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Sacred Games
Jun. 1st, 2009 03:20 pmSartaj Singh is a Sikh police inspector in Mumbai. Ganesh Gaitonde is a notorious gangster and one of the most wanted men in India. Right at the beginning the two are brought together, Sartaj trying to make the capture of his career, Gaitonde trapped in a strange white cube of a building. Via a speaker and video camera Gaitonde speaks with Sartaj, alternately telling stories and hurling taunts. By the end of the chapter Sartaj has bulldozed his way into the building, Gaitonde is dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and an unidentified dead woman is found near him. Thus starts Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra.
The rest of the book is an exploration of Sartaj's investigation of the Gaitonde case, flashbacks of Gaitonde's rise to power (told by the man himself), myriad subplots about family, relationships, and the other cases Sartaj is working on. There is A LOT going on in these 900-plus pages. Some other reviewers have found that there are too many plots but I don't think so. In the end all the minor plot-lines helped to flesh out the characters. The "insets", think intermissions from the main story line and characters, allow the reader to both cleanse the palate (a necessity considering all that is going on here) and ultimately serve to tie up loose threads of several plots.
When I first finished the book I was a little disappointed that the main plot-line was tied up with a rather weak climax. If you are expecting things to finish with a bang here you will be disappointed. It took a day or so for me to come to terms with the ending and how this plot lines was resolved. Now I feel that it wouldn't have been right to end it with a big police action, lots of bullets flying, etc. Yes, there is a bit of police procedural here and yes, this book is partly about gangsters and The Game. But it is also about people and one of the things Chandra makes clear here is that no matter what huge events happen (the death of a loved one, the capture of a big criminal, the notice of a famous guru) in the end these people still have lives to lead. The big things happen only for a moment - life happened before, it will continue to happen after.
Ganesh Gaitonde is one of the most vividly painted characters I've read in a long time. I loved his chapters as he told the story of his rise to the top of the criminal underworld. But it was Sartaj that I identified with the most. He is a man trying to do the best he can at his job and his life. He has had failures and has had to come to terms with the brutality and corruption that is part and parcel of being a policeman in Mumbai. His ideals have suffered a bit, as has his private life, but he has survived.
I really likes this book. I loved the way Mumbai came to life on the page for me. I loved the language and all the Hindi (even if I had to look some of it up). I loved the characters and the story. I will warn you though, if you are expecting linear storytelling with a big finish then this probably isn't the book for you. This is to regular literature the way that Bollywood is to Hollywood - there is no exact comparison. If however you are wanting to read a really good book that transports you to another place then Sacred Games may just be for you.
The rest of the book is an exploration of Sartaj's investigation of the Gaitonde case, flashbacks of Gaitonde's rise to power (told by the man himself), myriad subplots about family, relationships, and the other cases Sartaj is working on. There is A LOT going on in these 900-plus pages. Some other reviewers have found that there are too many plots but I don't think so. In the end all the minor plot-lines helped to flesh out the characters. The "insets", think intermissions from the main story line and characters, allow the reader to both cleanse the palate (a necessity considering all that is going on here) and ultimately serve to tie up loose threads of several plots.
When I first finished the book I was a little disappointed that the main plot-line was tied up with a rather weak climax. If you are expecting things to finish with a bang here you will be disappointed. It took a day or so for me to come to terms with the ending and how this plot lines was resolved. Now I feel that it wouldn't have been right to end it with a big police action, lots of bullets flying, etc. Yes, there is a bit of police procedural here and yes, this book is partly about gangsters and The Game. But it is also about people and one of the things Chandra makes clear here is that no matter what huge events happen (the death of a loved one, the capture of a big criminal, the notice of a famous guru) in the end these people still have lives to lead. The big things happen only for a moment - life happened before, it will continue to happen after.
Ganesh Gaitonde is one of the most vividly painted characters I've read in a long time. I loved his chapters as he told the story of his rise to the top of the criminal underworld. But it was Sartaj that I identified with the most. He is a man trying to do the best he can at his job and his life. He has had failures and has had to come to terms with the brutality and corruption that is part and parcel of being a policeman in Mumbai. His ideals have suffered a bit, as has his private life, but he has survived.
I really likes this book. I loved the way Mumbai came to life on the page for me. I loved the language and all the Hindi (even if I had to look some of it up). I loved the characters and the story. I will warn you though, if you are expecting linear storytelling with a big finish then this probably isn't the book for you. This is to regular literature the way that Bollywood is to Hollywood - there is no exact comparison. If however you are wanting to read a really good book that transports you to another place then Sacred Games may just be for you.
