No Fun!. Review on English August - Upmanyu Chaterjee

I had been wanting to read this book since a long time... really form the time when it was made into a film starring Rahul Bose. I had heard of the book before that but honestly my interest in the book arose from the film. Apart from that, with more and more Indian writers writing in English it seemed rather necessary to go through this early book. On reading the book I also found a lot of similarities other than these, many of which were personal. Just like the Protagonist was holed up in Madna I was stuck here in Perintalmanna, and just as he begins his career in the IAS I too am beginning my career here in a hospital. So there were many reasons for me to like the book to begin with. But unfortunately the book did not seem to go down well with my taste.

The first surprise came when I discovered that the book was written way back in 1988 ... man that was ages ago, the movie I thought was made a few years back. Anyway that was no reason for me not to like the book! The book starts of with the fellow smoking 'a joint' with his friend Dhrubo discussing his new posting to Madna ...and this is what our hero continues to do throughout the book until the very end. Looks like the author either was into what the blurb calls ''soft drugs'' or atleast saw a lot of friends smoking joints. I know a few of my friends who used to revel about smoking these so-called 'soft drugs' but honestly it did not sound intresting to be 'stoned' the way Agastya (thats what our hero is known by in the book) and his motley group of friends do in every other page. Even the people in Madna have not been spared from smoking. Personally I have never experimented with drugs but I was curious to know about it. Ok Mr. Chatterjee is not writing a book on drugs and its effects but our hero seems to be falling for it at every point of time like as if he is an addict. He must be though there is no mention of it. Even Sherlock Holmes was an addict but Arthur Conan Doyle made no attempt to hide it, nor did he go around beating drums announcing its colorful effects on Holmes. He criticises it severely through Dr Watson. Well you may say he has the liberty of writing his experiences ...all that I can say is it is very boring to read his experiences with drugs. And excuse me this fella keeps masturbating all the time. Maybe the author thought that being forthright would mean the same as being brutally honest. Wrong, for that you have to read 'City of Joy'. In that novel too dirt, 'shit' and lepers are topics of concern and reading about them makes you feel disgusted. But you are left with concern for the people involved but this novel suffers from this lack of concern. The blurb says it is supossed to be funny but the novel barely elicited a snicker. It is certainly not hilarious and it is not at all sarcastic if that is what the author meant it to be. It is rather about the boredom of one IAS trainee in a faraway town in India. It left be the same in the end. Then the author uses swear words profusely throughout the book ...but they seem very inappropriate for the situation or character. It seemed as though he wanted to introduce us to the brazeness of his characters but all that is left behind is a distaste for his characters. And like an adolescent our hero keeps noting 'the thighs' and 'black bras' of all women around him. Thankfully he does not go beyond that. All this brazeness does not ...what do you say, ring true! It does not come out naturally ...it seems too artificial.

All throughout the novel the author keeps ruminating on his protagonist's life , his work, his fantasies but nothing profound really emerges. Even in '100 years of solitude' by Gabriel garcia there is a lot of thinking going on but there is a goal to it and something keeps happening but here our hero only keeps shaggin n smokin! But there were a few intresting parts in the novel. Like the moment when he goes to handle a tribal area as a BDO all on his own as a part of his training. There is some action at last from this largely inactive man. And to my surprise our hero takes active intrest in his job very much different form what he is potrayed to be in the novel. There is also an intresting part where he meets a couple - a Brit and his Indian Girl, the interactions between the three bring stand out as some of the more intresting bits of the novel. There is interaction also towards the end from another friend of his who is a cartoonist, someone who left his father's money to do what he wanted. And thus in the end Agastya leaves the job to return back to his father in Calcutta.

The author has definitely a style to his writing but his amateur handling of the characters, especially the Indian ones, and the situations with dry humour fails to impress. Disgust can be used to evoke a wry smile but not humour anybody. Maybe I have got to see the film to really like the book. I would not recommend this book to anyone who is looking for fun. Rather you may read the book to know what all the fuss is about!

By the way the title is English, August... there is a comma between the two words. Maybe the author could have explained a little about the title and his novel in the end for lesser mortals like us. I am sure there is some meaning to it. I only hope that I am not missing the whole story just because of it!

Last of all I bought this book on Firstandsecond.com where they are giving a discount of 20%. I got the book in 10 days after I ordered for it. The offer is still on at the time of submitting this review.