⇒ [PDF] A Life Apart Neel MUKHERJEE 9781849011013 Books

A Life Apart Neel MUKHERJEE 9781849011013 Books

Download As PDF : A Life Apart Neel MUKHERJEE 9781849011013 Books

A Life Apart Neel MUKHERJEE 9781849011013 Books

This novel had me sold on two levels. It is by an Indian author and one of it's protagonist is a gay young man. Ritwik Gosh is haunted by his past . A tumultuous upbringing among extended family in a cramped Calcutta apartment and a violently abusive mother. She is determined that he will be educated and successful but uses fear and pain to guarantee this outcome. And in a sense she succeeds. After her death shortly following the death of his kindly father, Ritwik earns a full scholarship to Oxford. There, he makes friends, but is not happy nor does he fit in. He haunts an underworld of casual sex in men's restrooms going with any man that will have him. After Oxford he escapes to London, letting his visa expire and joining yet another underworld of illegal aliens and prostitutes, turning tricks for cash on the streets. All the while he writes the story of Miss Gilby, an independently minded English woman during the British Raj. So essentially this is two compelling stories interspersed with each other. Both are unique and from two completely different viewpoints with one common denominator. Both he and Miss Gilby always remain outsiders, on the fringe of each of the various groups in which they wish to be acclimated. This is a compelling read, full of great characters but things don't always end in the way the reader or the characters would wish. It is the story of two painful legacies, that of colonialism and that of childhood abuse.


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A Life Apart Neel MUKHERJEE 9781849011013 Books Reviews

This book was gritty and tragic on a very human level. The writing was crisp and descriptive.
Beautifully written, A Life Apart, is a story of loss, love, violence.... human conditions. Thoroughly engrossing. My top 10 books of all time (so far)
Thanks!
Well written but long passages devoted in detail to homosexual cruising and encounters; generally a depressing book with little relief.
Expands one's knowledge of Pakistan/ India at the beginning of the 20th century. The excursions into dangerous gay cruising are among the most vivid I have ever seen, in the written word or film. An unusual counterpoint switching back and forth in time and place. Both of the lead characters, possibly all, seemed to me real people, worthy of respect and liking if not love, which was hard to come by, if not missing, from their lives. Did they change in the novel ? One maybe; one maybe not. Reads like a detective thriller, but disturbingly more intense and socially vast in scope.
This one is a "two-fer". Intermixed with the story of an Indian boy brought up in a poor and difficult household who gains a scholarship to study in England, his life there and his struggles, is a novel he has written about a British woman who takes a job as a companion to the wife of a well to do Indian gentleman in the late 1800's. Excellent writing and insightful portrayal of the characters.
Written within an inch of it life,but also written unconsciously, this is brilliant story-telling. It may not be pleasant story-telling for all, but for most it will be fascinating and revealing. Better yet, it's two great novels in one slim volume the story of an English woman in India doing the best she can under all circumstances, and always (no surprise) alone; the easy-to-trace saga of an Indian boy of middling ambition, the son of a woman with enormous drive and dreams, from Delhi and Calcutta to London and desperation. There are political undertones throughout, both English and Indian, and emotions that do not lie beneath the surface but on its walnut-pitted, sometimes shining expanse. Read as a precursor to the author's most recent, highly praised novel. One cannot imagine his getting better with age and wisdom he's "there" already. Recommended to all but the most squeemish. I mean,this is just flat out what we hope for every time we open a serious novel.

JOHN NEUFELD
author of"Lisa,Bright and Dark" and "Edgar Allan," both books.
This novel had me sold on two levels. It is by an Indian author and one of it's protagonist is a gay young man. Ritwik Gosh is haunted by his past . A tumultuous upbringing among extended family in a cramped Calcutta apartment and a violently abusive mother. She is determined that he will be educated and successful but uses fear and pain to guarantee this outcome. And in a sense she succeeds. After her death shortly following the death of his kindly father, Ritwik earns a full scholarship to Oxford. There, he makes friends, but is not happy nor does he fit in. He haunts an underworld of casual sex in men's restrooms going with any man that will have him. After Oxford he escapes to London, letting his visa expire and joining yet another underworld of illegal aliens and prostitutes, turning tricks for cash on the streets. All the while he writes the story of Miss Gilby, an independently minded English woman during the British Raj. So essentially this is two compelling stories interspersed with each other. Both are unique and from two completely different viewpoints with one common denominator. Both he and Miss Gilby always remain outsiders, on the fringe of each of the various groups in which they wish to be acclimated. This is a compelling read, full of great characters but things don't always end in the way the reader or the characters would wish. It is the story of two painful legacies, that of colonialism and that of childhood abuse.