Calcutta Chromosome: A Novel of Fevers, Delirium and Discovery: Amazon.ca: Amitav Ghosh: Books

Product Description

From Library Journal

Ghosh's latest novel, after the accaimed The Shadow Lines (LJ 5/1/89), is part medical thriller, part science fiction, and part literary conspiracy novel, but entirely readable.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

New Yorker journalist and novelist Ghosh (The Shadow Lines, 1989, etc.) returns, this time with a confusing blur of science fiction, satire, epistemology, and ethnic alienation. When AVA/IIe, a nearly omniscient global computer system of the LifeWatch department in the densely bureaucratic International Water Council, discovers a fragment of an ID lost in the sea of information, Antar, a lonely, widower Egyptian who crunches numbers on the system in his drab Manhattan apartment, innocently directs the computer to reconstruct it, simultaneously activating hidden resources within the system while also jogging Antar's memory of the manic L. Murugan. Murugan (also known, with a cross-cultural wink, as Mr. Morgan) is a fastidious Indian and former LifeWatch employee whose obsession with malaria research compelled him to transfer to Calcutta in 1995, after which he abruptly vanished. As he did in The Shadow Lines, Ghosh jumbles chronology here, hopping restively from Murugan's feverishly surrealistic Calcutta to a chatty luncheon in which Murugan lectures interminably about malaria, then back to 1895, where Victorian scientists stumble on a Calcutta cabal in which individuals biologically transfer their personalities to achieve a kind of genetic reincarnation. At the heart of this dizzy mess is a comic examination of identity in an evolving multicultural milieu, but Ghosh's trademark touch for absurdist magical realism (The Circle of Reason) and ironic cultural clashes (the nonfiction In an Antique Land, 1993) renders the story this time both unreasonable and unbelievable. Densely intricate, logorrheic spoof of commercial suspense fiction from a skilled writer who should know better. (First printing of 40,000) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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First Sentence
If the system hadn't stalled Antar would never have guessed that the scrap of paper on his screen was the remnant of an ID card. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

26 Reviews

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
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Average Customer Review

3.3 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars Slow starting, interesting mystery with a disapointing end, Jan 5 2002

By

M. Griffith (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

[...]There was a lilting rhythm to this book that had a familiar resonation.
The turn of the phrase, the dialog, the manner of story telling was very
reminiscent of The
Moors Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie a book I have read but not reviewed
here yet. I don't want to make broad sweeping stereotypes regarding the
an Indian style, but I will at the minimum note in passing a similarity
between this and the one book I have read by Rushdie. </p>

Having said that I found this in the end an unsatisfying book. It was
a book of many things, science fiction, a medical history of malaria,
and a spiritual explanation of transmigration of the soul. I found it
a bit slow in starting up, once going my interest was peaked regarding
the mystery of the discovery of malaria and the hidden truth behind it,
however my main disappointment was that the resolution to the mystery
and the ending itself were poorly wrought. Barely even explained, unclearly
described I was left scratching my head with a "huh?" </p>

I don't know if I would recommend this book, I would state the caveats
and let you make your own choice.</p>

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2.0 out of 5 stars I do not understnd the end, Dec 25 2001

By

Cheyanne "thurmafin" (Rome Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Calcutta Chromosome: A Novel of Fevers Delirium & Discovery (Paperback)

I loved the images the book evoked .I loved reading about the British in India and how they would behave and use euphemisms about the natives its so like how my mother and father would describe their experiences with the English in Malaysia.

He writes very well ,he has a delicious sense of humour especially Murugan (call me Morgan) but although I understand the premise the end totally stumped me.I just cannot understand why he would end the book the way he did .

I can accept some of the chromosome theory he tried to explain and the extraordinary coincidences with Lutchman and all that but why he chose to end it so weak is why I give it two stars.

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4.0 out of 5 stars An fun book with some frustrating flaws, Dec 3 2001

By A Customer

The Calcutta Chromosome was fun, and I don't at all regret buying the book. I enjoyed the twisty, wandering, plot and its labyrinthine internal connections. I enjoyed the scenery, both the futuristic New York and its wonderful evocation of Calcutta. I liked many of the characters and enjoyed their encounters and dilemmas. I enjoyed the bits of medical history. I enjoyed much of the language. I REALLY enjoyed reading a book where, for once, I did not have to wince at words misused or misspelled.

However, for all the blurb evocations, this is no Borges, nor Pynchon. I see why the comparisons were drawn, but there are some major plot and even ... call them philosophical... flaws that drag The Calcutta Chromosome back from a really good book to a fun read on the 'plane.

Basically, there is a vast and bizarre conspiracy, which, while entertaining, is founded on mushy, ill thought-out motives. There is an attempt to evoke an east/west - mysticism/logic thing, but it collapses under its own inconsistencies to reveal a balding plot device wearing a toupee of picturesque Oriental mystics.

Finally, there is quite a bit of pseudo-scientific and technological hand waving. This will bother some more than others. The point that technology can be like magic is relevant, and in places I can forgive the more nonsensical bits as contributing to a good story. There are other incidents, particularly the absurdly retrieved e-mail, which could have been tied into other themes in the story but weren't. Instead, I was left with the impression that Ghosh wrote himself into a bit of a corner and couldn't be bothered to take some more plausible method of getting himself out.

Sit back, fit together the edge pieces of the jigsaw puzzle, admire the pretty picture, and try not to be disappointed if you find a few of the middle pieces missing.

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Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Overstuffed Fare
This whirling mix of science fiction, medical thriller, satire, historical fiction, and supernatural is both dazzling and ultimately disappointingly confusing. Read more

Published on Oct 31 2001 by A. Ross

3.0 out of 5 stars Nicely written, pointless story
I read this book on a plane flight from India to the US. The story moves forward briskly and held my interest, so I'd definitely recommend the book to anyone who likes mysteries,... Read more

Published on July 12 2001