By Vikram Chandra Sacred Games: A Novel (P.S.) (Reprint) [Paperback]

I loved, i loved, i loved this book. My god, i loved this book. Definitely one of my faves of this whole year worth of reading. I loved that it was this sprawling epic, i loved the twisty knot of its plot, i loved the complexity of the characters, i loved the structure of the dual narrative, i loved the little departures from that structure, i loved the way the whole novel is steeped in the intricacies of South Asian cultures. And OMG, but i’m in big love with Inspector Sartaj Singh.A caveat though: i read it as an e-book and only when i finished did i deeply regret that choice.There is, previously unbeknownst to me because of the fact that e-books automatically “open” to the first page of the narrative instead of at the table of contents, an extensive glossary at the end which was not cross linked throughout the e-text—words in Hindi and Urdu and so forth and translations of song lyrics and abbreviations which appear throughout the book—so i read the whole thing without knowing that i could have looked up the meanings of the untranslated foreign words and phrases. And i knew as soon as i realized that glossary existed (after finishing the novel), that if i’d read it as a paper book and seen the glossary cited in the table of contents i would have made use of it as i read along instead of relying solely on context to get the gist of things.AND THEN i checked the table of contents, because i was annoyed about the surprise glossary, and noted that there was a preface, too, with a full roster of the cast of main characters and i got double annoyed. Not because i had trouble keeping straight who the characters were, but because when a novel includes that sort of thing at the beginning, i like perusing it before i start to read.I guess if you went into it with this caveat in mind, maybe it would not bother you to read it as an e-book, but i probably would still have (in my time machine where i get this choice from the beginning) picked a hard copy, because since the glossary isn’t cross-linked, referring to it throughout an e-book read would be WAY more of a pain in the ass than just bookmarking it and flipping back and forth in a paper copy (FYI i went ahead and bought it in paperback, because i know i’ll read it again).

English is a common language to the people of India, where over seven hundred are spoken. This is a boon for us because it makes for a rich literary tradition that has is immediately and directly available to the English speaking reader. This novel is no exception. While at heart it is a police procedural and a mystery, it is much broader in scope and grasp. It tackles the fascinating city of Mumbai, Sikh culture, the horrors of partition, the Bombay riots, organized crime, and much more of modern India. At it's heart are two central characters a weathered Sikh police detective Sartaj and a crafty powerful crime boss Gaitonde. In the opening chapters of the book Sartaj corners Gaitonde in an impenetrable fortress where Gaitonde takes his own life. Sartaj then takes on the task of finding out why he would and what exactly the notorious crime boss was up to. It turns out to have national implications and has also caught the attention of India's answer to the C.I.A.. Much of the story is told from Gaitonde's perspective it gives the story of his rise to power. Along the way many fascinating ancillary stories are told and a whole cast of colorful characters is brought to life. This is a sometimes long, but altogether satisfying, read.

This book is very long, but when I got to the end, I didn't want it to stop. This is a wonderful history of 20th century India, with two great competing characters. One is a Sikh detective, and the other is a master criminal. You follow these men on their life courses when bring them together as forces of good and evil. Mr. Chandra is a marvelous story teller, and you can see, smell and hear all of the action in this book as you skip through time on your journey to the end. Highly recommended.

The book was long and worth reading. However, I do have to quibble about the mixing in of non-English throughout the text. I don't know if the Kindle technology would support this, but it would be very helpful to have a quick and easy way to look up the meanings of the non-English words. I believe I would have enjoyed the book much more with this capability. I did find a glossary online but also found it very time consuming to leave the text and do a find on the glossary word in the long glossary file. Even the glossary I found was incomplete. X-ray is not enabled on this book and that would also have been really helpful to keep track of the complex list of characters.

Many reviews talk about a novel that moves like a freight train. This one moves like a passenger train. You start to build up speed, you reach a new station, some passengers leave(killed by the author) new ones get on and you begin again. The plot is right and smart, the f characters well written and interesting. A fine book, especially if one has an interest in contemporary crime and law enforcement in India.There is a glossary at the end which may prove helpful although context works quite well for the various languages used.