The Thing About Thugs edition by Tabish Khair Literature Fiction eBooks
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A subversive, macabre novel of a young Indian man’s misadventures in Victorian London as the city is racked by a series of murders
In a small Bihari village, Captain William T. Meadows finds just the man to further his phrenological research back home Amir Ali, confessed member of the infamous Thugee cult. With tales of a murderous youth redeemed, Ali gains passage to England, his villainously shaped skull there to be studied. Only Ali knows just how embroidered his story is, so when a killer begins depriving London’s underclass of their heads, suspicion naturally falls on the “thug.” With help from fellow immigrants led by a shrewd Punjabi woman, Ali journeys deep into a hostile city in an attempt to save himself and end the gruesome murders.
Ranging from skull-lined mansions to underground tunnels a ghostly people call home, The Thing about Thugs is a feat of imagination to rival Wilkie Collins or Michael Chabon. Short-listed for the 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize, this sly Victorian role reversal marks the arrival of a compelling new Indian novelist to North America.
The Thing About Thugs edition by Tabish Khair Literature Fiction eBooks
This is a somewhat difficult novel to follow. Fortunately it is a fast read. It wouldn't hurt to write down the names of the main characters to avoid confusion. Perhaps the major player here is a young Indian, Amir Ali, a reputed member of the infamous Thugees cult of robbers and murderers back in India. I say back because while it seems uncertain, the action is primarily the mean streets of 19th century London and environs.Ali finds himself initially exhibit A in an argument then prevailing on the subject of Phrenology. His memoirist and guardian here in the "civilized" world is the successful and eligible bachelor about town, Captain Meadows. After extracting Amir's life story, much of which seems too good to be true, the young Indian is released to seek his fortune and as often is the case with the upper classes, hopes he takes the opportunity to get back to India. But our hero has reasons to stay. When the object of his affection becomes victim to a horrific gang of head thieves his anger turns to the subject of revenge, something his prior life has prepared him for.
The underground in London teems with individuals you might not expect and at this moment sensing her world is about to be invaded a Punjabi seamstress married to an opium addicted Irish ex-soldier swings into action. She starts her investigation by never leaving her humble abode but calls in the denizens which occupy the mean underbelly of London's slums. Her aim is to identify and deal with the skull collectors in a way we might not fully understand nor appreciate.
This highly acclaimed novel is the work of Professor Tabish Khair. Born and raised in India he eventually made his way to Cambridge and now teaches English in Denmark. He has authored and edited a number of works. His craftsmanship and ability to keep the ball in the air coupled with his remarkably creative mind make his words worth reading. The action is pervasive but I predict while you might struggle initially you will find it well worth the ride. 2.75* GIBO
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The Thing About Thugs edition by Tabish Khair Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
I compare this novel to the works of J.G. Farrell, Barry Unsworth, and Amitav Ghosh. Yes, it presents some difficulty to the reader [which seems to be the main problem with the negative reviews here] but if you stick with it you will be highly rewarded with an intelligent, humorous , exciting read. This is not some swashbuckling tale with stereotypical heroes, but a thoughtful book, that muses about class, race, wealth, crime, and religion, all wrapped in an atmospheric London at the height of the Empire. Highly recommend.
I wanted to dig into this book and at least be entertained, but I ended up just finishing it, slightly bored most of the time.
"The Thing about Thugs" is a detailed historical novel with love, violence, lots of characters, class conflict, and revenge. It seems intriguing on the surface.
Yet I didn't find the book morally interesting or emotionally compelling. There's no mystery in the literal sense, because the story is told from multiple perspectives, so all the looming events and investigative discoveries are laid out ahead of time. And there's little mystery in the backstories or motivations of the characters, because all that is spelled out as the author gets into their heads one by one.
And despite exploring the theme of hidden and invented identities and laying out some moral dilemmas that certain characters face, the book isn't actually morally complicated. The poor and marginalized are (primarily) good while the privileged and powerful are (primarily) bad. That forms a neat counterpoint to the stories the privileged were telling themselves about the world in that time and place, including through phrenology, which plays a major part in the book. But it's hardly an original twist these days.
I think the author has combined too many elements in this stew of a novel and not quite carried them off. But overall it was an enjoyable read portraying the white Londoners as idiots and the Asians stranded there by the vagaries of empire as the intellectual and moral superiors of their British overlords. Well, it is only fair. The faint Holmesian aura is frankly a distraction, but perhaps there was no way to avoid it dealing with this material. All of us lovers of Holmes likely should be reminded of the casual racism that was the norm in Conan Doyle's London. It is salutary.
It was particularly distracting that the Urdu poetry was transliterated so badly. I consulted my husband, a native speaker, when I could not make it out, and he confirmed my suspicion that there were editing errors as he could not either, and he is an admirer of the great Urdu poets, But Hindi/Urdu speakers will likely enjoy the occasional eruption of phrases like "jahaaz bhai" into the narrative. And the linguistic and literary sophistication of the protagonist and his family is for me the most effective way in which the author contrasts the boorish presumption of the English masters that their Asian subjects are scarcely more intelligent than apes with the reality that the civilization they seek to subdue in India is old and sophisticated beyond their comprehension . I also appreciated that the author took care to show that that sophisticated Indian civilization is riddled with its own layers of oppression and evil.
The attempts at post-modernist literary tropes of multiple views of the truth in the person of many narrators across space and time do not really work for me. The use of the voice of the Irish husband of the Punjabi dhaba-walli was least successful for me--a bit too obvious that only an oppressed white man might have true insight into the humanity of non-white people.
Overall, the faults take this out of the literary realm for me, while yet leaving it in the enjoyable light reading category.
This is a somewhat difficult novel to follow. Fortunately it is a fast read. It wouldn't hurt to write down the names of the main characters to avoid confusion. Perhaps the major player here is a young Indian, Amir Ali, a reputed member of the infamous Thugees cult of robbers and murderers back in India. I say back because while it seems uncertain, the action is primarily the mean streets of 19th century London and environs.
Ali finds himself initially exhibit A in an argument then prevailing on the subject of Phrenology. His memoirist and guardian here in the "civilized" world is the successful and eligible bachelor about town, Captain Meadows. After extracting Amir's life story, much of which seems too good to be true, the young Indian is released to seek his fortune and as often is the case with the upper classes, hopes he takes the opportunity to get back to India. But our hero has reasons to stay. When the object of his affection becomes victim to a horrific gang of head thieves his anger turns to the subject of revenge, something his prior life has prepared him for.
The underground in London teems with individuals you might not expect and at this moment sensing her world is about to be invaded a Punjabi seamstress married to an opium addicted Irish ex-soldier swings into action. She starts her investigation by never leaving her humble abode but calls in the denizens which occupy the mean underbelly of London's slums. Her aim is to identify and deal with the skull collectors in a way we might not fully understand nor appreciate.
This highly acclaimed novel is the work of Professor Tabish Khair. Born and raised in India he eventually made his way to Cambridge and now teaches English in Denmark. He has authored and edited a number of works. His craftsmanship and ability to keep the ball in the air coupled with his remarkably creative mind make his words worth reading. The action is pervasive but I predict while you might struggle initially you will find it well worth the ride. 2.75* GIBO
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