The Voice of the Dead

An arresting title, a dazzling array of endorsements from highly respected literary figures and a fairly intriguing first chapter drew me to this novel. At the end, however, of this hurriedly wound up, completely underwhelming maudlin tale masquerading as the stuff of great literature, I wonder if the time is not long past when critics/literary figures ought to be able to take a call on assessing the body of fiction in English from India. It should be possible to tell the better writing from the more pedestrian and affected even at the risk of being called out for political incorrectness from lobbies dedicated to appropriate social malfeasance. Pretty substantial in girth by now, Indian Writing in English surely deserves a critically sensitive discourse that can separate the best and categorize the middlebrow from the rest. While publishers and retailers appear more sensitive in marketing and displaying their wares to targeted segments of readers, an unsuspecting and gullible reviewer has the more difficult job of negotiating the tricky question of endorsements for a specific text and balance the adulatory praise with a candid appraisal.