The Temple - Goers

Although it does deal to some extent with the profound changes in Indian society and their reflection in the national and individual psyche, Aatish Taseer writes in a way that is very different from the familiar writing from India of epic coming-of-age stories. The modernism in Taseer's writing is appropriate then, because The Temple-goers depicts a post-colonial society that has other new challenges to face in the modern age, and there's an unsettling clash between this modernism and old attitudes towards tradition, class, religion and caste that is reflected in the figure of the narrator himself - called Aatish Taseer - a writer who has returned to Delhi having lived abroad for a number of years to revise a novel he is working on.The values, in relationships, career prospects and even body image - where even the traditional Gods are now depicted with slimmed-down forms and six-packs that can only be achieved from extensive gym training - are now more recognisably those of the western society familiar to English educated Taseer than the world of his father, a famous Urdu poet, whose work Taseer can't even read. Like the attempt to impose bus-lanes on the chaos of the Delhi road system however, it's a match that doesn't fit too comfortably. The clash is personified more significantly (and with a great deal more complexity) in the person of Aakash, Aatish's personal trainer at the Junglee gym. An unusual and somewhat uneasy friendship is struck up between the two men, both of them clearly of different backgrounds that would have made their friendship unlikely in former times, but Aakash represents a way back into this new, altered and conflicted society ("this flowering of physical beauty, people rehabilitated") for Aatish, as an outsider himself.When money, background and looks are no longer any indication of status, it becomes harder then to know one's place, and for Aatish (everything is filtered through his view of the world) every action confers or takes away from one's power over another - and in this new society, as much as in the past, it's an important distinction to make. The power game that develops then in the relationship between Aatish and his personal trainer takes some rather sinister and troubling turns after a trip to visit some temples in Aakash's home region of Sectorpur, the recalling a similar one between Ballard and Vaughan in J.G. Ballard's Crash, but there are many other incidental issues relating to their respective partners and family backgrounds that cloud the picture and the balance of power between them.If Ballard is not the best analogy, it's perhaps better than the Bret Easton Ellis comparison offered by the publisher, giving at least some indication of the unpredictable and deeply personal nature of Aatish Taseer's work here in its attempt to cut through conventional literary trappings in order to dissect more truthfully the impulses and neuroses of the modern individual in reaction to profound social upheaval around him. For an outsider, it's not always easy to follow the subtle distinctions in class, caste, religious background and social standing between the characters nor, since the author is to some extent an outsider here also, is it always possible to make easy assumptions about purpose and intent. Indeed, the inward looking nature of The Temple-goers may perhaps say more about the author than it does about contemporary Indian society, but it's a distinctive viewpoint nonetheless on a fascinating, rich and complex subject.

Aatish Taseer, along with the 2008 Booker winner Aravind Adiga and Sukeu Mehta, is one of a handful of a new wave of Indian writers. As such, I was very much looking forward to this book, but I am sorry to say that it left me somewhat cold. Narrated in the first person, by a character called Aatish Taseer, The Temple-goers is set in modern day Delhi and tells of the narrator's return from the west to upper class Delhi and his friendship with Aakash, who reveals to him the underside of the city, and the deep inequalities that exist, along with the bribery and corruption that are present. I failed to get a sense of the charisma that attracts the narrator to this person though.The publisher's blurb promises Aakash's arrest for murder and a politically sensitive investigation, but in truth that happens only in the last 50 pages or so of the book. And to be honest, those are some of the best parts of the novel.Certainly, Taseer is able to convey something of the diversity of the city and the feelings of isolation that a returnee feels when so many changes have happened in his absence, but it's told in a very cold manner with almost no sense of humour that would make it more reader-friendly. He has an obsession with describing the flowers throughout the book, which just becomes repetitive, and I never got any sense of place from the descriptions. Neither did I warm to any of the characters, particularly the narrator, with the one possible exception of his girlfriend, Sanyogita, but their relationship seemed to be almost non-existent throughout.The Bookseller has described Taseer as the "Indian Brett Easton Ellis" - but Easton Ellis has a dark vein of humour that makes his coldness more shocking. I was very disappointed in this book (although the last 50 or so pages picked up) although there is a good story at the heart of the novel. I wouldn't rule out reading more of his works, as I suspect he may be a talent to watch, but this felt unfocussed and too cold for my taste.

very interesting work

Biased and completely wrong portrayal of an ancient society. The author must come remove his glasses and write the truth instead of depicting a senseless picture of a community. Bad writing.

Failed writer who lacks any sense of reality and life

Despite the poor story line I kept on reading till the end stupidly thinking it was building up to something, but it never did. I love books that are set in India, Shantaram being the best, but this was a big let down.

Read this book first .Enjoyed it.A very talented writer .Eloquent with the ability to draw out the characters .You see them ,you know them.They have shape and do not just lay flat between the pages.

Lack of energy is what disappoints in the book. It is as if Aatish assumes that having a grave mood makes it serious literature. The subject matter is great, and the book is relevant in that sense; but you wish the author had made more efforts to make it a riveting read.

Das Buch "Temple Goers" von Aatish Taaseer ist eines der wenigen, das ich nach der Lektüre weggeworfen habe. Ich kann mit dieser Art von Literatur absolut nichts anfangen. Das ist eine Welt und eine Art zu schreiben, zu der ich keinen Zugang finden kann. Möglicherweise liegt es an der unterschiedlichen Mentalität und an der unterschiedlichen Kultur. Das Lesen war für mich sehr mühsam, es gab nicht einen Moment, an dem ich das Buch spannend oder interessant gefunden hätte. Ich kann es jedenfalls nicht weiterempfehlen und werde auch kein weiteres Buch dieses Autors mehr lesen.

Producing a work which captures the nature of being Indian in modern India seems to be fascinating writers there at this present time. Be it through the non-fiction reportage style of  Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found  or the fiction of the likes of  The White Tiger  the theme looks set to fascinate Indian writers for some years to come. Astish Taseer's novel tries to address the issue and uses the outsider's return to do so.Taseer is billed as something of a rebel by the publishers here yet his book never quite hits these heights. He addresses issues such as the rejection of arranged marriage, homosexuality, and the independent single and educated women but in a way which sees them as a checklist. The book's key themes struggle with the issue of modern India's headlong clash with its history and how it can reconcile the two - although it really does take a while to work out that this is what the book is actually about - and so for all the suggested contemporaray edge the book ploughs a somewhat conservative furrow. It's also a story about an unlikely friendship with a curious sexual frisson to it which the writer seems somewhat afraid to fully explore.Yet the biggest issue is that the idea of the old and the new Indias is wrapped in something oblique, it's as if Taser doesn't want to express an opinion one way or another. I saw flashes of an India I recognised - it's a contradictory place both illogical and wondrful at the same time and filled with a people who absolutely adore their nation - Taser's book never quite gets the tone right in a way that Suketu Metha's "Maximum City" does. Perhaps it's a subject better suited to non-fiction at the moment, or perhaps the setting of Delhi doesn't quite give the same sharp contrasts as Mumbai does.For all that it's a pleasant read, although perhaps not a good enough one to make you want to return. There is a point in this book when the protagonist receives a rejection from his publisher which descirbes the fictional novel he's been working on as "seriously flawed" and to "work on developing clarity and simplicity to its style". Oddly after finishing the novel one might, at times say the same about "The Temple Goers" itself. Maximum City: Bombay Lost and FoundThe White Tiger