Munoo is a young boy who leaves his far North India hill village in the belief that life will be better somewhere else. Anywhere else. In the process of discovering the world, he goes from town to town and, eventually, to Bombay and Simla, working in inevitably menial positions everywhere. His youth (and concomitant naivete) keep prompting the reader to want to grab him and tell him “No! Don’t do it,” but that is a measure of how convincingly Anand has drawn both the characters and the circumstances. Munoo’s endless struggle just to survive is a heart-rending picture of life among the poorest classes in 1940s India. Anand’s depiction calls Dickens to mind in showing how the poorest live and, even more powerfully, the way they disappear, unremarked by virtually anyone. He is particularly effective at making clear the life of a day with its routine insults and humiliations, the place (and impact) of both faith and fatalism and the power of racism—not just of the English but of the caste system itself. Sadly, I cannot help but wonder how much has changed. ( )

This book is good. It's very good. It is relentless. It's sad.

Mulk Raj Anand has written this book very well. It does indeed trace the life of young Munoo, as he travels - or makes his way - in life. I can't even say that he makes his way in life. He struggles his way through life. He finds love in another man's wife, albeit briefly.

Yet, life is a struggle. Amazingly, he retains some of his innocence through these struggles. Sadly, this has not changed in India even today.

Mulk Raj Anand has captured this struggle perfectly, and this is why I say that the book is relentless. The struggle does not stop even for a day. It starts with birth and ends with death.

The end

Brilliant. ( )