Product Description

Agastya Sen, a young civil servant is posted to Madna where he experiences kitsch in all its forms - relics of the British Empire, temples, monsoons, Gandhi, savants. In his confusion he lurches towards the Hindu belief in the virtues of renunciation and an uncertain, traumatic, self-knowledge. The author has also written "The Assassination of Indira Gandhi" which was chosen for "Best Short Stories of 1986".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #531434 in Books
• Published on: 1989-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 291 pages

Customer Reviews

The Sensibility is at par with Kafka and Kundera
Upmanyu's English, August is the first serious attempt of an Indian author which dares to match the sensibility that one finds in the modern European Novel. His portrayal of the plight of the "Urban Educated Youth" ('Elite')-- the predicaments of the "western types" in India -- is a very relevant issue. In English, August Chatterjee portrays "a new class" of westernised people who are on the verge of becoming a class, which was hitherto ignored in the regional and the English Fiction of India.Upamanyu's "Urban Elite" must not be confused with the American Materialist class -- the Urban Elite is a class of people (like Agastya Sen, Dhrubo etc.)who have "Classical Western Sensibilities".Upamanyu is a torch bearer of this very class. Upamanyu has been ourightly rejected as a writer of scatology, however, this is not true. The element of perverted sex and obscenity is never glorified by him, instead, he regards it as a malady. Also there is a comic side of sexuality (as Milan Kundera comments in "The Art of the Novel").

Intellectual highs...vulgar lows...all in the same breath
The descent from the exalted to the obescene makes you laugh out loud ... quotes from "The Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius and a description of turds falling into a commode, all in the span of two sentences!!!

This book is a must read, especially when you are into your first job. Every evening I used to come home from work, read a page, replace the characters with people from the office, and laugh myself to sleep.

The description of an Indian small town is brutally honest. Feels nice to read an Indian writer who doesnt glorify what is essentially miserable. He just says it as it is - no apologies, no saving grace, no spiritual side to it.

J D Salinger Meets R K Narayan!!!!!!!!
Brilliant!! Probably the best ever contemporary novel from the Indian subcontinent ( and that includes Ms A Roy) Unpretentious, cynical, funny, tragic, Mr Chatterjee tells the tale of a young Indian beureaucrat from an urban Indian milieu posted to an obscure Indian village. A foreigner in his own country although still part of it. Stoned to his back teeth he finds that sometimes in India, keeping up appearences IS the job done Existentialist questions are as important as ' when should I have my next joint?.' Holden Caulfield seems entirely sane compared to Agastya Sen................ Read it.