From Publishers Weekly

Sexual attraction between a nameless narrator and his wife, Fizz, provides the through line of this sweeping epic by journalist and editor Tejpal. The young, poor couple travel from a quiet town to New Delhi, then to a remote corner of the Himalayas, in pursuit of art and sex. The oft-distracted narrator is trying, with minimal success, to write the Great Indian Novel, and his search for inspiration (other than that offered by the luscious Fizz) is the impetus for decamping to the city and the Himalayas. Little actually happens in these places, however; the narrator's obsession with writing and sex rivals that of Henry Miller's, and Fizz, the muse and sexual dynamo, is a contemporary Mona (though less of a nag). Once set up in the mountain cabin, the narrator finds a long-abandoned stack of diaries and becomes absorbed by them, so much so that their content, about a Chicago woman's journey to India, takes over the book. The opening several hundred pages, though sprinkled liberally with titillating passages, feel like an endurance test. Heavy with ambition, Tejpal's debut will please readers looking for an Indian Rosy Crucifixion. (Dec.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

This sprawling novel covers the history of India and the history of one particular relationship. The narrator and his lover, Fizz, are physically obsessed with each other. When the narrator's writing starts to falter, though, he begins to lose interest in Fizz. The novel is interesting, but readers who have a familiarity with Indian culture and history will find it an easier read than others. Early in the novel the narrator makes a list of rules for writing. The rules include "Avoid writing about sex--difficult to pull off, easy to trash." Unfortunately, the author doesn't heed his own advice, and page after page of the novel is taken up with undescriptive explanations of how often and where the narrator has sex. These explanations are neither exciting nor informative, and one is left wondering whether they are simply included to explain the title and the naked woman on the cover. A worthwhile addition to East Asian collections. Marta Segal

Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.