Book review: A State of Freedom, by Neel Mukherjee

The Victorian novel – that great “baggy monster”, as Henry James called it – is alive and well, and being written in India. Neel Mukherjee’s third novel is a good example. Telling the story, or stories, of five main characters, from different backgrounds and social levels, who come fleetingly into contact with each other, its range is both wide and deep. It’s difficult in our stratified society for a novelist convincingly to depict vertical connections in society – unless he is writing crime fiction. The Victorians, notably Dickens and Hardy, could do this; think of Bleak House or The Return of the Native. So can Indian novelists today.