Beach Boy: A Novel

by Ardashir Vakil

Book Overview

"References to my mother's not feeding me enough, sometimes overt, sometimes snide, had a currency amongst the neighbors at whose houses I often ate. I considered these insults a fee one had to pay... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684853000
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Scribner Paper Fiction
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

A great book, extremely well written

Vakil took me to my own childhood. His style of writing got me thinking of all things I did as a kid. This is one of those books that provides light reading but then sort of resonates in your head for a while. Also love Vakil's great sense of humour.

Colorful characters

Beach Boy is not as much a focused story as a year in the life of Cyrus Readymoney, an affluent Parsi kid who prefers the life of a vagabond. Cyrus spends much of his time roaming the streets of Mumbai and inviting himself into the homes and lifes of his neighbors. Cyrus is perceptive and bright but a thorough hedonist. His passions are food, Hindi films, and fantasizing about sex. He lives in the moment and for the pleasures the day brings his way.What makes the novel special are the colorful (and most often adult) characters Vakil creates -- all vividly presented through the eyes of Cyrus. We learn a great deal about their appearances and quirky personalities but little about their motivations. Read this if you'd like to get a feel for the very varied people who inhabit Mumbai, but don't expect a book that offers meaningful insights and thoughful commentary in the vein of Rohinton Mistry (a fellow Parsi writer).

It is a nice companion to Rushdie's "Mid Night's Children"

If you like the story, "The Happy Prince" by Oscar Wilde you will like "Rocking Horse Winner" by DH Lawrence. Comparison is inevitable, and I started reading this book only beacause Salman Rushdie commends it. It reminds one of Mid Night's Children all along. However narrative of Vakil is as simple as Somerset Maugham and you dont have to deal with all the magical realism of Rushdie, (though I like it). It certainly touches everyone who like me has been to a high school as a teenager in the 60s and 70s in India. We all have our personal fantasies around popular film stars and trysts with tyrannical teachers and stories of spoilt brat friends with rich and indulgent parents. For me it was a nostalgia pill as well as a good read. Hope we get a sequel of Cyrus grappling with adulthood as I felt the book ended rather as abruptly as a coitus interruptus.

As obligatory a book as Salinger and Joyce

Beach Boy bounds onto the literary world like a mature novel, nudging a place somewhere between Jame Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" and J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye". Quirky, unique in writing style, extemporaneous in feel, this first novel has all we wish for in a new generation of story tellers. Tender, humorous, sad, poignant - Ardashir Vakil has created another Everyman, and one hopes he has more to say about this delectable Cyrus Readymoney. Using another language unfamiliar to his readers only enhances the atmosphere of Bombay. I found myself so hungry for everything Indian that a trip to a local Indian restaurant was the only successful seduction away from absorbing this little gem of a novel. Parent Alert! Share this with your teenagers. This is a wondrous way to open the doors of the world outside.

A Beautiful read

In 1970's Bombay, eight-year-old Cyrus Readymoney dreams of movie stars and girls, but not necessarily in that order. He goes to the movies as often as he can. When he is not inside the cinema, Cyrus dreams of sexual encounters. At times he is reminded that he does have indifferent parents with troubles of their own when they reappear in his life to either lecture him or state they love him. However, Cyrus' near perfect world collapses when his father suddenly dies, leaving him to fend for himself in a much more vicious environment. This coming of age novel is a wonderful tale because of Cyrus who may very well turn out to be the preadolescent of the year in fiction. Cyrus' musings on time would have been adopted by Einstein in his time-space continuum. 1970's Bombay, through the eyes of the lad, is a brilliant tour that readers ought to take. In his delightful debut novel, Ardashir Vakil provides a lush painting of life in India.Harriet Klausner