The Elephanta Suite
On Sale: 09/18/2008
The Elephanta Suite
On Sale: 09/18/2008
Format:
About the Book
A master of the travel narrative weaves three intertwined novellas of Westerners transformed by their sojourns in India.This startling, far-reaching book captures the tumult, ambition, hardship, and serenity that mark today’s India. Theroux’s Westerners risk venturing far beyond the subcontinent’s well-worn paths to discover woe or truth or peace. A middle-aged couple on vacation veers heedlessly from idyll to chaos. A buttoned-up Boston lawyer finds succor in Mumbai’s reeking slums. And a young woman befriends an elephant in Bangalore.
We also meet Indian characters as singular as they are reflective of the country’s subtle ironies: an executive who yearns to become a holy beggar, an earnest young striver whose personality is rewired by acquiring an American accent, a miracle-working guru, and others.
As ever, Theroux’s portraits of people and places explode stereotypes to exhilarating effect. The Elephanta Suite urges us toward a fresh, compelling, and often inspiring notion of what India is, and what it can do to those who try to lose—or find—themselves there.
Product Details
- ISBN: 9780547086026
- ISBN 10: 0547086024
- Imprint: Mariner Books
- On Sale: 09/18/2008
- Pages: 288
- BISAC1 : FICTION / Literary
- BISAC2 : FICTION / Short Stories (single author)
- BISAC3 : FICTION / Cultural Heritage
- BISAC4 : FICTION / Coming of Age