Another Country
Anjali Joseph
Another Country
Paris, London, Bombay: three cities form a backdrop to a journey through Leela’s twenties at the dawn of the new millennium, as she learns to negotiate the world, work, relationships and sex, and find some measure of authenticity.
3.2 out of 5 based on 6 reviews
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Omniscore:
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| Classification |
Fiction |
| Genre |
General Fiction |
| Format |
Hardcover |
| Pages |
304 |
| RRP |
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| Date of Publication |
June 2012 |
| ISBN |
978-0007462773 |
| Publisher |
Fourth Estate |
| |
Paris, London, Bombay: three cities form a backdrop to a journey through Leela’s twenties at the dawn of the new millennium, as she learns to negotiate the world, work, relationships and sex, and find some measure of authenticity.
Saraswati Park by Anjali Joseph.
Reviews
The Sunday Times
Peter Parker
“It is a measure of Joseph’s skill that despite being spiky, hopelessly indecisive and eternally dissatisfied, “the eternal wanderer with no destination to aim for”, Leela remains such a sympathetic protagonist. The writing throughout is cool and clear, and while the overall tone of the novel is hauntingly melancholic, it is also distinguished by a refreshingly abrasive wit.”
10/06/2012
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The Guardian
Joanna Kavenna
“One of the basic rules in contemporary fiction is that if you describe middle-class characters who fail to combine murder/trauma/incest with their bourgeois lives, your publishers will behave as if you've sent them a piece of hardcore pornography. (They might even prefer hardcore pornography.) Joseph's first novel was repeatedly described as "bittersweet" – a rather patronising epithet sometimes used by white reviewers when discussing non-white writers, as if the experience of ethnic minorities, whatever their circumstances, must always have bitterness inherent in it. What if, Joseph seems to be saying, Leela's middle-class youth is no more "bittersweet" than that of her white contemporaries? What if it is mostly sweet? It is a pertinent question, posed in a readable and entertaining book.”
06/07/2012
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The Independent
Freya McClelland
“Joseph displays her descriptive prowess through Leela's detailed observations of setting and character quirk. Running alongside is the constant self-doubt which adds a startling authenticity ... That Leela's passions are not developed alongside her angst may be a criticism that could be levelled at Another Country. But Joseph's art in creating character through the shifting processes of thought, shaped by experience, is what makes this flawed novel still compulsive reading.”
30/06/1900
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The Daily Mail
James Walton
“There’s no doubt that the result is a wholly convincing portrait of a certain kind of privileged twentysomething life: the joys and otherwise of flat-sharing; the passing but genuine friendships; the fact that you have no idea what you’ll be doing in five years’ time. On the other hand, those middle-aged readers might wonder if Leela’s problems - too many parties, too much sex, too little responsibility - are quite as terrible as she thinks. ”
21/06/2012
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The Daily Telegraph
Nixha Lilia Diu
“There is so much to enjoy that one sticks with Leela long after her passivity has become tedious. But Joseph’s determination to sidestep the big dramas in favour of the everyday can seem obstinate. Leela’s feelings about some coloured paper files are forensically examined yet her motives for a break-up remain vague. The endless march of inconsequential episodes, the gigantic cast of rapidly binned characters, becomes bewildering. Leela is strangely indifferent to it all – and, in the end, so are we.”
31/05/2012
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The Observer
Alice Fisher
“As the girl drifts from job to job, the skilled descriptions become irritating. Friends brought brilliantly to life vanish after a couple of chapters. An office vividly described is abandoned. Fine, if some greater purpose was served, but by the end of the book Leela seems as disengaged from life and, yes, self-conscious as when we first met her. Irritating girl and, ultimately, an irritating book.”
17/06/2012
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