Narcopolis (novel)
 | |
| Author | Jeet Thayil |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Penguin Books |
Publication date | 26 September 2012 |
| Pages | 304 pages |
| ISBN | 0143123033 |
Narcopolis, the debut novel of Indian author Jeet Thayil, is set in 1970s Old Bombay. It concerns opium and its influence. The novel's narrator arrives in Bombay, where he becomes seduced into the opium underground. The story expands to encompass such characters as Dimple, the eunuch, Rashid, the opium house's owner, and Mr Lee, a former Chinese officer, all of whom have stories to tell.
Autobiography element
The novel draws on his own experiences as a drug addict, and what he calls "the lost 20 years of my life".[1] it took him five years to write the novel, and he called it "the opposite of catharsis. Catharsis gets stuff out of you. But this put bad feelings into me."[2] Thayil decided to call the book Narcopolis "because Bombay seemed to me a city of intoxication, where the substances on offer were drugs and alcohol, of course, but also god, glamour, power, money and sex".[3] Among the literary works to which Narcopolis has been compared are William S. Burroughs's Junkie and Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.[4]
Reception
Narcopolis was shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize. The jury wrote that they "admired his perfumed prose from the drug dens and backstreets of India's most concentrated conurbation".[5] Jeet Thayil won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2013 at DSC Jaipur Literature Festival for Narcopolis.[6]Narcopolis was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize (2012) and The Hindu Literary Prize (2013).[7][8]
References
- ^ Potter, Emma Lee (12 October 2012). "Booker looks too tight to call". Daily Express. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
- ^ Jaiman, Anuja (11 October 2012). "Book Talk: Booker nominee Thayil offers bleak Bombay portrait". Reuters. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
- ^ Thayil, Jeet (12 October 2012). "The Man Booker 2012 shortlist: the authors on their novels". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
- ^ "BBC News - Man Booker 2012: Shortlist at a glance". BBC Online. 11 October 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
- ^ Singh, Anita (12 September 2012). /booker-prize/9537028/Booker-Prize-shortlist-turns-its-back-on-readability.html "Booker Prize shortlist turns its back on 'readability'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
{{cite news}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/bookworm/jaipur-literature-festival/jaipur-literature-festival-2013-the-dsc-prize-for-south-asian-literature-2013-goes-to-jeet-thayil-for-narcopolis_2717.htm
- ^ Alison Flood (January 9, 2013). "Man Asian literary prize shortlist stages Booker re-match". The Guardian. Retrieved January 9, 2013.
- ^ Staff writer (February 17, 2013). "The Hindu Literary Prize goes to Jerry Pinto". The Hindu. Retrieved February 18, 2013.