Reviews
"Chatterjee's slacker bildungsroman, creates a comic, entertaining portrayal of an administrator's life in the sticks." --Publisher's Weekly "This beautifully written book strikes a nifty balance among satiric comedy, pointed social commentary and penetrating characterization. Widely considered India's Catcher in the Rye, it also echoes both R.K. Narayan's Malgudi novels and J.P. Donleavy's classic portrayal of rampant, unrepentant maleness, The Ginger Man. Excellent stuff. Let's have Chatterjee's other novels, please."--Kirkus Reviews "Originally published in 1988, Chatterjee's witty and lyrical first novel became a best seller in his native India. It features young Agastya ("August") Sen, who has joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and is sent to Madna, famed for being the hottest small town in India. There, the fairly privileged August, who grew up in Delhi speaking English, experiences as much cultural shock as any non-Indian. The novel's tension, humor, and misery display when his slacker, Westernized behavior clashes with expectations in this richly diverse but truly Indian town. Not the least of his challenges is coming to terms with the piles of paperwork and his own lack of ambition. August alleviates his unhappiness with marijuana use and almost habitual masturbation but eventually comes to terms with his decision to enter the IAS. Chatterjee skillfully develops both Madna and the IAS so that they also evolve into major characters, adding to this novel's unique texture. Chatterjee has already written a sequel, The Mammaries of the Welfare State, and Dev Benegal made English, August into a film in 1994. It is hard to believe that it has taken this book so long to reach American readers, but once they finish it, they will agree it was well worth the wait. A contribution not just to Indian literature but to world literature; highly recommended.--Library Journal (**Starred Review**), An "affectionate yet unsparing slacker view of modern IndiaÉlikened to John Kennedy Toole'sA Confederacy of Duncesand J.D. Salinger'sThe Catcher in the RyeUnlike many of the other Indian writers we read these days, Chatterjee has remained in India...He's a writer worth discovering, andEnglish, Augustis the place to start."Michael Dirda,The Washington Post "This is a very funny novel, but a humane one as well."Katherine Powers,The Boston Globe "Chatterjee offers…a funny, intimate portrait of one person puzzling over his place in the world…"Julia Hanna,The Boston Phoenix A "witty and lyrical first novel…it is hard to believe that it has taken this book so long to reach American readers, but once they finish it, they will agree it was well worth the wait. A contribution not just to Indian literature but to world literature; highly recommended."Library Journal* Stared Review "English, Augustis one of the most important novels in Indian writing in English, but not for the usual reasons. Indeed, it's at war with 'importance,' and is one of the few Indian English novels in the last two decades genuinely, and wonderfully, impelled by irreverence and aimlessness. It's this acutely intelligent conflation of self-discovery with the puncturing of solemnity that makes this book not only a significant work, but a much-loved one." Amit Chaudhuri "A slacker seeks career success and sexual fulfillment in Chatterjee's 1988 first novel, since proclaimed a contemporary Indian classic…This beautifully written book strikes a nifty balance among satiric comedy, pointed social commentary and penetrating characterization. Widely considered India'sCatcher in the Rye, it also echoes both R.K. Narayan's Malgudi novels and J.P. Donleavy's classic portrayal of rampant, unrepentant maleness,The Ginger Man…Excellent stuff. Let's have Chatterjee's other novels, please." Kirkus Reviews "The 'Indianest' novel in English that I know of. Utterly uncompromised, wildly funny, and a revelation of everyday life in modern India." - Suketu Mehta "…Chatterjee, himself an IAS officer, creates a comic, entertaining portrayal of an administrator's life in the sticks." Publishers Weekly "…a remarkably mature first novel" The Times Literary Supplement "There's a popular conception that Indian fiction in English hit the road to big time with Upamanyu Chatterjee'sEnglish, Augustin 1988. The irreverent language, the wry humour and the immediately identifiable situations struck a chord with a generation of Indians which was looking for its own voice and found it in Agastya Sen." The Sunday Express "[an] elegant and gently mischievous satire" The London Observer "By the highest serio-comic standards, this novel marks the debut of an extraordinarily promising talent." -The Observer "Beautifully written…English, Augustis a marvelously intelligent and entertaining novel, and especially for anyone curious about modern India."Punch "A jazzy, baggy, hyperbolic, comic and crazy clamour of voices which…brings a breath of fresh talent to Indian fiction." Glasgow Herald "…when New York Review Books Classics publishes Upamanyu Chatterjee
