2007 bookcrossing journal:A Raag, as far as I could make out, is some kind of poetic song from northern India??This book is about Indian students, one, the narrator, in particular. They are studying at Oxford University. Each chapter stands alone and it could be a collection of short stories with an ongoing theme almost. There are aspects of life in Oxford, their relationships etc, and well as chapters about life in India, in Bombay and Calcutta. The chapters jump about from different time periods, which give it a bit of a detached feeling. The narrator also remains illusive as a person - you learn very little about just him, not even his name. I don't know whether this is meant to be autobiographical in anyway, because reading the brief biographical notes at the start, Chaudhuri was born in Calcutta and studied in Oxford too.It might mean more to someone who has actually been to Oxford. I can't really make my mind up about this book, but it feels generally a bit too vague and stand-offish.
