amitabh ghosh::As a storyteller ghosh is at least at par with vikram seth and michael ondaatje amitabh ghosh

amitabh ghosh::As a storyteller ghosh is at least at par with vikram seth and michael ondaatje.
It relates the interconnected experiences of three families in burma, india and british malaya, covering the period from 1885 to the present.
Starting with the fall of the burmese capital mandalay to a british expeditionary army, it depicts the exile of thibaw, last king of burma, with a small entourage of courtiers.
British colonial power is at its apogee, and it is ironically, perhaps the very extent of british supremacy which will give these two impoverished children some unexpected opportunities.
At the knee of saya john, a catholic chinese originally from british malaya, rajkumar learns the tricks of the teak trade and becomes a prosperous timber merchant in his own right.
In the meantime, dolly is whiling her life away in the indian town of ratnagiri, where king thibaw has been sent to live out his days.
It is at ratnagiri that the lives of dolly and rajkumar become intertwined with that of a prominent family from calcutta.
Through the career of uma roy, initially a fierce nationalist politician but later a more gentle supporter of the mahatma gandhi, ghosh finds a vehicle to expound his own political views, which are sometimes a bit moralistic.
The years between the two world wars, though at times turbulent, are generally kind to most of the characters in this epic tale.
Only dinu, the younger son of rajkumar and dolly, seems to have trouble finding his niche, but towards the end he becomes instrumental to keep story together.
But the japanese invasion of southeast asia throws everything into turmoil.
Family members are cut off from each other, fortunes are lost, and a number of them perish in a variety of warrelated incidents.
The postwar period is dearly needed to heal the emotional wounds.
One of the most moving episodes in this part of the book is the description of how rajkumar and dolly live out their days.
As the narrative progresses in time the tale does not run out of steam.
On the contrary, it now appears as if we are on a runaway train.
This is somewhat regrettable, because until now ghosh had developed both story and characters meticulously.
In order to bring his epic to an end it seems that he starts to economize on the development of both plot and psychology.
In a number of flashbacks he wraps up the remaining loose ends and leaves us behind in the burma of aung san su kyi.
However, he partly makes up for this by introducing at the very end an unexpected twist in the composition of the book.
Apart from its absorbing story, what makes the glass palace into a special book is the fact that in this history of the british empire there is hardly an englishman in sight.