spends his summer with relatives in Calcutta--and consists mainly of a series of episodes strung together. But the characters are so lovingly limned and the places so intimately described that not even a one-way ticket to India could rival Chaudhuri's rendering. What's really important here are the character's memories of his music teacher back in Bombay; his mother's morning rituals; his father clipping his fingernails onto an old copy of the Times of India. The plot takes a back seat to the delicate workings of familial relationships as two clans attempt to marry off a "problem" relative.

What makes this novel so satisfying is the fact that the author's remarkable sensibility is more than matched by his literary skilfulness. For readers in love with language, Freedom Song is the answer to a prayer. --Alix Wilber

Review

"Elegant, realist fiction...nostalgic, beautifully executed...perfectly renders a portrait of modern Calcutta, its chaos and decay, its culture of communism and street theater." --The Washington Post Book World

"Wonderfully observed...a gifted young writer who has created an indelible portrait of India in this volume." --The New York Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0375704000
• ISBN 13: 9780375704000
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 433