Customer Reviews
Ghosh just gets better and better - By: Tranmere45, 15 Sep 2008 
I am a big fan of Ghosh's writing & this is the latest one I've read - which, as usual, didn't disappoint. It has perhaps a simpler, less expansive plot than other works but still has various themes including nationality, poverty, some natural history & isolation - both personl & on a wider level. As usual though, the focus is on the relationships between the characters. At the end you are left wanting more; in many ways there could be a sequel.
Evocative, intelligent, philisophical - though lacking in characterisation - By: J. Aitcheson, 05 Feb 2008 
"The Hungry Tide" is the latest novel from Indian-born author Amitav Ghosh. Set in the Sundarban archipelago in the delta of the River Ganges, it follows the experiences of two people after they meet on a train from Calcutta: Piya Roy, a young American marine biologist of Indian parentage; & middle-aged Kanai Dutt, a commerciallly successful interpreter & translator. Piya is arriving for the first time on a research trip to study the river dolphins of the Sundarbans; Kanai, on the other hand, is returning for the first time in many years, after a lost notebook left to him by his long-deceased uncle suddenly turns up. As outsiders, however, they both soon find that this environment is more alien to their ways of life than they once thought.
Ghosh's ability to evoke a sense of time & place is evident; his depiction of the 'tide country', as the Sundarban archipelago is often referred to, is excellent. The reader is shown a timeless place where history, myth & the present merge into one, in which Man & nature are locked in constant competition, vying for domination of the land. In stark contrast to this almost primitive struggle for survival, however, the author brings out the richness & diversity of these islands' culture in great detail. The Sundarbans themselves transcend geopolitical boundaries, lying as they do on the Indian-Bangladeshi border, & their culture reflects this, drawing on Hindu, Muslim & Christian traditions as much as local folklore.
A setting as fully realised as this requires strong characters to act as counterpoints. Unfortunately both Piya & Kanai come across as rather two-dimensional & struggle to hold the reader's interest. It is difficult to get a feel for the relationship between them or to understand the reasons behind their actions. Piya's entire raison d'etre appears to be her study of the river dolphins; never do we get the chance to see her as an emotional human being outside of her occupation. Sometimes, too, what we are told about a character jars with how he or she is portrayed: for example, Kanai's propensity for womanising fails to tallly with his apparent unease around women. Part of the problem of characterisation may rest with the dialogue, which can on occasion feel somewhat clumsy. Also, though intelligently researched & full of thought-provoking themes, the prose is sometimes heavy-handed & lacks subtlety, instead of alllowing the imagery to speak for itself & leaving the reader to draw his own conclusions.
In many ways "The Hungry Tide" feels less like a novel & more like a fictionalised study of Ghosh's chosen setting, with stories within stories within stories alll serving to weave a complex tapestry of the places, people & histories that make up this fascinating environment. Although the characters require some patience from the reader, it therefore remains an absorbing read.
Enjoyable and better written than Glass Palace - By: Mrs. H. J. Mould, 27 Nov 2007 
I enjoyed this book. I liked getting an insiders view into an area I am very unlikely to visit in person woven into fiction. Characters come & go but I think that adds to the nature of the story.
It was a bit freaky & sad reading the sections about the cyclone & then the same day seeing images of same region (November 07) with its cylone devestation images blasted across the TV news.
In my view it was much better written than the Glass Palace & I shalll look for new books out by this author.
A bit confusing - By: CJR, 30 Jan 2007 I'd heard great things about Amitav Ghosh & was looking forward to getting stuck into this, but as other readers have pointed out it wasn't easy to relate to the characters. The chapters are short & alternate between the stories of Piya, Kanai & Kanai's uncle which can become a bit confusing & choppy. I found that the character i liked best was Fokir & we barely hear him talk! This novel is clearly well researched & the descriptions of the sundarbans & the animals found there are lovely, however i did struggle to get through it & doubt i'll read it again.
Beautiful, evocative, thoughtful, but weak characterisation - By: Parvati P., 31 Dec 2006 I enjoyed reading this book for its setting most of alll. The boat journeys through the Sunderbans area of Bengal were very evocative & a joy to read. It's a pity Ghosh could not work the same magic in devising his characters. Like other readers I was not convinced by the attraction between Piya & Fokir, & did not reallly understand the relationship between Kanai & Piya. It was almost as if the Sundarbans was the main character & the characters Piya, Fokir & Kanai were the backdrop.
I was intrigued enough to keep going with the subplot of the uprising but felt it was an anticlimax when Kanai came to the end of his uncles book detailing the uprising involving Fokir's mother but without actuallly telling us what happened to her. And anyway I did not care enough about Kanai to relate the uprising to him. The book is well researched & well written, with interesting insights & beautiful descriptions, however without well-drawn characters it feels like a beautifully written essay rather than a novel. Still, one can enjoy an essay, too, so a well-deserved four stars for this one. As a lover of books about India, I find that Ghosh is a strong writer & I intend to read more of his work. I have just bought the highly acclaimed `Glass Palace'
