I returned from my holiday in Dubai and Holland yesterday, and I have to start work in a few minutes but I wanted to quickly say something about Jeet Thayil's Narcopolis. It's a very powerful book. I can see why it was nominated for the Man Booker Prize 2012.
According to the main narrator who only speaks about himself during the start and finish of the book, this is a story spoken through a pipe. An opium pipe. It's telling is at times quite confusing, but while you're reading you won't notice you've actually read another 100 pages. That's how fluent the story telling is and how well it flows.
The story sees the lives of a few people who basically always hang out at an opium den unfold. There is the eunuch, Dimple, her Chinese friend, Lee, the Muslim owner of the den, Rashid, another customer, Rumi. We hear their stories but the stories never find solid ground, they are told and they float in the air, like the opium that is smoke abundantly. As the story progresses the protagonists starts using heroin and that's where we crash and the book ends.
Very powerful story telling, somewhat similar reminiscent of a much more lyrical Trainspotting and I hope to see more books after this début by Jeet Thayil.
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