A damn good writer

I love the way Amitav Ghosh writes. He is a seriously good writer. I have read only one of his works, ‘The Hungry Tide’, but the experience was enough to bind me to his literary style. He elucidated the characters in the novel so well that you felt you were the protagonists out there.

He is again in the limelight now after his latest novel, ‘Sea of Poppies’ was released last month. The first of the trilogy, Ibis, it is a tale of India of early eighteenth century, beset with opium trade and the related migration of the poppy growers. The story is not to my full liking, but there is ample scope for him here to sketch the characters in his own unique ways. In fact, in the reviews, this very point has been highly praised.

I feel he gets this perspective of characters from his detailed observation of life. A writer needs to be discerning enough to know what and how people in front of him think. His work is nothing but his own life’s story drawn from others. Amitav’s Bengali roots are exhibited very often and starkly in his writings.

As soon as time permits, I am going to get hold of his another famous, in fact the most credited, novel, ‘The Glass Palace’. It was in front of me a few years back, when one of my friends was reading it. But somehow, I let slip the chance. Now, I will have to rummage for it. Sigh!