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Title: Cromartie V. the God Shiva: Acting Through the Government of India by Rumer Godden ISBN: 0-688-15550-2 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: November, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.00

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Average Customer Rating: 3.2 (5 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Cromartie V. the god Shiva
Comment: A charming, easily read novel despite its akwardly long title. One of Godden's finest efforts.

Rating: 3
Summary: The Maltese Falcon Redux?
Comment: This is one of the most engaging titles I've seen in years. I was looking forward to a clash of East v. West, of the legal v. the spiritual, all leavened by a large dash of humor.

Instead I found a entertaining, but ultimately disappointing book. The plot is sort of an Indian "Maltese Falcon," only this time, "the stuff that dreams are made of" is a statuette of the Hindu god Shiva. Our hero, a London barrister (smart! good-looking!), is off to India (where he grew up) to dig up leads, and, eventually, romance.

The description of the Western guests and Eastern hosts--all suspects!-- and the atmospheric hotel from which the statuette was purportedly stolen is wonderful escapism. The guests parody varying attitudes towards the East (variously appalled, shocked, intoxicated, patrician): Enjoy these characters and their sense-satiating hotel with a long cool summertime drink.

But the plot, and most of the characters, proceed without sufficient development or surprise to match the promise of the earlier narrative. And when it all ends (in a Perry Mason-like long confessional), one wishes that the book had taken a different, perhaps more whimsical direction.

Being a short novel, it is probably worth your time to read it, if only for an introduction to Rumer Godden, and as an antidote to summer's gasoline-soaked barbeques and blaring baseball games.

(I look forward to reading other books by this renowned author.)

Rating: 3
Summary: Try another Rumer Godden book
Comment: This book seems like an addendum--it leads nowhere. Although the parts describing Indian culture are interesting, and often her writing is very poetic, the ending feels contrived. Rumer Godden is not your typical rising action-climax-falling action writer (thank God), and so she does have some tricks for keeping your interest: a couple of interesting main characters and some absolutely beautiful meditations on religion. I am constantly amazed and impressed with the live and let live attitude of Rumer Godden's best characters. But the book didn't stick with me afterward. By all means, check this one out of the library, but buy An Episode of Sparrows.