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Temptations of the West: How to be Modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond Kindle Edition
by Pankaj Mishra (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 out of 5 stars 44
From Bollywood stars in Bombay worrying whether they are sexy enough to a heroin addict in Pakistan mocking jihad; from Indian mafia dons with political ambitions to Afghans waiting for American benevolence; from Kashmiri Muslims longing for democracy to Tibetan Buddhists fighting to preserve religion in politics - Temptations of the West is a travel book unlike any other.
In a narrative as revealing as it is profound, Pankaj Mishra's new book dissolves the old boundaries between East and West, challenging every romantic cliché about the conflicts and dilemmas at the heart of the modern world.
Print length
448 pages
Language
1 June 2006
Product description
Review
"Fascinating . . . Pankaj Mishra's travels are interwoven with pungent commentary on modern politics in South Asia. . . . This is not a gentle book, but it is a brave one."--"The New York Times Book Review" "A set of probing essays about strife and sorrow in volatile South Asia . . . Unusually insightful and eloquent, Mishra deftly deciphers forces political, religious, and economic."--"Booklist" "An insightful new book that blends journalism, travel writing, memoir, and sharp political commentary."--"The Miami Herald"
About the Author
Pankaj Mishra was born in North India, in 1969. He writes for the New York Review of Books, the New Statesman, Granta , the Times Literary Supplement and the Guardian.
Product details
ASIN : B0098XMVUC
Publisher : Picador; Main Market edition (1 June 2006)
Language : English
File size : 1400 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 448 pagesBest Sellers Rank: 1,419,224 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)3,523 in Travel Essays & Travelogues
7,768 in Travel Writing
8,645 in Travel Writing ReferenceCustomer Reviews:
4.0 out of 5 stars 44
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Navaneethan Santhanam
4.0 out of 5 stars Mishra grows upReviewed in India on 16 March 2020
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Before reading Temptations, I read Mishra’s Butter Chicken in Ludhiana where he seemed less mature and much more disdainful about expressions of modernity in recently-liberalised India. In this work, he seems more measured and compassionate, while retaining a critical distance from the subject matter of how the imposition of “modernity” has impacted the lives of millions in a belt stretching from Afghanistan to Tibet.
In what seems to be a theme for Mishra, he focusses on the jarring nature of an imposed modernity on groups with limited exposure to it and almost no experience dealing with it. Having read his more recent work, Age of Anger, he seems particularly keen on understanding the disaffection or discomfort felt by provincial young men thrust into a world that they don’t have a ready way to navigate, where older, more set ways of interaction have been violently replaced, leading to bewilderment and confusion. I suspect this stems from his own upbringing in small-town India and the disorientation he experienced when he left home for university.
Overall, a fascinating if slightly overwhelming book.
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August Party
4.0 out of 5 stars アジアの血塗られた現代化を問うReviewed in Japan on 15 June 2012
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インドおよびその周辺国における現代化は避けられないと
パンカジ・ミシュラは考える
現代化が避けられない選択であるとしても
現代化に随伴する途方もない暴力と流血にミシュラは呆然とする
現代化に巻き込まれ翻弄される人々の現実と苦悩を
ミシュラは自らの足で取材し記録するのだ
「ニューヨークだけが世界ではない」と
アルンダティ・ロイは言った
アフガニスタンとの国境に近いパキスタンの町に
タリバンへの志願兵が集まる
彼らの心のうちには何が思い描かれているのか
僕はミシュラの本を読みながら
西の空のかなたに思いをはせたのだ
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Mrs. R.
5.0 out of 5 stars What the news never tells usReviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 April 2007
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I picked this book because I was looking for something to tell me about the way life is changing on the Indian sub-continent. I was expecting a report about economic success and increasing materialism. What I got was much a deeper, darker, far more interesting but worrying political and economic report surrounding tales of everyday life.
It's rare good fortune to stumble over a book that tells you things you never knew you didn't know; Pankaj Mishra explores and explains details about life in the East which are truly shocking to someone like me who thinks she's reasonably well-informed about world affairs. This book has entirely changed my views on India. We hear and read in the West about India's marvellous economic revolution and how we all ought to be doing business with the forward thinking, intelligent people there. Who wants to know about all the other people who aren't feeling the benefit, who are becoming poorer, deprived of even the basics for a bearable life, living in fear of violence?
This is a book about individuals' lives, people that Mishra helps us to understand and like or dislike, in whom we become fascinated. Educated people who can't even dream of finding a job, corrupt politicians and their dedicated counterparts, aspiring film stars, bereaved families. It's a book about people and their backgrounds, the political and economic backdrops against which their difficult lives are played out. I wonder what has happened to them?
I've been urging people to read this book, especially people who do business with India. This is not an easy nor a comfortable read, but it is a rewarding one.
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Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars overratedReviewed in India on 17 September 2021
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this book is simply overrated author is just describing his memories of living at different places in south Asia but he lacks sociological understanding as well depiction .very shallow
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Danesh Zaki
4.0 out of 5 stars Honest Reporting from Volatile RegionsReviewed in the United States on 20 July 2013
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The book contains treatises on the author's travels through India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and Tibet. Pankaj Mishra provides honest, fearless reports from the areas he visits. The incidents and conditions that he reports are hardly covered or purposely censored in the mainstream media. Reports from Kashmir, Pakistan's play in Afghanistan and the political reasons on events and the governments responses, are well covered. He also mentions the threats he and his family have received due to his frank coverage.
The book is recommended to anyone who wants a honest, on-the-ground view of things.
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