A master of the travel narrative weaves three intertwined
novellas of Westerners transformed by their sojourns in
India This startling and satisfying book captures the
tumult, ambition, hardship, and serenity that mark today’s
India. Theroux’s characters risk venturing far beyond the
subcontinent’s well-worn paths to discover woe or truth or
peace. A middle-aged couple on vacation veers heedlessly
from idyll to chaos. A buttoned-up Boston lawyer finds
succor in Mumbai’s reeking slums. And a young woman
befriends an elephant in Bangalore. In these pages, we also
meet Indian characters as singular as they are indicative of
the country’s subtle ironies: an executive who yearns to
become a holy beggar, an earnest young striver whose
personality is rewired by acquiring an American accent, a
miracle-working guru, and more. As ever, Theroux’s portraits
of people and places explode stereotypes to exhilarating
effect. The Elephanta Suite urges us toward a fresh,
compelling, and often inspiring notion of what India is, and
what it can do to those who try to lose--or find--themselves
there.
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