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''River of Smoke'' (2011) is a novel by Indian novelist
Amitav Ghosh Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956)Ghosh, Amitav
, ''
. It is the second volume of the Ibis trilogy.


Synopsis

The promotional text refers to the storyline which can be summarized as follows: After the incidents on Ibis, which was caught in a storm and eventually ended up in
Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...
, but with a few passengers less, the story help in this novel begins from where it left off. From the details of the changing lives and traditions of Indian migrants in Mauritius, the novel traces the fate of other characters from Ibis and describes the
opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy '' Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which ...
trade in China. The novel has a rich tapestry of characters from various cultural and geographical backgrounds whose common interest is trade with China. The plot is set in Fanqui town, a small strip of land used by foreigners to trade with local Chinese traders, a year before the
first opium war The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...
.


Plot introduction

In the year 1838, three ships are caught in a raging storm in the
Andaman Sea The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated fro ...
. The ''Anahita'', owned by Bahram Moddie, a
Parsi Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...
opium trader from
Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
, the ''Redruth'', owned by Fitcher Penrose, on an expedition to collect rare species of plants from China and the ''Ibis'' (from ''Sea of Poppies'') carrying convicts and indentured labourers. The convicts Neel Rattan, a Bengali Zamindar, and Ah Fatt, a criminal from Canton, escape from the ship along with a couple of
lascars A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, British Somaliland, or other land east of the Cape of Good Hope, who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the middle of the ...
. The story traces the lives of these principal characters in Canton. Bahram Modi, a lowly son-in-law of a rich
Parsi Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...
Ship builder Rustamjee Mistrie, convinces his father in law to provide him seed capital to enter into opium trade, carries out multiple successful expeditions to China and creates considerable wealth in the process for his in-laws. However, on the sudden demise of his father-in-law, he is forced by his brothers-in-law to retire from the Export division. Bahram decides to ship a large consignment of opium to China, as he is confident that he would be able to earn a sizeable profit to buy out the Export division, in spite of a ban on trading of Opium issued by the Chinese officials. Bahram also has a son (Ah Fatt) through a Chinese boat woman, Chi Mei, unknown to his family back in Bombay. Fitcher Penrose, a botanist, is on an expedition to China to collect rare plants. He is joined by Paulette Lambert aka Puggly, daughter of a French botanist, in his search for the rare Golden camellias. They are helped by Robin Chinnery, a fictional illiegitimate son of the English painter
George Chinnery George Chinnery (; 5 January 1774 – 30 May 1852) was an English painter who spent most of his life in Asia, especially India and southern China. Early life Chinnery was born in London, where he studied at the Royal Academy Schools. ...
. Neel and Ah Fatt have escaped from Ibis and they meet Bahram Moddie, Ah Fatt's father. Neel joins Bahram as his Munshi. Does Mr. Moddie manage to sell his opium and redeem himself in spite of the Chinese government's crackdown? Does Mr. Penrose find the rare plant he is looking for? Does Neel manage to evade the long arm of the law?


Characters

*Bahram Moddie - Parsi Merchant from Bombay and father of Ah Fatt *Chi Mei - A Cantonese
Tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the '' Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short ...
woman who is the lover of Bahram Moddie *Ah Fatt or Framjee (Freddie) Pestonjee Moddie- Son of Bahram Moddie and Chi Mei *Neel Rattan Halder - the Raja of Raskhali and later Munshi to Bahram Moddie *Vico - Bahram Moddie’s purser *Zadig Bey - Armenian watch maker and friend of Bahram Moddie *Fitcher Penrose - A Cornish botanist on an expedition to collect rare plants in China *Paulette Lambert - Daughter of a French botanist who accompanies Mr. Fitcher on his expedition *Robin Chinnery - Artist, Paulette’s friend and illegitimate
Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The '' Oxford English ...
son of George Chinnery *Commissioner
Lin Zexu Lin Zexu (30 August 1785 – 22 November 1850), courtesy name Yuanfu, was a Chinese political philosopher and politician. He was the head of states (Viceroy), Governor General, scholar-official, and under the Daoguang Emperor of the Qing dynas ...
- The incorruptible Chinese mandarin who is appointed by the Emperor of China to put an end to opium trading


Reception

The novel has received generally positive reviews from critics. David Davidar writing in '' Outlook'' notes "Conventional wisdom has it that in the age of
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
long striders in the world of fiction are doomed to extinction. Attention spans have dwindled, the pundits say, brevity is all, and the grand narrative is to be consigned to the trash heap. Well, thank God, Amitav Ghosh hasn’t been paying attention to the so-called experts but has decided to go where his inclinations have led him. Generous helpings of humour, adventure (the hunt for the golden camellia was a favourite), history, romance, villainy and suspense are expertly blended into the narrative to make for a rich and entertaining read". Anjana Rajan writing in ''
The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the sec ...
'' says "To have read ''Sea of Poppies'' is no pre-condition to enjoy the second. What is perhaps a pre-condition is an appetite for detail, a taste for complexities, and a love for words and their strange journeys. Robin Chinnery's conversation transports us to Jane Austen's England. And we are charmed by the sing-song of pidgin as Chi-mei sympathises with Bahram." Tessa Hadley in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' says "In historical novels the past can sometimes feel tamed; hindsight, hovering just off the page, tells us that we know what it all added up to and what came of it (the First Opium War, during which British gunboats enforced a treaty opening Chinese ports to international trade, comes shortly after the ending of this novel). But Ghosh's novels somehow succeed in taking us back inside the chaos of when "then" was "now". His grasp of the detail of the period is exhaustive – he is so thoroughly submerged in it – that readers can't possibly remember all the things he shows them, or hold on to all the life-stories of all the characters he introduces.". She also goes on to lament "The novel feels stitched together clumsily in a few places. In particular, the section narrated in letters from Robin Chinnery (illegitimate, mixed-race and presumably fictional son of George Chinnery, a real-life painter of South China scenes) to Paulette the botanist, who appears in the previous book. Paulette is too absent and Robin feels like a contrivance to take us inside certain aspects of Canton life where Bahram can't go." In ''
Paste Magazine ''Paste'' is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publication fro ...
'', writer Zack Shlachter calls the ''Ibis'' trilogy "one of the most inspired explorations of global encounters by a 21st-century writer," noting that in ''River of Smoke'' Ghosh focuses on the simultaneous dangers and potential—for exploitation as for more benevolent kinds of exchange—inherent in trade. The novel has received some awards and recognition. It was shortlisted for 2011 The Hindu Literary Prize; longlisted for the 2011
Man Asian Literary Prize The Man Asian Literary Prize was an annual literary award between 2007 and 2012, given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year. It is awarded to writer ...
; and shortlisted for the 2013 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.
NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
listed the book as one of the year's best historical novels.


References


External links


Amitav Ghosh website
{{Amitav Ghosh 2011 Indian novels Fiction set in 1838 Indian historical novels in English Works about opium Novels set in British India Novels set in Guangdong Novels set in Hong Kong Novels set in the Qing dynasty Novels set in Mauritius Novels set in the 1830s Novels set on ships Postcolonial novels Penguin Books India books Novels about colonialism