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In Custody
  

In Custody (Paperback)

by Anita Desai (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Asked to interview India's greatest poet, Deven sees a way to escape the miseries of life as a small-town scholar. But the old man he finds deep in the bazaars of Old Delhi bears no resemblance to the idol of his youth. Deven is fooled, bullied and cheated, and drawn into a new captivity. From the author of CLEAR LIGHT OF DAY.

From the Back Cover

“A remarkable piece of work... A magnificent novel.” – Salman Rushdie, Observer

“A major attempt to tackle serious themes... extraordinarily rich in incident and detail.” – Sebastian Faulks

“Anita Desai’s most subtle and mature work to date... She retains an unforced and powerful ease in conveying the colour and sounds and sensations of Indian life.” – TLS --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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4 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars Good depiction of real life, Jan 7 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: In Custody Tie In (Paperback)
It's been a while since I've read it, but am inspired to write about it since this book is far superior to the one I'm reading now by the same author (Journey to Ithaca). I loved this book. I feel that Desai truly captured the feeling of a bygone time (which was bygone already in the story). The frustration the poor lecturer felt at his failed attempts to record the great Urdu Ghazal master, which led to one disaster after another...poor loser, is felt by the reader. If you've ever been to India, you can just imagine the setting, the streets, the buildings, the city where the lecturer goes to make his recordings. The underhandedness of the Master's mistress, and the drunken stupidity of the "chumchas" is so typical, as is the nagging wife of the lecturer who just doesn't understand his artistic pursuits. Desai gave this book a wonderful ending too. Despite all that went wrong, the Master still saw through his drunken haze the sincerity of the lecturer and left him "In Custody," of his compositions. A masterful, bitter sweet ending.
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2.0 out of 5 stars Desai's In Custody is tedious, Nov 18 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: In Custody Tie In (Paperback)
Although Desai's In Custody is well written and intelligent, it is tedious and dull. The many important images (ie: the role of women, and the dead language- Urdu) presented in the novel are hard to find. The book is time consuming and boring.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Interprets the standard of Urdu Poetry very elegantly., Feb 15 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: In Custody Tie In (Paperback)

I have read the novel, and watched the movie also. To me both seemed great. But, its absolutely not for those people who are ignorant with the standard of Urdu Language and Urdu Poetry. Urdu Language is a mixture of different beautiful languages, including Arabic and Persian. In my opinion, people related to literature, who do not understand Urdu Poetry are missing something very important.

This novel In Custody is a story of a teacher who is asked by his friend to go and take interview of a very famous Urdu Poet, Nur Saahib. He was inspired by Nur Saahib poetry from his childhood, but when he meets him, Nur Saahib is not the kind of man he had an image of. Anyways, as he was bound to take his interview he does his best to do it, but different difficulties rose from Nur Saahibs wives, friends and other characters. Ultimately in the end, Nur Saahib sends his collection of Poetic Pieces to Deven (The person who interviews), and leaves this world.

Asad I Khan.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Baffling and pointless
IN CUSTODY was the December selection of my book club, and when we met none of us knew why we had spent the time on this novel. Read more
Published on Dec 17 1997 by E. C. Lamb

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