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May. 22nd, 2016 11:12 amI loved Sea of Poppies, the first book in Amitav Ghosh's Ibis Trilogy, SO MUCH!! ...and then the second two books not anywhere near as much, but it was still a cool reading experience?
The Ibis Trilogy is an incredibly rich and well-researched historical epic set right before and heading into the period of the First Opium War, in which the Chinese government tried to put a stop to the sale of opium and the British government threw a brutal capitalist hissy fit.
This brief summary of course entirely leaves out the role of India, which -- given that the opium was grown and produced in India, numerous Indian businessmen were involved in the opium trade, and a significant chunk of the soldiers fighting for the British were Indian sepoys - is what Amitav Ghosh is primarily interested in.
Sea of Poppies is set right before the war and focuses on a number of characters who all end up on a ship carrying indentured migrant workers and convicts to Maritius, including
DEETI: A poppy farmer in Ghazipur to an opium addict who, after her husband's death, ends up fleeing his awful relatives, finding the love of her life, and becoming the de facto older-sister figure for all the women on board the Ibis
ZACHARY REID: A bright young American sailor who by a number of lucky coincidences manages to rise in the ranks and jump to officer status, in large part because no one's remembered to check the original manifest listing his race as black
NEEL RATTAN HALDER: A naive intellectual raja who, after a series of poor business decisions, ends up accused of forgery, stripped of his status and possessions and thrown into prison, which leads to great suffering but also great personal growth
PAULETTE LAMBERT: The daughter of a French botanist, who grew up in India and, after her father's death, is determined to escape somewhere that she can continue doing botany, MAYBE BY CROSS-DRESSING AND JOINING THE IBIS AS A SAILOR
JODU: The son of Paulette's Indian nursemaid, who hearkens for a life of ADVENTURE on the Ibis, while meanwhile doing his best to explain to Paulette that she is unlikely to get away with cross-dressing and joining the Ibis as a sailor
BABOO NOB KISSIN: The very pragmatic but secretly deeply religious Bengali agent of a wealthy British businessman who ends up ... embodying the spirit of his saintly aunt ....?
And these are just the POV characters, there are multitudinous others! Many of the plotlines are wildly tropey in incredibly enjoyable, 19th-century-novel kind of ways. Meanwhile, Amitav Ghosh is enjoying himself tremendously in the way he plays with language -- most of the characters communicate in wildly different dialects and flavors of English, from the sailor's pidgin to Zachary's code-switching to Paulette's franglais; there's no 'correct' version of English and everyone is constantly misunderstanding each other in small ways as they try to navigate a language that's very much in flux. It's super cool, honestly -- like, the trilogy would be worth it for the language games alone.
That said, one of the other things I most enjoyed about Sea of Poppies was the astoundingly refreshing feeling of liking, rooting for, and being invested in every POV character in an epic adventure series! I was really excited to see the continuation of all of their adventures!
Alas, the next two books do not ... exactly do that. ( More on the second two books of the series )
The Ibis Trilogy is an incredibly rich and well-researched historical epic set right before and heading into the period of the First Opium War, in which the Chinese government tried to put a stop to the sale of opium and the British government threw a brutal capitalist hissy fit.
This brief summary of course entirely leaves out the role of India, which -- given that the opium was grown and produced in India, numerous Indian businessmen were involved in the opium trade, and a significant chunk of the soldiers fighting for the British were Indian sepoys - is what Amitav Ghosh is primarily interested in.
Sea of Poppies is set right before the war and focuses on a number of characters who all end up on a ship carrying indentured migrant workers and convicts to Maritius, including
DEETI: A poppy farmer in Ghazipur to an opium addict who, after her husband's death, ends up fleeing his awful relatives, finding the love of her life, and becoming the de facto older-sister figure for all the women on board the Ibis
ZACHARY REID: A bright young American sailor who by a number of lucky coincidences manages to rise in the ranks and jump to officer status, in large part because no one's remembered to check the original manifest listing his race as black
NEEL RATTAN HALDER: A naive intellectual raja who, after a series of poor business decisions, ends up accused of forgery, stripped of his status and possessions and thrown into prison, which leads to great suffering but also great personal growth
PAULETTE LAMBERT: The daughter of a French botanist, who grew up in India and, after her father's death, is determined to escape somewhere that she can continue doing botany, MAYBE BY CROSS-DRESSING AND JOINING THE IBIS AS A SAILOR
JODU: The son of Paulette's Indian nursemaid, who hearkens for a life of ADVENTURE on the Ibis, while meanwhile doing his best to explain to Paulette that she is unlikely to get away with cross-dressing and joining the Ibis as a sailor
BABOO NOB KISSIN: The very pragmatic but secretly deeply religious Bengali agent of a wealthy British businessman who ends up ... embodying the spirit of his saintly aunt ....?
And these are just the POV characters, there are multitudinous others! Many of the plotlines are wildly tropey in incredibly enjoyable, 19th-century-novel kind of ways. Meanwhile, Amitav Ghosh is enjoying himself tremendously in the way he plays with language -- most of the characters communicate in wildly different dialects and flavors of English, from the sailor's pidgin to Zachary's code-switching to Paulette's franglais; there's no 'correct' version of English and everyone is constantly misunderstanding each other in small ways as they try to navigate a language that's very much in flux. It's super cool, honestly -- like, the trilogy would be worth it for the language games alone.
That said, one of the other things I most enjoyed about Sea of Poppies was the astoundingly refreshing feeling of liking, rooting for, and being invested in every POV character in an epic adventure series! I was really excited to see the continuation of all of their adventures!
Alas, the next two books do not ... exactly do that. ( More on the second two books of the series )
