Riot: A Love Story

by Shashi Tharoor

Book Overview

The acclaimed author of The Great Indian Novel returns with this masterful new book. When a young American volunteer in India dies under mysterious circumstances during a Hindu and Muslim riot, her... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559706457
• ISBN13: 9781559706452
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

"I am Indian. Listen to me."

Shashi Tharoor's RIOT: A LOVE STORY focuses on the mysterious killing of a young American woman during violent Hindu-Muslim riots in the village of Zalilgrah, India. Priscilla Hart, an idealistic 24-year-old volunteer for a population control non-governmental agency, was the only non-Indian victim of the riots: was she simply in the wrong place at the wrong time or did her brutal death have a premeditated motive? After hearing about Priscilla's death her estranged parents fly to India to try to uncover circumstances leading up to her demise and are joined by an American journalist stationed in New Delhi. The format of this novel is innovative and unique; included are snippets of American newspaper articles covering Priscilla's death, interview transcripts of both Hindu and Muslim leaders in addition to local police officers, Priscilla's journal entries and letters written to a beloved friend back home, and more. As a result the reader is granted multiple viewpoints of not only the riot itself but also broader religious tensions and history of India. Slowly Priscilla's experiences in India are revealed up to the moment of her death. I've read a fair amount of Indian Literature and this book impressed me by placing the Hindu-Muslim riots in the proper historical and religious contexts. Most books in this genre might simply refer to religious tensions and violence but they rarely progress further. I'm not sure if the authors of these other books take for granted that the reader already has a sufficient foundation or if they simply neglect to provide the appropriate background. Regardless, Shashi Tharoor did what others fail to do; he granted me a more thorough understanding of this complex subject than I ever had before. For this reason alone I give this book five stars. Highly recommend!

A RIOT in a Book

On a recent trip to India, I picked up this book. Already familiar with Tharoor's work (The Great Indian Novel) I was rather curious with what is in it. Must say I had half expected the same righteousness many intellectuals handle the recent sectarian violence with, be it in India or Israel. But reading it I was so ashamed that I had made such an assumption. Tharoor was at his anlaytical best. The neutrality one comes to expect (but seldom finds) from a journalist, the objectivity, the in depth analysis seasoned with absloute literary brilliance. Tharoor acknowledges the contribution (at least of the details of a real riot) from one of his real IAS friends. The amount of research that has gone into the book tells us that even if he did not get the help from his friend, he would have still delivered. The style is unique- starting with newspaper clipping of a fictitious newspaper and then swinging from narrative to narrative, some Priscilla's , some from her parents (individually) and some from the luckless Laxman. The historical details are presented in a totally unbiassed fashion. Unbiassed as in depicting both sides of the story, but wait, there is more to it. Unbiassed means also the courage to tell a tale in a way that is well researched. The beauty of it is that each party's account seems so real, so true but yet it is at odds with the other party's version. Tharoor has achieved the unachievable, making us believe (albeit for a short while) what we do want to believe and then quckly give it up and believe the next thing with equal conviction as we move along effortlessly from one narrative to another.Do we feel sorry for Priscilla? Was she really in the wrong place at the wrong time? Well , depends on what you call a wrong place. For her it was the right place, at least for a while. Little girl traumatized by her fathers' infidelity-do they all become idealists and hopelessly inadequate? I think not. Do we even feel sorry for laxman? I am sure some people will- but why? I served briefly in the IAS myself. Much of what he says about the cadre is true (even the fact that IPS is next best) but to think that he is representative of the elite civil servants called IAS is wrong. While they may have similar moral turpitude (some may even be able to conveniently recite Oscar Wilde), I would have thought the pillars of Indian Civil Service have on an average stronger morals than what the cowardly Laxman manages.I have collegaues who constantly bug me to tell them more about India, more about the conflict with Pakistan, more of the Gujrat riots. I usually do not oblige them. Now I don't have to. I can just give them a copy of Riot. I gave one of them the book recently and told him, all you ever wanted to know about India is in the book. I stick by it. It is not a travel guide, but it just as well might be. A travelogue of the journey through the heart and soul of India. That little district town in the Hindi heartland IS Indi

Brilliant novel!

This book is amazing. Tharoor narrates the story through journal entries and interviews with various people. We come to understand the circumstances of a riot through the eyes of extremely different people - each with their own perspectives. Each giving a version of the "truth" and each with a valid argument. Very meaningful after Sept. 11 - helps to understand the position of Muslims in India. Tharoor is brilliant!

Is this fiction??

I looooooooooooooove this book. Shashi Tharoor is one of those rare Indian writers like Khushwant Singh, who have succesfully managed to combine fiction with history without being preachy or boring. Singh did it earlier with "Delhi" but I found that a little boring. But Tharoor has managed to convey the whole situation of the hindu-muslim riots (and more!) so effectively in his book through the murder of the innocent American Priscilla Hart. As Lucky, one of the character in the novel says, Tharoor has written a book "that's like an encyclopaedia, you can pick up any chapter at random & get to know more about the plot, or less depending on how much you've read before. I haven't read Tharoor's earlier book "The great Indian novel" yet, but plan to do so ASAP after reading "riot".Two-startling thumbs up!

"History...is not a web woven with innocent hands."

The ill-fated romance of Priscilla Hart, a young American working at a birth control clinic in India, and Lakshman, an older, married, Indian civil servant, is an engrossing story in its own right, but it serves a much wider purpose in this ambitious and utterly fascinating novel. It provides the limited, manageable context through which the author asks questions about cultural identity and presents an impassioned plea for understanding and tolerance among cultures. Priscilla, we discover on the first page, was stabbed to death by an unknown assailant during a riot in Zalilgarh, a riot instigated by militant Hindus wanting to build a temple on the site of an ancient Muslim mosque. Many other, competing social and political forces contributed to the unrest which resulted in the riot, however, and the author clearly believes that the religious and ethnic extremism which has arisen in India in recent years has destroyed the traditional fabric of Indian society and may eventually be the undoing of the nation. There is no narrator here to interpret the events of Priscilla's death and of the riot. Tharoor leaves all interpretation up to the reader. Through newspaper stories, entries in Priscilla's scrapbook, letters to her best friend at home and to Lakshman, transcripts of meetings with goverment officials, and a reporter's interviews with extremist religious leaders, the police, and professors (who provide the reader with crucial historical background), the passionate affair of Priscilla and Lakshman comes to life, and the complex and tumultuous forces which contribute to her death emerge. Tharoor is a smooth and disciplined writer who respects his characters and his readers. He presents historical background clearly and allows for multiple interpretations of events, assigning no blame and making no declarations of truth. His American characters are realistic, and the contrasts of their values with those of traditional Indians are presented insightfully. Amazingly, he manages to bring to life the world of traditional India, its cultures, its ironies, its recent history, and its possible future, in fewer than 300 pages, and he does so within the context of a love story which epitomizes the incredible difficulty of separating our selves from our cultures. This is a novel which enlightens while it entertains, presenting a rational view of irrational behaviors. Mary Whipple