Book Review
Dec. 29th, 2019 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariRiver of Smoke
by Amitav Ghosh
River of Smoke is the sequel to Sea of Poppies, which I read so long ago that I had to resort to Wikipedia's synopsis in order to remember who the characters were. Luckily, this book largely follows some new characters and isn't at all hard to follow with only a sketchy memory of its predecessor.
River of Smoke is set in Canton, China from 1838-39 and follows the events leading up to the beginning of the First Opium War as seen through the eyes of a few fictional characters: Bahram Modi, an Indian Parsi merchant who has taken a large shipment of opium to China, upon which he has gambled his fortune as well as his reputation and standing with his family; Neel Rattan Halder, a bankrupt raja stranded in Canton and takes employment as a factotum for Bahram; Paulette Lambert, an independent young woman who partners with an aging English botanist to travel to China to collect exotic plants; and Robin Chinnery, illegitimate half-Indian son of an English painter and childhood friend of Paulette who goes to Canton to ply his trade as an artist, assist Paulette and Fitcher with plant-hunting, and find himself a lover. As the Chinese increasingly crack down on the drug trade, tensions with the British escalate, and Bahram is increasingly caught between a rock and a hard place, Fitcher and Paulette are stymied in their botanical pursuits, and Robin is a relatively impartial and compassionate (not to mention entertaining) observer of it all.
Ghosh is a master at keeping all of these narrative threads going and moving among them in a way that is always completely clear and logical. I especially liked the way Robin's sections were always in the the form of a chatty, gossipy, often innuendo-laden letter. Ghosh is also great at building a compelling story from small events and actions - most of what occurs is not sweeping dramatic events but the day-to-day negotiations of trade, politics, and personal lives. But it adds up to something much larger. Along the way, Ghosh provides a subtle and damning examination of the ways colonialism and commerce can form an unholy alliance of exploitation with grave and far-reaching consequences.
by Amitav Ghosh
River of Smoke is the sequel to Sea of Poppies, which I read so long ago that I had to resort to Wikipedia's synopsis in order to remember who the characters were. Luckily, this book largely follows some new characters and isn't at all hard to follow with only a sketchy memory of its predecessor.
River of Smoke is set in Canton, China from 1838-39 and follows the events leading up to the beginning of the First Opium War as seen through the eyes of a few fictional characters: Bahram Modi, an Indian Parsi merchant who has taken a large shipment of opium to China, upon which he has gambled his fortune as well as his reputation and standing with his family; Neel Rattan Halder, a bankrupt raja stranded in Canton and takes employment as a factotum for Bahram; Paulette Lambert, an independent young woman who partners with an aging English botanist to travel to China to collect exotic plants; and Robin Chinnery, illegitimate half-Indian son of an English painter and childhood friend of Paulette who goes to Canton to ply his trade as an artist, assist Paulette and Fitcher with plant-hunting, and find himself a lover. As the Chinese increasingly crack down on the drug trade, tensions with the British escalate, and Bahram is increasingly caught between a rock and a hard place, Fitcher and Paulette are stymied in their botanical pursuits, and Robin is a relatively impartial and compassionate (not to mention entertaining) observer of it all.
Ghosh is a master at keeping all of these narrative threads going and moving among them in a way that is always completely clear and logical. I especially liked the way Robin's sections were always in the the form of a chatty, gossipy, often innuendo-laden letter. Ghosh is also great at building a compelling story from small events and actions - most of what occurs is not sweeping dramatic events but the day-to-day negotiations of trade, politics, and personal lives. But it adds up to something much larger. Along the way, Ghosh provides a subtle and damning examination of the ways colonialism and commerce can form an unholy alliance of exploitation with grave and far-reaching consequences.
