|
Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond | 
 enlarge | Author: Pankaj Mishra
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $7.12
You Save: $7.88 (53%)
New (29) Used (13) from $7.12
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 441153
Media: Paperback
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0312426410
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9780312426415
ASIN: 0312426410
Publication Date: June 12, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: 100% GUARANTEED! Fast shipping on more than 1,000,000 Book, Video, Video Game & Music titles all in one location! Discover Your Entertainment at goHastings.
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice In Temptations of the West, Pankaj Mishra brings literary authority and political insight to bear on journeys through South Asia, and considers the pressures of Western-style modernity and prosperity on the region. Beginning in India, his examination takes him from the realities of Bollywood stardom, to the history of Jawaharlal Nehru's post-independence politics. In Kashmir, he reports on the brutal massacre of thirty-five Sikhs, and its intriguing local aftermath. And in Tibet, he exquisitely parses the situation whereby the atheist Chinese government has discovered that Tibetan Buddhism can be "packaged and sold to tourists." Temptations of the West is essential reading about a conflicted and rapidly changing region of the world.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 The Journalist in the Back Alleys October 29, 2006
John Sollami (Stamford, CT)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
The problem with journalistic sketches such as these is that they are forever becoming obsolete. Since many of these essays take the reader only to 2004, one is left wondering, for instance, what is happening today in Bollywood, with India's BJP party, in Kashmir, in Musharref's Pakistan, and in Nepal and Tibet. Events in these parts of the world are moving faster than Mishra can write about them. But the great value added here is Mishra's untangling of the tortured web of historical events and personalities from which India, Kashmir, and Pakistan stumbled their painful way into their current predicaments. Often one is left trembling with despair. For instance, Mishra gives us a detailed retelling of the decades of ubiquitous injustices and murders rampant in Kashmir. And the deeply solidified hatreds and passions that have emerged from the power-hungry ambitions of men throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, from the British on, leave one feeling hopeless for any reasonable resolution to the India/Pakistan Muslim/Western miasma engulfing us today. Indeed, one wonders at the subtitle of this book, "How To Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond." It seems to be something of an ironic joke, since Mishra is never at a loss to point out the hypocrisy of corrupt Indian "modern" politicians who live in a self-imposed bubble and ignore the suffering of millions. He also gives us an insider's look at Bollywood's lightweight "modern" movie stars and movie makers whose financial backing comes from criminals. And in general he sees the cup here as definitely more than half empty. Perhaps that viewpoint is from his many interviews at the ground level, with the suffering masses, the pathetic, powerless victims, and the poverty-stricken illiterate.
I recommend this book for those naive Westerners, like Thomas J. Friedman, who think "shining India" is the focal point of the modern world. Not quite.
 Title and contents don't match December 1, 2006
India Reader (Nashville, TN)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
If you don't care about the title, then this is a very readable book and, Mishra is a good writer. It informs you about the people and places that Mishra visits; albeit in a somewhat cynical way. The problem arises when you start dissecting the book. You wonder if Mishra really has any expertise to write about places like Nepal, Tibet, Afghanisthan, Pakistan etc. It seems that his expertise is really in the underdeveloped Hindi belt, and surroundings of North India, an area which is quite removed from the modern world. Then what is this title all about? To find real stories about the temptations of the West, shouldn't one be digging in South India?
Coming back to the book, Mishra raises some soul searching issues about the failure of Democracy on one hand, and the tendency of the emerging Hindu middle classes to mutedly tolerate violence against minorities. Both of these issues are heavy topics that need to be covered thoroughly, with the one-on-one perspective that Mishra has.
A rather average work of political/travel literature December 24, 2006
Art (Virginia, USA)
9 out of 13 found this review helpful
The author, an upper caste Indian, spends the book traveling throughout South-Asia from India to Pakistan to Nepal and Tibet. While he travels to some of the world's most exotic places, the book lacks a central point, beyond the fact that these countries are changing as a result of increased contact with the West, which is hardly a new concept. The author's stories of growing up and attending university in post-colonial India were the best part of book, since the author had a unique story to tell. His travels into the Kashmir are also worthy of merit for their detail.
Many of the early chapters go deep into sub-details of Indian politics and were a bit hard to follow for those without extensive background on the subject.
The rest of the book he travels around searching for a story but he never really finds one. While nothing he wrote was wrong, it was not very original either. I had the feeling he was trying to be an Indian Robert Kaplan, who articulates commentary on politics and culture through detailed first hand experience, but the book really never measures up. The title is also misleading.
 Riveting, important reporting on South Asia October 21, 2006
RoadToMandalay (Rangoon, Burma)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I loved The End of Suffering, Mishra's previous book, which looked at the progress of the historical Buddha in northern India 2500 years ago. Mishra effectively intertwined autobiographical details with that story, and he does the same, to powerful effect, in this closely observed look at nationalism, extremism and modernity in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Afghanistan. Mishra conveys what it feels like to be a citizen of the countries he visits, whether it's the aspiration and anxiety of movie industry hangers-on in Bombay or the bleak outlook of a family in the crossfire of Afghanistan.
This book is at the standard of the best non-fiction by VS Naipaul, though I find Mishra's take on Hindu nationalism to be more accurate than the Nobel laureate's.
Insight into a little known part of the world November 28, 2006
John Matlock (Winnemucca, NV)
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
In this book of essays, travel reports, and opinions, I'm not quite sure just what the word 'Modern' means in the sub-title. The places he visits and upon which he reports don't seem to fit my definition of 'modern.'
India is, of course, a world of contrasts, just as is the rest of the world. The places he describes in this book are a long way from the high-tech world you talk to whenever you have a problem with your computer. It's much the same as comparing the fishermen in South Louisiana with down town Manhattan.
Here we see India (and surrounding countries) as a place of dirt streets, mud houses, and a collection of hatreds between tribes and religions that go back centuries. At the same time, he reports on some progress as a middle class begins to emerge, but also a religious militancy with inter religious warfare. The pull of the material aspects of the west are matched by nationalism.
Mostly I come away from this book knowing that I know less about that part of the world than I thought. That I will probably never have a good understanding, and a feeling of some dispair in looking towards the future.
|
|
|
|
| |
