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Well, what a little hypocrite I am ... because politically, this book has so much wrong with it on so many levels. So don't rush out and read it and then denounce me, and you know who I'm talking to. But. Still. What a story. What writing. What a great read. In its scope and thrust and breadth -- it is at once a detective story, a character study or rather series of character studies, a sweeping meditation on the post-colonial history of India and in particular the national question (I found one of the subplots, having to do with the ravages of the Partition, just devastating, it left me weak and weeping), a fascinating portrait of a great city -- this is a masterful novel. Tolstoyan, I'd say (now that I'm such a big Tolstoy expert having finally read War & Peace recently). This was a rare reading experience: a nearly 1,000-page book that I wished would go on and on.