Preti Taneja

In diesem Roman überträgt die Autorin Shakespeares „King Lear“ nach Indien. König Lear ist Devraj, Chef eines mächtigen indischen Konzerns, genannt "The Company". Seine Töchter sind Gargi, Radha und Sita. Sein Compagnon Ranjit Singh mit den beiden Söhnen Jeet und Jivan entsprechen dem Graf von Gloucester sowie Edgar und Edmund.
Diese Übertragung des Shakespare-Stoffes ins moderne Indien finde ich interessant. Letztendlich zeigt es (erneut) die Zeitlosigkeit des Themas und seiner Motive. Aber gerade deshalb bleiben die Figuren auch schematisch. Für mich sind es eher Typen als Charaktere, denen ich folgen möchte. Ich musste mir einen Stammbaum zeichnen, damit ich beim Lesen stets wusste, wer wer ist.
Ich fand das Buch extrem brutal, zu ausführlich und detailliert. Leider habe ich mich ziemlich verloren und konnte nicht recht Fuß fassen in dieser Geschichte.… (mais)

I'll be honest. I debated about whether or not to review this book. For that matter, I debated about whether or not to bail on reading the novel itself. I'd invested so much time reading, I kept thinking, surely I can keep going. Right?

In a word: no.

After spending several days wading through the book, being bored, and dreading the next time I had to open the cover, I bailed after 400 pages.

I suspect that a reader's response to this novel entirely depends on her/his level of tolerance/comfort for dense literary prose. It might also help if the reader is familiar with King Lear; I read that play in high school but can't remember much beyond the basic trope of father-pitting-daughters-against-each-other. Sibling rivalry, all that. I don't know how closely Taneja adhered to the original plot.

If literary fiction is your thing and you love lyrical writing, then you should stop reading my review. You might enjoy this book. Give it a try.
If you're a plot junkie, and prefer a bare-bones get-to-the-action narrative style, you won't like this book.
If you're not completely on either side, this review is for you. Maybe you like lyrical writing but you also like to have active, sympathetic characters. Or maybe you like Shakespeare retellings. My thoughts might help.

Before you say, "Oh, you just don't appreciate great writing!" or, "You just want fluffy entertainment!" I'll point out that I have a bachelor's and a master's degree in English lit. I've read plenty of great writing, lengthy books, and agonizing plots with horrible people populating the pages. I'm fine with all that to a certain extent. But my tolerance level has lowered. I want to be able to connect with someone in the book, preferably more than one, and I want to be interested in what they are doing, even if it is evil.

I didn't get that here.

I suspect that I would've been more tolerant of the prose had this been a translation, but it isn't. I'm not sure why, but knowing that a work is translated makes a difference. It's as if I realize that the work wasn't originally intended for someone of my demographic and I'm only eavesdropping on a different cultural's conversation. I expect to be slightly confused by geographic or political references and to be ignorant of the language or food or culture, and I'm willing to take the time to figure it out. But I really don't expect that in an English-language novel, even one about a different culture.

None of the sentences seem direct or to the point. There are no quotation marks. Certain passages are written in (presumably) Hindi (or some dialect) and not explained. If done sparingly, I would be okay with that. At length? Repeatedly? No. I realize this is a different culture, okay? I don't need a constant reminder of our differences. I need something that shows how we're connected as humans.

Absolutely none of the characters are likable, sympathetic, or even really interesting. They're not unique in how they act, either. They're doing a lot of what literary characters do in a lot of literary novels: cheat others, do drugs, drink too much, act miserable, etc. As best as I could tell, everyone hated and resented everyone else, including those they claimed (or believed) to love. I had high hopes when Jivan was introduced at the beginning, but after the initial section from his point of view, he wasn't as interesting anymore.

I wanted to like this book. I just couldn't. But I couldn't help but wonder what target audience Taneja thought she was aiming for. Apparently it wasn't me. I hate that. I really want to learn about other cultures and promote non-white authors, but this book alienated me no matter how I tried to embrace it.

In my opinion, it's not fair to rate a book that I didn't finish. I also hate being this negative in a review. Taneja obviously worked hard on this novel. If I run across another book of hers, I'll try to read it. Also, obviously some people like this novel (read the rave reviews on the back cover) so if you like more literary style writing, consider giving it a try.… (mais)