The Alchemy of Desire (2)

The Alchemy of Desire can easily be listed in the erotic category. Never before have I read a book, with the kind of sexual overdose, as this book has...almost every facet of sex seems to have been touched upon, standing sex, sex on the table, wild sex, sex with ghosts,sex with dogs, homosexual men having sex with each other, homosexual men having sex with non-homosexual men, there is such a detailed account of it, that by the end of it you start wishing the leading characters weren’t quite so..’unsatiated’.  Couldnt help feeling a little corrupted by reading it all.

I think it is easy to judge from my tone, that I won’t be joining the long list of fans of this one. The book could easily done with 100 pages less. The main plot starts well after the 300^th page, and midway it seems Tarun Tejpal gets into his journalist shoes, and starts digressing about the state of India and comparisons between Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi.

However all said and done, he writes beautifully. His is a writing style which is highly descriptive, drawing on vivid imagery. The author explores the ‘alchemy of desire’, a desire which can be equally empowering and destructive.

‘Desire is a wonderfully promiscuous thing, but when it is trapped in monogamy it cannot survive without love.’

Sometimes the book does catch u off-guard with statements like these. Perhaps the book is written for a more mature audience.