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mark monday's Reviews > The Raj Quartet
The Raj Quartet
by
by
mark monday's review
bookshelves: alpha-team, into-the-past, these-fragile-lives, mind-the-gap, z-paul-scott
Jul 23, 2011
bookshelves: alpha-team, into-the-past, these-fragile-lives, mind-the-gap, z-paul-scott
(view spoiler)
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THE RAJ QUARTET
1. do you like to read extensively detailed, dense, dramatic historical fiction that does not stint on characterization or slow-burning narrative action? do you like to read about colonial india, specifically colonial india during the troubled handover from the british raj back to indian control, and then of course the horrible partitioning? i do. but why exactly? well, let's see...
2. do you like to read about class systems and their impact - on a systemic level and on an intimate, personal level as well? i sure do. class is the basis of so many, er, classic english novels, but there is just something so drastic and of course so racially-based as the class system of colonial india. the class system becomes so palpable, so real, so almost on the verge of breaking down because of its inherent, disgusting unfairness when race is brought into the mix. class in literature that depicts colonial india is also powerful to me on a personal level. i'm not sure i can explain this in words that are inoffensive. i'm a person who loves classic english (and early american) literature. i eat it all up. and yet there is always a side of me - and i acknowledge that this may be due to my mixed-race status - that shouts at the back of my mind when reading those novels: ohyouthinkitssohardyouspoiledupperclasstwit/
youneedlesslyresentfullowerclassknob
you'restillwhitewhitewhite
andsohavesomanymoreautomaticadvantagesmorethanyou'lleverrealize, justshutthefuckupwithyourwhiningalready!
i don't get that voice when i'm reading about colonial india. class analysis within this subject is stark: you are brown or you are white, that determines your class, and in the end it doesn't matter what your level of education is, how much money you have, whatever... there will always be an automatic divide based on where you were born and what color your skin happens to be. that starkness makes it so much more relevant to me. and on top of that, the author also explores intragroup class distinctions within the races depicted.
3. do you like to read about tragic romance? this one has one of the best examples of its kind. the lovers are so warmly, honestly depicted. what happens to them is so disturbing... and it reverberates to inform the rest of this epic and nearly all the major characters within it.
4. do you like your historical novels to relate history on a personal scale? do you like to see how great events impact folks who are not movers & shakers but simply caught up in a grand design not of their making?
5. do you like old-fashioned villains but yet long for completely realistic, three-dimensional characters who have understandable motivations as they continue to do the horrible things they do? can the two be combined? Raj Quartet has a couple outstanding examples.
6. do you want to read the perspective of older folks, flitting in and out of potential senility, considered useless by the younger generation, dreamy and strange and not-quite-getting-it? this novel has my favorite example of the kind. she is not idealized. she is not a fountain of wisdom. she is heartbreaking.
7. do you like poetry in prose form? for such an elephantine undertaking, one full of extensive historical detail and given wide-screen scope, The Raj Quartet is written by an author who knows how to turn a phrase. a looooooong phrase. Paul Scott is an amazing writer. he knows how to construct sentences that make you pause and wonder at how language can convey the most ambiguous of feelings, the beauty in a tiny detail, the strangeness of a foreign setting, the way a place can actually look and feel and smell and taste.
8. do you like strong women? good, so do i. this book is full of them. sometimes they are heroes, in one case a villain (such a black & white word, but it fits), but mainly they are just people who are trying to do the best they can. they are not "strong" in a wish-fulfillment sense of the word. they are strong in a way that is real, that is brave because of their personal and historical context, that is worthy of respect because of their need to define themselves according to their own personal context.
9. do you like intricate narratives? say no more, this is royalty as far as intricacy is concerned. as a reader, you better pay attention. characters come and go, but they are not dropped. actions impact actions and those actions, that impact, unspools in all directions, ever-widening but sometimes submerged, sometimes leading to a dead end, but always connected in a way that is so complex and so subtle, so small and so large.
10. do you want an excellent BBC adaptation of your favorite english novel, preferably in miniseries format? hey, you got that too. watch this AFTER you read the series though, well at least that's the way i did it and it was awesome. so awesome that i put off breaking up with a pretentious asshole simply because we hadn't finished the miniseries yet and he owned the, um, vhs tapes. he was trying to "educate" me. i waited to break up with him until after the last episode. well, i guess i was the asshole in that case.
(view spoiler)
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THE RAJ QUARTET
1. do you like to read extensively detailed, dense, dramatic historical fiction that does not stint on characterization or slow-burning narrative action? do you like to read about colonial india, specifically colonial india during the troubled handover from the british raj back to indian control, and then of course the horrible partitioning? i do. but why exactly? well, let's see...
2. do you like to read about class systems and their impact - on a systemic level and on an intimate, personal level as well? i sure do. class is the basis of so many, er, classic english novels, but there is just something so drastic and of course so racially-based as the class system of colonial india. the class system becomes so palpable, so real, so almost on the verge of breaking down because of its inherent, disgusting unfairness when race is brought into the mix. class in literature that depicts colonial india is also powerful to me on a personal level. i'm not sure i can explain this in words that are inoffensive. i'm a person who loves classic english (and early american) literature. i eat it all up. and yet there is always a side of me - and i acknowledge that this may be due to my mixed-race status - that shouts at the back of my mind when reading those novels: ohyouthinkitssohardyouspoiledupperclasstwit/
youneedlesslyresentfullowerclassknob
you'restillwhitewhitewhite
andsohavesomanymoreautomaticadvantagesmorethanyou'lleverrealize, justshutthefuckupwithyourwhiningalready!
i don't get that voice when i'm reading about colonial india. class analysis within this subject is stark: you are brown or you are white, that determines your class, and in the end it doesn't matter what your level of education is, how much money you have, whatever... there will always be an automatic divide based on where you were born and what color your skin happens to be. that starkness makes it so much more relevant to me. and on top of that, the author also explores intragroup class distinctions within the races depicted.
3. do you like to read about tragic romance? this one has one of the best examples of its kind. the lovers are so warmly, honestly depicted. what happens to them is so disturbing... and it reverberates to inform the rest of this epic and nearly all the major characters within it.
4. do you like your historical novels to relate history on a personal scale? do you like to see how great events impact folks who are not movers & shakers but simply caught up in a grand design not of their making?
5. do you like old-fashioned villains but yet long for completely realistic, three-dimensional characters who have understandable motivations as they continue to do the horrible things they do? can the two be combined? Raj Quartet has a couple outstanding examples.
6. do you want to read the perspective of older folks, flitting in and out of potential senility, considered useless by the younger generation, dreamy and strange and not-quite-getting-it? this novel has my favorite example of the kind. she is not idealized. she is not a fountain of wisdom. she is heartbreaking.
7. do you like poetry in prose form? for such an elephantine undertaking, one full of extensive historical detail and given wide-screen scope, The Raj Quartet is written by an author who knows how to turn a phrase. a looooooong phrase. Paul Scott is an amazing writer. he knows how to construct sentences that make you pause and wonder at how language can convey the most ambiguous of feelings, the beauty in a tiny detail, the strangeness of a foreign setting, the way a place can actually look and feel and smell and taste.
8. do you like strong women? good, so do i. this book is full of them. sometimes they are heroes, in one case a villain (such a black & white word, but it fits), but mainly they are just people who are trying to do the best they can. they are not "strong" in a wish-fulfillment sense of the word. they are strong in a way that is real, that is brave because of their personal and historical context, that is worthy of respect because of their need to define themselves according to their own personal context.
9. do you like intricate narratives? say no more, this is royalty as far as intricacy is concerned. as a reader, you better pay attention. characters come and go, but they are not dropped. actions impact actions and those actions, that impact, unspools in all directions, ever-widening but sometimes submerged, sometimes leading to a dead end, but always connected in a way that is so complex and so subtle, so small and so large.
10. do you want an excellent BBC adaptation of your favorite english novel, preferably in miniseries format? hey, you got that too. watch this AFTER you read the series though, well at least that's the way i did it and it was awesome. so awesome that i put off breaking up with a pretentious asshole simply because we hadn't finished the miniseries yet and he owned the, um, vhs tapes. he was trying to "educate" me. i waited to break up with him until after the last episode. well, i guess i was the asshole in that case.
(view spoiler)
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
July 23, 2011
– Shelved
July 23, 2011
– Shelved as:
alpha-team
October 10, 2011
– Shelved as:
into-the-past
March 13, 2016
– Shelved as:
these-fragile-lives
December 16, 2018
– Shelved as:
mind-the-gap
April 22, 2019
– Shelved as:
z-paul-scott
Comments Showing 1-28 of 28 (28 new)
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by
Donna
(new)
Oct 05, 2011 07:07AM
3:20 shiraz never a good idea lest it become the dreaded telephone wine.
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"telephone wine"! yes!
it tastes great at first, such open & honest flavors...but for some reason, the next day it makes me feel sort of queasy and nervous, wondering if i should have really enjoyed and shared those post 2am flavors.
Soooo true. There's probably a GR review equivalent, but at least those can be taken down, and maybe people will be nice enough to pretend they're quick to forget.
I have this quartet setting on my shelves, untouched. I really need to give them a try. Thanks for reminding me. Excellent review.
touch them, Jeffrey, touch them all over!they are amazing. each volume is also quite distinct from the other. i'm also a fan of many of Paul Scott's other works of fiction.
I'm stoked. There's a Kindle for iPad version.
more good stuff Mark - and I do have Vol 1 of this on my to read shelf, that's my literal version not the virtual version
read it, Donna & Paul, read it, read it! i would really love to read your reviews for this. the series is one of my favorite things.
I will put it after 'The Forsyte Saga' which is humming along nicely. It would be the right thing to read after. Both would be acts of finally!reading the original of something I saw on TV.
@Mark, I love that you admitted a bit gleefully to waiting to break up til you saw the last episode. That's a hell of an endorsement!
well thank you, Natalie. sometimes it is necessary to embrace the inner asshole, in service to the greater good. like for excellent BBC adapatations of even more excellent books.
Did he actually say that he was trying to educate you? I think that excuses quite a bit of assholery.
his exact word! many years later, that still sticks in my craw. I try to floss it out but it is wedged too far back there.
Guys tell women that sort of thing pretty often; maybe he was secretly straight?
my first thought is that he was way too much of a bottom to ever be straight.but then I think of pegging and have to reconsider.
Straight guys can like taking it up the ass, too, mark! Don't be so old-fashioned!Come to think of it, I guess quite a few of the gay gays I know who dated older men had the older man want to educate them, they just didn't say it right out like that. A sociological holdover from the days when men expected to marry younger women who hadn't lived on their own before marriage, maybe.
I know, that's pegging! just didn't occur to me at first.this guy was actually younger than me, which made his comments especially nervy. sheltered little twit thought he'd educate me of all things.
but I did have just that experience you described, in college. oh Frank, I wonder what happened to him. 50 or so years but man what a body on that guy. after I stopped dating him, he moved on to my roommate. guess he just wanted to educate everybody!
Pegging's just with a strap-on, though, right? Or does it include other insertables?That guy sounds like a jerk. Was he one of those prep school types?
Ooh, dating the roommate! I believe that is a breach of etiquette. I guess it wasn't manners he wanted to teach.
yeah that's right, about pegging. and as hard as it is for me to imagine a straight guy appreciating a dick up his ass, you are right too. I've met them! they sorta boggle my mind.as far as the young ex goes, yep he was. you remember Food Not Bombs? I used to host a Food Not Bombs cookhouse in my kitchen every sunday morning. that's how I met him. so he was one of those prep school types who left home and became a dirty anarchist, like myself at the time. he was charming at first but the inner pretension made its way out eventually and he became quite intolerable.
as far as the older gent goes, my roommate and I just laughed about it and didn't hold it against him. he was adorable. and we were sluts back then.
Maybe straight guys who like dick up the ass have some sort of physical vs psychological (or emotion) divide? Like, they enjoy the sensation but aren't attracted to men visually or something? I know gay guys who like breasts, as well. Is complicated! I think people should do whatever the hell works for them, within the limits of not violating others' rights, and not worry so much about categories and labels. I do remember Food Not Bombs! Are they mostly a thing of the past? I believe Davis has one. I was never involved but I used to help a friend who was learn to cook. Are vegetarian?
That's nice that it wasn't a big deal for you and your roommate.
def agree about labels.I actually don't know if FNB is still around. my post above should have said "me and my roommates used to host..." when my roommates and I moved to a bigger flat, I actually insisted that we leave FNB behind because I was tired of seeing buckets of compost everywhere. also quite tired of dirty feet.
definitely vegetarian. actually, vegan. actually, freegan.
Thanks for letting me creep on such an interesting discussion. I'm totally going to read this one day, Mark.
ha, i forgot all about this review! it was fun rereading it.I hope you do read it. these 4 books are amazing.
Not many miniseries are worth that level of sacrifice, but The Jewel in the Crown is certainly one of them. In fact, this would make a great blurb on a DVD reissue:So good I put off breaking up with a pretentious asshole just to finish it! Would I do that for Avatar or The English Patient? Hah!
-mark monday
imagine my unpleasant surprise when, a couple years later, I walked into work and learned that he was the new intern I'd be working alongside with! awkward.
mark wrote: "imagine my unpleasant surprise when, a couple years later, I walked into work and learned that he was the new intern I'd be working alongside with! awkward."Yowz.
