Beautifully written and read

In the course of a very extended family saga, the author manages to work in some extra-ordinary discussions that elucidate aspects of life in India and aBurma throughout the past century. The dialogues among soldiers in the Indian army are well organised and enlightening as are the many discussions on art and literature none of which struck me as intentionally didactic even if they were.
The reading is clear and varied enough to maintain interest throughout what I experienced as a novel in need of abridgement. The plot is very complex and it is essential to be able to remember who is who, and the place of each in the families and it is only the very well crafted interweaving of the stories that maintained my interest, and here the reader must take s great deal of credit.
In my opinion this book may stand alongside ‘war and peace’ for its impact and the beauty of its characterisation, but, like Tolstoy’s masterpiece, it requires commitment and determination to follow in places, and the end for me is perhaps the weakest part of the book which is so often the case with these very long sagas. If the author ran out if puffas it were, before the end, he may have considered finishing the story earlier: his near worship of Angson Suchi dates the whole novel and reads rather sadly today.
Perhaps the most important thing to say in a review like this is that I shall almost certainly read the book again

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