Low Deep T Maybe This Time Can Be Again
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Basic plot: Dominic Ullis's married woman, Aki, commits suicide. He flies to Bombay to immerse her ashes and mourns snorting heroin, cocaine and a new drug called Meow meow.
Things I didn't like nearly this volume:
1. Nosotros don't know who Dominic Ullis is. How and why did he become an addict? What kind of person is he? What is his
Well, well, well. I decided to write an bodily review after then long and somehow ended upwardly deleting it by fault. So here I am rewriting information technology because that is how much I disliked this volume.Basic plot: Dominic Ullis's wife, Aki, commits suicide. He flies to Mumbai to immerse her ashes and mourns snorting heroin, cocaine and a new drug chosen Meow meow.
Things I didn't like about this volume:
1. We don't know who Dominic Ullis is. How and why did he become an addict? What kind of person is he? What is his background? Nosotros practically don't know anything nigh our protagonist other than the fact that he is an addict. On the reverse, we know more about Aki, which I actually liked. Her grapheme is written improve. Only come to recollect of it, if I didn't in a way associate with her psyche, I probably would've been lost. The very reason I had picked up this book was that I had read a few quotes previously about how his wife Aki, talks near her depression as if information technology was a identify. She calls it "the depression" as if she tin can visit it. This idea hit habitation and so difficult I was really excited to read more nearly it: about this low, this feeling of being in the depression. I wish it was explored more than both with respect to Aki'due south character and Ullis's.
ii. The entire idea of presenting Mumbai every bit a "kaleidoscopic city" fails terribly. Information technology was an endeavor made half-heartedly, only coming through at certain points in the book, with the assist of characters that seemed made-up.
3. Most characters seemed unnecessary and added no depth to the story or idea of the book, which I idea had potential but wasn't executed well. Plus, it seemed unnatural to me that he would but encounter these random people who besides turned out to be drug-consuming and somehow didn't mind him beingness around. They felt stereotypical, there simply to bear witness the urban center in a certain light, with no significance of their own, metaphorically or otherwise. I could not understand Payal, the simply other character who nosotros encounter well-nigh throughout the book. I didn't understand why there was a dedicated chapter to her background and her life when it meant nothing symbolically, metaphorically or otherwise.
4. The political commentary was so forced it made me want to barf. Honestly, it felt like the writer was just using all these made-upwards characters to make the book sound more holistic, when in fact the subject of the book had nothing to gain from these generic insights.
v. The dialogues, which were nowadays in an umpteen amount, while I really wished there was more than prose, were unnatural. Nobody speaks in then many expressions and with such apathy. Well, perhaps with that apathy, only certainly not those expressions and unusual remarks.
vi. The writing was mundane, bland and uninteresting. I could merely think of how beautiful and lyrical and visual the prose for a bailiwick like this could've been! My attention wandered off several times, and frequently I did not even bother to read the part I had missed because it was merely that meaningless and banal.
I really, really wish we had gotten to know Ullis better. I as well wish there was more than most the by, more almost the present likewise - instead of just Ullis hopping frantically from i group of people to another. Most of the book seemed unnatural to me. Perchance because I don't know what being an addict is like? Perchance considering I don't have enough experience of the urban center? Peradventure. However, when it comes to reading a book, if it isn't fantastical in nature, I prefer to be as real and raw as possible, which it just did not feel.
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Thayil's latest book, follows its main protagonist, Dominic Ullis—grieving the contempo death of his wife— though a drugged-fueled journey through the Bombay underworld. While Thayil's utilise of language is as always wonderful, I constitute the looseness of the plot—particularly in the second half of the novel—irritating.
3-stars.
22nd book for 2020.Thayil's latest volume, follows its chief protagonist, Dominic Ullis—grieving the recent death of his married woman— though a drugged-fueled journey through the Bombay underworld. While Thayil's use of language is every bit always wonderful, I found the looseness of the plot—especially in the second one-half of the novel—irritating.
3-stars.
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I love #JeetThayil for his writing style, e'er descriptive, deep and natural. He's reall
Maybe because I recently lost my mom, that's I find this novel quite calming and full of understanding. It's well-nigh a husband journey to buried her married woman ashes to other city. How guilty kept eats his brain and soul.He tried to escape reality through consuming unlike kind of drugs(he used to being and addict long time ago!). The story keep jumping from wink back of his memory, hallucination and real time.I dearest #JeetThayil for his writing way, ever descriptive, deep and natural. He'southward really good in decribing feeling, idea and surrounding without make up it into convincing, information technology's just the way it is. Simple but complex.He always had the skill to soothing heed through his sentences and choice of words. Yes, I always worshipped him since his book Narcopolis.
Even this journey show me how well times volition mend everything, its actually interesting about how the writer 'requite a lesson' to protagonist through his meeting with friend and strangers a long it. Patiently, he showed reader the true nature of protagonist human relationship with his dead married woman. Relationship always confusing and full of misunderstanding, but love will always find a manner to compromised it fifty-fifty its too late,and the person is no longer around. The signal is, you will learn from losing to motility yourself to some other phase of life.
This book too requite a thoughful view of social system, background and unlike kind of problem that keep weaken people in India. How poverty bulldoze people into drug addiction, class bias and selfishness.Overall, beside existential philosophy, this novel had the brilliantly criticism of social and political issue in India. Salute😎#fatimahmanaf #timahbacaapa #malaysiamembaca
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Aki is not fully sketched, even though the book had enough time to piece of work flesh out why she was depressed. Some people volition outrage over its overtly liberal accept on the world - Climate Alter, abiding reference to Trump, and th The book is pale in comparison to Narcopolis, especially since I read Narcopolis just a week back. The prose is less poetic, the turn of phrases more smartass than intelligent. The story is feeble and since information technology happens over the class of a weekend, information technology all seems to be flimsy.
Aki is not fully sketched, even though the book had plenty fourth dimension to piece of work mankind out why she was depressed. Some people will outrage over its overtly liberal take on the world - Climate change, constant reference to Trump, and the Hindu Nationalism; still, all that talk is a lame effort to add together a 'woke' vibe to an otherwise drab novel.
Yet, there are some 'high points' in the novel. The grief is lamentable considering it'south so commonplace. It can happen to anyone and there's naught y'all can do near information technology. ...more
My first foray into Jeet Thayil and wow! This is easily the virtually romantization of melancholy and grief i take come up beyond since Meena Kumari! I could not put the book down, every passage breathed of agony, of sadness, and so consuming you didn't want Uliss' weekend to end.
Soars college and collegeMy kickoff foray into Jeet Thayil and wow! This is easily the most romantization of melancholy and grief i take come up across since Meena Kumari! I could non put the book down, every passage breathed of agony, of sadness, and so consuming you didn't desire Uliss' weekend to terminate.
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Depression is about drugs, depression, expiry, guilt, and finding hope. We follow Dominic Ullis, in his drug-induced journey of grief following the death of his wife Aki (who is enamoured with death from a tender age) on a weekend in Mumbai. On his way, Dominic meets quite a lot of people. Simply he is indifferent to them. He shoots up drug afterwards drug just to cope with the grief. In one of his drug-induced hallucinations, he meets his married woman who regrets committing suicide at all, stating that it isn't what she expected. Oh, the irony!
I tin sense the dark, murky affair ready to pounce in me. When the gloom starts to appear, I panic. I want to injure people with my words. Then I wallow in the guilt for wanting to hurt my loved ones. After a good amount of wallowing comes the phase of self-detest. I hate myself for being ungrateful for all the things I have been given. This phase of Cocky-hate is finally followed past the thoughts of death. I desire to experience how information technology feels when you lot take your last breath. I want to know what happens when you shut your eyes for the last time knowing I won't open it again. I want to know what my loved ones volition feel when I am non here. And on and on it goes.
But these days, I am at peace with this dark, murky thing. Like Thayil'due south Aki who calls her depression every bit Depression and senses the arrival of information technology, I learned to recognize the signs of being consumed by the night. In the futile try to break this cycle, I try to concur on to whatever lilliputian things I tin notice. Books, movies, music, the stupid crow, rain, and memes. There'south a saying Tamil that roughly translates as 'Known ghost is better than the unknown God.' Sometimes my fascination with death does resemble this quote. I accept lived with whatever horrors life threw at me. Simply the unknown afterwards death, however alluring it may be, scares me. And so, I notice comfort in the things that I can afford and I am forever grateful for them. I am not a victim. I have never been. But this dark phase makes me feel like i and I hate it. I detest that I have the privilege to feel like a victim when I am not.
I read Low when I was at the everyman point of my existence. I connected with his book on a deeper level and the feelings revolved around information technology. I tin't criticize Dominic or Aki for how they deal with their grief and low. Is there even a right manner to grieve? You grieve and figure out life every bit yous go. Looking for things that provide y'all with even a sliver of hope. I finished this book with the hope, breaking that dark stage and I am forever grateful for it.
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Dom Ullis is frequently called Ulysees by other characters in the book. Take an already drugged-to -the-eyeballs narrative and throw in hints of the ancient hero or the not-so-ancient Irishman wandering the streets of Dublin for a day, and you're pretty much guaranteed naught chance of making much sense of what'south going on. In that location's an opportunity here for the exploitation of one or other or even both the Ulyseeses (is that the plural? I'yard not sure) merely cypher quite so subtle seems to be going on here.
I plant the grapheme impossible to become to grips with. He's referred to a few times equally an Englishman merely the story - and synopses of 'Narcopolis' - don't seem to support that. He alludes to time spent 25 years earlier in Mumbai's drug dens and to fourth dimension in New York where he met his late wife Aki in a library. He has Hep C from intravenous drug use but is supposed to be clean before he sets out on a bender to end all benders. Or maybe, given the Mumbai setting, it's a bender on the bunder. He seems to have picked up nigh of the author's own back-story only the race affair remains a mystery along with his age and occupation. Somehow this guy has dragged himself through rehab, through a curt marriage and some sort of career and, grief-stricken, is nearly the accident everything good in his life for a weekend of extreme drug use.
He meets a wealthy lady on the flying to Mumbai - ane who steals the beginning-class cutlery on the aeroplane - and she has problems of her own. He's nonetheless in his funeral suit and unsuitable dark-brown suede loafers (I have to concur with Aki, they were definitely a bad choice) holding a box of Aki's ashes and not much more. Over the weekend he gets through enough drugs to flatten an elephant, hangs out in Mumbai'due south party underworld and spends fourth dimension between the high thread-count cotton fiber sheets of a wealthy woman'south home and 0n the hard pavements of street-dwellers.
Perhaps the well-nigh positive affair virtually the story is that zilch horrible happens to Ullis other than past his own paw. Peradventure in that location's a hidden reminder of the central 'goodness' of the people of Mumbai when nobody takes advantage of his drug-induced vulnerability. Mayhap the drugs help him to communicate with his dead wife, maybe they don't. Perchance this weekend of excess can be punctuation in a circuitous life, or maybe a week later he'll be dead in a ditch. Nosotros don't know. He just heads dorsum to the airport and back to Delhi.
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I read this rather speedily past my current standards, largely because of the quality of the writing and because at that place is an urgency to the story that keeps you hooked despite in that location existence not much of a story.
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Would you assemble their left behind belongings and soak them in your tears?
Would you seek spiritual consolation?
Would you seek commiseration of your friends and family?
Would yous succumb to your misery? Probably deriving pleasure from it?
This volume is not exactly a favorite. I wouldn't place it among the best ones that deal with the human emotions. It's crazy, conspicuous, and a little
distortion. No, a lot b
Would you get together their left behind belongings and soak them in your tears?
Would you seek spiritual consolation?
Would yous seek commiseration of your friends and family?
Would you succumb to your misery? Probably deriving pleasure from information technology?
This book is not exactly a favorite. I wouldn't place it among the best ones that bargain with the human emotions. It's crazy, conspicuous, and a petty
baloney. No, a lot distortion. Only oh, well. I like to believe that every book is built-in with an innate ability to teach us something- and that lesson(s)
is not necessarily the aforementioned for each of the states. I strongly experience that this novel is akin to a drunkard finding the way to his house at two am, when the streetlight
sometimes flickers, and the dogs bark the loudest. Regardless, it offers a fine perspective of coming to terms with personal loss. I am non exactly a huge fan of books that prerequisites the innocent reader to have a taste for the utmost atrocious imagination to the point of placing the reader into a gut wrenching version of themselves.
This is 1 book y'all will non pick upwards by yourself. Jeet Thayil's writing is bright, no doubt, only the story development is what I take an event with in this book.
Depression follows a grieving protagonist, Dominic Ullis, as he lands in Mumbai (Bombay) later his married woman Aki's suicide. He tries to escape from the turmoil through a weekend with drugs.
Though the characters were well-written and had layers, information technology was difficult to sympathize or relate to them.
The parts which kept me hooked
Low by Jeet Thayil 📚This is ane volume you will non pick upwards by yourself. Jeet Thayil'south writing is brilliant, no doubt, but the story development is what I accept an issue with in this book.
Low follows a grieving protagonist, Dominic Ullis, every bit he lands in Mumbai (Bombay) after his married woman Aki'southward suicide. He tries to escape from the turmoil through a weekend with drugs.
Though the characters were well-written and had layers, it was difficult to sympathize or relate to them.
The parts which kept me hooked were where Thayil'south ascertainment and perspective is described and where he shares memories and flashbacks with his wife.
It is not a long volume but took me longer than usual to read it.
While reading, there is a constant urge to observe more story or grip to the plot.
It did accept me 'Low' but information technology lacked conviction. Full of promises, when I picked it up, merely fell short.
Some say, this is classic Jeet Thayil book and that he builds a tense, gripping globe. Well, something couldn't connect with this one, I will wait to read Narcopolis.
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"When you're high, time dissolves like powder in a spoon. It melts and bends to your will. When the high is gone, time returns in the company of boredom to punish you lot with the time you killed."
"She hadn't seen the sky in weeks. She had forgotten there were stars above them. It was as if an impenetrable veil had fallen between her and the heavens. She couldn't imagine why people lived like this. For what reason did they submit to
A blend of Inquire the Dust, Requiem for a Dream & Tropic of Cancer. 👍🏻"When you lot're high, time dissolves like pulverisation in a spoon. Information technology melts and bends to your volition. When the high is gone, time returns in the company of boredom to punish yous with the time you killed."
"She hadn't seen the sky in weeks. She had forgotten there were stars above them. It was as if an impenetrable veil had fallen between her and the heavens. She couldn't imagine why people lived like this. For what reason did they submit to it? Surely there were alternatives? Unrelievedly ugly men and women surrounded by unrelieved ugliness. This was the truth of the metropolis. All around her the mean minds idle in their pollution machines. In that location was not a face up she could similar. In the midst of it all, she and her husband, fighting, wretched, undistinguished."
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This was a novel about grief and drugs, amidst other things. Dominic Ullis stumbles around Bombay (which he ever refers to as Bombay) with a backpack containing a canteen of Jim Beam and a box of his wife's ashes. His wife, Aki, is dead, and now he is here, nodding and floating from one heroin trip to another, scoring, snorting and otherwise trying to figure out what to do. A fleck of Naked Luncheon t
There's a quote in hither I can't detect now, nearly how sooner or later on everything goes back to the bounding main.This was a novel about grief and drugs, among other things. Dominic Ullis stumbles around Mumbai (which he ever refers to as Bombay) with a backpack containing a canteen of Jim Beam and a box of his wife's ashes. His wife, Aki, is expressionless, and now he is here, nodding and floating from one heroin trip to another, scoring, snorting and otherwise trying to figure out what to do. A bit of Naked Lunch tossed with a niggling Leaving Las Vegas. And there'due south some hazy nods to James Joyce I'd pick up on if I were a more seasoned reader. BUT, I call up information technology brought new light to a much-discussed and much maligned topic. Grief and addiction and sickness and moving on, all bound upward together in one fantastic mess.
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The story follows Ullises, every bit he copes with the grief of losing his wife unexpectedl
Typically, before I read a book, I would usually do a quick groundwork search to find out more than about an author, and they type of material they churn out. Jeet Thayil, seemed to primarily be a poet. This piqued my interest, and I was non disappointed. I found the entire read very linguistically pleasing, a very refreshing read that was full of descriptive uncommon words which I had not encountered in a long time.The story follows Ullises, as he copes with the grief of losing his married woman unexpectedly with the only mode he knows how, through a constant cocktail of drugs.
Loss, Grief, and Guilt are the central themes of the book equally readers are navigated through the grimy underbelly of Bombay, as a man attempts to process his loss and find a sense of significant and hope. Although alone, Ullises meets a bunch of zany characters from dissimilar backgrounds that provide a lot of comic relief. There would exist times throughout the read that I'd be processing the raw emotions shared, while at the adjacent line I'd be breaking out into chuckles.
What I enjoyed about this book, is that it was very well written and engaging. Once yous pick it upward, it can be hard to terminate. I would definitely recommend this book if the topic of grief and personal reconciliation appeal to you. This is a very well written and enjoyable volume.
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But if you create a story about a homo who has lost his married woman and everything and he is and so transported to Mumbai and meets old friends and ghosts...you can use that construct to rail against everything that you want to become off your chest.
The writing is terrific. Jeet is an amazing author...there is no question nigh that. The story and its cont
Imagine that you want to rant about everything in Bharat and the globe and are aware that if you do so in a weblog, virtually people will give up subsequently some fourth dimension.Merely if you create a story about a human who has lost his wife and everything and he is so transported to Mumbai and meets onetime friends and ghosts...you tin can use that construct to rail confronting everything that you want to get off your chest.
The writing is terrific. Jeet is an amazing writer...at that place is no question about that. The story and its contents though are a different affair entirely.
Again as with and so many Indian authors, non Indians would probably honey the book, if they don't have the insight that comes from living in the land.
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Jeet makes you root for Dom Ullis from the starting time page itself, but never allows y'all to figure him out completely. The climax of this story is the only true bespeak of closure between the reader and the protagonist. The payoff, as in every Jeet story, is worth your time.
And equally always, Jeet leaves plenty for writers and fans of good prose. He pushes and pulls at you lot with his use of punctuation.
Well worth a read. Might even make for a yard
Tense, gripping, and visceral. Basically, trademark Jeet Thayil.Jeet makes you root for Dom Ullis from the first page itself, only never allows you to figure him out completely. The climax of this story is the but truthful point of closure between the reader and the protagonist. The payoff, as in every Jeet story, is worth your time.
And every bit ever, Jeet leaves enough for writers and fans of good prose. He pushes and pulls at you with his utilize of punctuation.
Well worth a read. Might even make for a great movie.
...more than All the same I did bask this volume simply I found myself continually comparing this to Nacropolis This is the story of a man who reverts to his drug taking habits after his married woman committed suicide. The novel is reminiscent of Thayil's debut book Narcopolis and although this is not a sequel it did have a far superior plot and overall was more entertaining
Nonetheless I did enjoy this volume but I plant myself continually comparison this to Nacropolis ...more
I empathize why many people would not like this book simply I have a feeling Jeet didn't write information technology for the people in the starting time place. When they don't write for the award, then they write for therapy. Grieving isn't piece of cake and it definitely isn't finite and there'south certainly no closure. Sometimes you don't admire a story for its literary strength merely for the honesty and courage it takes to write it.
I understand why many people would non like this book but I have a feeling Jeet didn't write it for the people in the first place. ...more than
Role Gonzo journalism, part meditation on expiry. Philosophical dialogue on the meaning of grief. The book Hunter S Thompson should have wrote
What we refuse to acknowledge, is what Thayil thrives in. In a beautifully written book, he has somehow managed to pen the most moving, touching a Orderly chaos. This oxymoron has always stood out for me as a perfect metaphor of the globe effectually usa. Most of us honey to pretend that there is a semblance of construction, clear cut emotions and reality. Only what we don't want to acknowledge is that we're incorrect. That the world is not just gray, it is filthy grey. It's grim, muddied and downright punishing.
What we decline to admit, is what Thayil thrives in. In a beautifully written book, he has somehow managed to pen the virtually moving, touching and all the same downright disgusting ode to a city that is exactly that. A mud and muck covered monster that will swallow yous whole, but you'll love it. His drug addict protagonist is sharply aware of both the lows and highs(pun intended) of his addiction, and is enthralled past information technology. A purist and a conservative reader might recoil and shrivel on reading his words, but at the heart of the book is the story of a cleaved homo, a recent widower struggling with the loss of perhaps the but person who understood him, and ironically, the one person he never completely understood.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8HWp_og8...
Low is extremely subtle in its narrative, capturing nuances which most works ignore. Reading it is in itself an intoxication if the substance marred underbelly of Bombay, ane which shows the city at its icky best and beautiful worst. ...more than
If th
I wished to give this book more stars; no, not considering it was really ameliorate but considering it reflected my electric current status quo - full of hope merely falling short. Start with intensity and run out of steam much before the finish line. Comprehend the mike to tape the best ever song and reeling into a cantankerous mayhem before fifty-fifty the halfway mark is met. Grab the notebook to write a resplendent tome and shrink sheepishly into its one-half-formed sidelines. Well, I exaggerate. But you get the drift.If the book wanted to accept me to the low, it sure did well. But it took itself down as well which didn't work that well.
My love for Jeet's earth, however, hasn't dwindled with this one off outing; he was effing smoking pot and I shall allow the inebriation wane till he whips that same intoxication on me.
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Sometimes when you take some other book by an author who had really done magic to y'all, you enter the new piece of work with trepidation, and I did so with this: would Thayil work the aforementioned sort of enchantment, or would information technology be a poor imitation, a thwarting?
Nosotros are back in a earth fueled past a frenzy of drugs, so, early on in the novel, I fe
Several years ago I surprised myself be reading Narcopolis, and even more by thoroughly enjoying it, in spite of information technology being - or so I nonetheless recollect - not really my kind of book.Sometimes when you lot take some other book by an writer who had actually washed magic to you lot, you enter the new work with trepidation, and I did so with this: would Thayil piece of work the same sort of enchantment, or would it be a poor imitation, a thwarting?
We are back in a earth fueled by a frenzy of drugs, so, early in the novel, I felt a worry of whether this was going to be another "same as, same every bit." And then is the story steeped in the globe of narcotics, a mysterious and somewhat unsettling, fifty-fifty scary, surroundings, but not 1 a million miles away from Narcopolis.
Against the scepticism of this reader, Thayil does produce a new framework for Low: the death of his married woman sends Dominic into a drug frenzy into the gutter, the lowest of the low, searching for the annihilation of his senses in abasement in the streets of Bombay, without shame.
But this is not the story of a down-and-out with a bad habit. Dominic is educated and well-informed, and some of his political views shine through - downright hilarious in places. This makes the cocky-abasement more an human activity of desperation, it is a one-off fling to shake off the low of grieving with the even lower land of self-obliteration.
Low does non reach the (literary) high of Narcopolis, but it is a well conceived and executed novel for all of that. Convincing descriptions of "nether the influence" and obsessive craving for the next striking (peradventure running a bit thin equally the story proceeds?), and of the characters and the environment and the cameos. Information technology was enough to make me realise that my fears were not well founded: information technology's definitely a good read!
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