I first read this five years ago and totally loved it. After having a bad run of quite dull books I pulled it off my shelf and read it again. To be honest I didn't enjoy it as much second time but the plot is fantastic and I happily and quickly read it in under a week.
It starts really well in the villages of central India in 1832. All the villagers are being forced to grow opium poppies to sell to the East India company who are then selling all this opium to China. The harsh life of the local people is set bare in stark reality. The British colonialists come out as nothing better than drug barons...which to be fair we were. But my God, we were efficient and skilled at it.
This book is all about getting the characters onto the IBIS boat which is sailing to Mauritius via Hong Kong. The boat used to carry slaves but now is being used to move opium to China and back to the West.
The characters are all a bit wooden but it's still a fun book. I loved the free born American slave, (who luckily for him looks completely white because his mother was only a quarter black) I love the bankrupt Raja, who loses all his money and status due to the money grabbing, duplicitous Brits. The Raj is a guy who doesn't even know how to wipe his own bum until he learns hard lessons inside the British jail. The section where he cleans up the body of his fellow prisoner who is suffering from severe cold turkey is really well written.
it's all a bit bonkers and I have to admit on second reading a bit cheesy but the first half based in Central India is really good. Once all the characters start moving and collecting on the IBIS boat in Calcutta it loses it's way a bit.
BUT the highlight for me is the language. Ghosh writes in the language of the lascars and pirates; who run the boats, the British; who run the country, and the locals; who run nothing. It's a book full of mad words which I loved. I'm sure this wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea because it is quite hard to follow in places and it could be seen as pretentious. But it for me it worked because even if I didn't understand everything in places it didn't matter! Misunderstanding was part of these peoples lives as they all tried to communicate with each other and I just became part of that confusion too.
Enjoyed it, but not as much as I thought I would. Oh well, I think I put this book on a pedestal when I read it 5years ago and I think what I like to read has changed.
