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Publisher:
Bantam Books (Transworld UK) |
Release
Date: 5 July 2004 |
ISBN:
0553815350 |
Awards:
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Format
Reviewed: Paperback |
Buy
it at Amazon UK |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Fiction/Spiritual |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Rachel A Hyde |
Reviewer
Notes: Contemporary India |
Copyright
MyShelf.com |
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Climbing Chamundi Hill
By Ariel Glucklich
Usually
when I select a novel I am looking for light entertainment, but
sometimes it is good to choose the opposite and I chose a book that
made me think. This is a story inside a story, or a set of tales
inside a frame; ostensibly it tells of a modern, very worldly American
recuperating in Mysore. He isnt intending to make the pilgrimage
of climbing Chamundi Hill barefoot, just taking off his shoes because
they have got wet but he gets into the company of a local man and
ends up doing just that. While the two of them progress slowly up
the hill to the temple of Shiva, the old guide tells the young tourist
many traditional tales and the pair talk of what they mean. At first
the young man does not get any of this at all, and thinks that it
is not for him; he doesnt even approve of a lot of the ideas
in the stories. But as they climb higher, even this secular man
is forced to re-examine the way he thinks, and the life he leads.
This isnt a quick read and certainly
not a book you only read once; you might even choose not to read
it all in one go in the manner of a novel. But it will make you
think - its clever that way - about your own experiences,
and the nature of many spiritual and earthly things including India.
This isnt necessarily about religion (or at least not just
about it) but Eastern philosophy and the meaning of ones life.
If an unspiritual person like me can enjoy this sort of book and
spend some time poring over it and rereading bits then it must be
something special and it is. The retellings of the traditional stories
seem to appeal to something very basic, and tell of essential truths
and ways of seeing in few words, making them ideal for taking apart
and examining. The device of having a regular guy telling the story
in his own words and debating with somebody who is his opposite
in many ways is an effective device. I could imagine other ways
the book could have been written, but this is probably the most
accessible. Have a go with it and see what happens. It isnt
a coffee table book (too small for one thing) but leave it there
anyway
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