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Sacred Games

Vikram Chandra

Penguin/Viking

Rs. 650

The first thing I did with Sacred Games was cut it in two, so that I could carry one half of its 900 - page hardboundedness with me to read on the ride to and from work, or lying in bed, or leaning against a wall. I am now half-way through the book's first half and don't see why it had to be longer.

The blurbs call it an `epic' but surely, with the times, narrative structures too change; in a world short of time, and short of attention, where everything is condensed, especially words, a skilled writer should be able to write an epic without old-time epic lengths.

Sacred Games is difficult reading, perhaps because there's so much of it. Chandra's earlier work: Love and Longing in Bombay, Red Earth and Pouring Rain, and some of his non-fiction writing, of which I remember one long piece on a meeting with one of Bombay's (underworld) dons wasn't like this, too wordy, too much as if afraid to leave anything out. Pity. And, even the halves are heavy.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone for buying; borrow it, and read it, skipping large chunks, that won't be so bad.

KALA KRISHNAN RAMESH

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