Ardashir Vakil

Advantages: set in India
Disadvantages: too many Indian terms

...;, but it’s unfair and nonsensical and we won’t do it but consider this first novel by Ardashir Vakil in its own right. Penguin informs us that the author was born in Bombay in 1962 (he now lives in London with his family and teaches English at Pimlico Comprehensive School) so that we might assume the author has described his own childhood, but as we litcrits know the quality of the book isn’t affected if he does or if he doesn’t, so we won’t go into the subject. The protagonist is Cyrus Readymoney (what a strange name for an Indian boy!), son of a well-to-do, well-educated family of Iranian descent living in Juhu, a suburb of Bombay by the sea (hence the title). Cyrus enjoys a carefree childhood, carefree meaning here ‘free of care’, i.e., nobody really cares for him. His father is a globetrotting... Read review

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Advantages: the story proper
Disadvantages: the afterword

...readers if it were, but of course I think of my time there. I came to Heidelberg thirteen years after Lodge/Timothy; when I read how he sees the town, the atmosphere in post-war Germany, the self-image of the American Army and their relationship to the native population, I understand that more than just thirteen years lie between his and my Heidelberg; when I came there, Germany wasn't 'post-war' any more. It was the time of student unrest, of the manifestations against the war in Vietnam; the German students marched to the American HQ (yours truly among them) shouting slogans. Then my thoughts drift to the current political situation and what students today are like. Timothy finally gets to know the facts of life in Heidelberg. As I read Out of the Shelter immediately after finishing Beach Boy by Ardashir Vakil (see op) I was amused. What... Read review

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