From Publishers Weekly
When Ram Mohammad Thomas, an orphaned, uneducated waiter from Mumbai, wins a billion rupees on a quiz show, he finds himself thrown in jail. (Unable to pay out the prize, the program's producers bribed local authorities to declare Ram a cheater.) Enter attractive lawyer Smita Shah, to get Ram out of prison and listen to him explain, via flashbacks, how he knew the answers to all the show's questions. Indian diplomat Swarup's fanciful debut is based on a sound premise: you learn a lot about the world by living in it (Ram has survived abandonment, child abuse, murder). And just as the quiz show format is meant to distill his life story (each question prompts a separate flashback), Ram's life seems intended to distill the predicament of India's underclass in general. Rushdie's Midnight's Children may have been a model: Ram's brash yet innocent voice recalls that of Saleem Sinai, Rushdie's narrator, and the sheer number of Ram's near-death adventures represents the life of the underprivileged in India, just as Saleem wore a map of India, quite literally, on his face. But Swarup's prose is sometimes flat and the story's picaresque form turns predictable. Ram is a likable fellow, but this q&a with him, though clever, grows wearying.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
From AudioFile
Ram Mohammed Thomas is a waiter who gets the chance to appear on "Who Will Win a Billion?" on Indian TV. Even though the orphan has never been to school, an amazing sequence of coincidences allows him to answer the 12 questions correctly and win the billion rupees. The TV show thinks he must be cheating, especially since the producers hadn't planned on someone winning the billion before advertising revenue brought in more than the billion needed for the prize. So he is arrested. He tells his life story to his attorney, and through the questions the listener learns about his life and his real reason for going on the show. Kerry Shale reads the work well. The range of accents he gives the characters adds immeasurably to one's enjoyment in listening and in no way impedes the listener's ability to understand. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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