Gil Hates Everything

“The Siege Of Krishnapur”, by J. G. Farrell.

I may have mentioned that I can’t get enough of novels set during the English occupation of India. Yes, even though we lost. Perhaps especially because we lost. Writers tend to use extreme cases to bring out their characters’ most secretly held views, and this is no exception; an alarmingly endless siege of an ever-shrinking English settlement drives most of its occupants mad, men and women alike, and things are said – and done – which tell us a lot about the supremacist English mentality of the time. Plus, lots of people get shot or chopped up, so you can’t complain that it’s all talk and no action.

I liked this a lot, even more than the same author’s “Troubles” from 1970, and apparently he wrote a third look-at-the-horrible-English novel, about Singapore, which I’m planning to read even though it didn’t win the Booker. I am suspicious of the next few prizewinners so I need something to get me through them