The Impressionist - Softcover

Kunzru, Hari

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452283973 ISBN 13: 9780452283978

Publisher: Plume Books, 2003

Synopsis

From the author of White Tears, this bestselling, award-winning novel of a young man's journey explores what it means to be Indian or English, black or white, and every degree that lies between.

Pran Nath Razdan, the boy who will become the Impressionist, was passed off by his Indian mother as the child of her husband, a wealthy man of a high caste. Pran lived a life of luxury just downriver from the Taj Mahal, but at fifteen, the news of Pran's true parentage is revealed to his father and he is tossed out into the street--a pariah and an outcast. Thus begins an extraordinary, near mythical journey of a young man who must reinvent himself to survive--not once, but many times.

From Victorian India to Edwardian London, from an expatriate community of black Americans in Paris to a hopeless expedition to study a lost tribe of Africa, Hari Kunzru's unforgettable debut novel dazzles with its artistry and wit while it challenges with its insights into the self, nationality, race, and beyond.

About this title

Review:

The anti-hero of The Impressionist, Hari Kunzru's daringly ambitious first novel, is half-English and half-Indian. In the Raj of the 1920s the racial and social divides are enormous but Pran Nath is able to bridge them, crossing from one side to another in a series of reinventions of his own personality. He begins as the spoilt child of an Indian lawyer but circumstances thrust him out of his pampered adolescence into the teeming and dangerous life of the streets. After a bewildering period as one of the pawns in Machiavellian political and sexual scheming at the decadent court of a minor Maharajah, he escapes to Bombay. There he is taken up by a half-demented Scottish missionary and his wife but prefers to slope off to the city's red light district whenever he can. During a time of riot and bloodshed the chance of recreating himself as an English schoolboy, destined for public school and Oxford, presents itself and he takes it. Even this is not to be his final transformation, however.

In some ways Kunzru is almost too ambitious. There is so much crammed into the pages of The Impressionist that some of it, almost inevitably, doesn't work as well as it might. However, as the shape-shifting Pran Nath moves from one identity to another, knockabout farce mixes with satire, social comedy with parody. And, beneath the comic exuberance and linguistic invention, there is an intelligent and occasionally moving examination of notions of self, identity and what it means to belong to a class or society. --Nick Rennison

Review:

Praise for The Impressionist

"Delectable, sweeping, empire-savaging, audaciously playful...Kunzru writes with wry certitude and cinematic precision."--The New York Times

"A sprawling, ambitious, shape-shifting novel...Kunzru proves himself a clever, sharply observant writer."--The Washington Post

"Nothing is as it seems in this serpentine Dickensian epic...Kunzru nicely limns the fickle roles race and class play in civilized societies."--People

"A witty, well-crafted comic saga of the dark side of the British Empire."--Financial Times

"Glorious, hilarious. Kunzru has created a book in which we can feel at home in the strangeness of his gorgeous imagination."--Boston Sunday Herald

"Riveting stuff, beautifully written...Superb."--The Times (London)

"The Impressionist is both a great adventure yarn and an exploration of identity, both personal and national...One might be occasionally reminded of Salman Rushdie or Evelyn Waugh (Brideshead Revisited)."--Detroit Free Press

"Superb. Smart, entertaining and engaging on many levels."--Dallas Morning News

"Grand, sprawling, extravagant, lyrical. A work so vibrant and richly imagined that you can smell the incense."--Esquire

"Epic in scale and rich in historical detail, the narrative is deft and swift...carrying the reader along effortlessly. This first novel has startling depth, ambition and craftsmanship."--Time Out London

"A narrative with just the right blend of misadventure, humor, and humiliation...Call Kunzru a modern-day Kipling."--GQ

"Maniacally inventive--a fantastic funhouse of a novel."--Vogue

"The next literary lion."--Independent on Sunday (UK)

About this edition

• Publisher: Plume Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0452283973
• ISBN 13: 9780452283978
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480