The Thing about Thugs

April 2, 2012
In his American debut—a Victorian mystery pastiche—Khair is as comfortable rendering late-1830s London as he is Phansa, “a wretched little town” in India, some hundred years later. The focus is Amir Ali, ostensibly a reformed member of the fearsome Indian “cult of Thugee” living in 19th-century London, and subject of Capt. William T. Meadows’s phrenological study, Notes on a Thug: Character and Circumstances. Alternating between Notes on a Thug—which comprises Amir’s confabulated depravities—and letters from Amir to his beloved, Jenny, the unnamed narrator tells the story based on snippets found in his grandfather’s library in Phansa. When a series of brutal beheadings scandalizes London, suspicion quickly falls on the well-known “thug.” Relying on his own wits and a group of fellow Indians, Amir must prove his innocence and bring the real perpetrators to justice. Although Khair shows a deft hand with a wide variety of genres, the mystery is finally overwhelmed by the overt postcolonial critique, and the predictable story sags under its weight. Agent: Matt Bialer, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

July 15, 2012
Khair's American debut--published in his native India in 2009 and shortlisted for the Man Asian Prize--is an intricate, mostly winning parody/tribute to the Victorian novel. Set largely in 1830s London--a locale Khair reassembles using a witty pastiche of details from Dickens, Wilkie Collins and others--the novel centers on Amir Ali. Ali has come to England as a combination of refugee, research subject and mascot. He serves his condescending sponsor, Capt. William Meadows, by pretending to be a reformed member of the infamous Thugees. Meadows, a smug advocate of the powers of phrenology to reveal character traits, is writing a book about Amir called Notes on a Thug. The novel offers a wide variety of source-texts: snippets from Meadows' preposterous work of literary ventriloquism, in which Amir sings flowery praises to the Englishman's superior intellect, superior customs, superior God; Amir's secret notes in Farsi script to his illiterate beloved, Jenny; scandal-sheet newspaper stories; meditations by a present-day narrator who purports to have found Amir's papers in his grandfather's library and to be embroidering them into this novel. A mystery emerges, a twist on the actual case of William Burke, the "resurrection man" who, along with an accomplice, smothered street people in order to deliver their bodies to a surgeon who needed cadavers to study. In Khair's reimagining, someone is decapitating--and stealing the heads of--victims, many of them immigrants. Suspicion falls on Amir, who feels complicit, as if his made-up stories about foreign evil at large have conjured a real-world form. Eventually, the case has to be solved, not by the bumbling office-bound authorities, who perceive the world through a scrim of racism and civilization that blinds them, but by an informal community of street folk led by a Punjabi woman, Qui Hy. Khair's style is nimble, and his investigations into the nature of identity are compelling. But the mystery loses momentum and sputters out--finally, Khair isn't as interested in it as he is in his (convincing, but not subtle or surprising) allegory about the racism and atrocity of colonialism. Smart, entertaining--but not quite satisfying.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 15, 2012

"Ghastly Murders in the East End." So reads the newspaper headline reporting the series of mysterious homicides at the center of this complex, thoughtful novel, set in Victorian-era London. The British Empire is at its height, and the prerogative to subjugate and rule "inferior races" is unquestioned. In keeping with imperial practices that encourage the advancement of human knowledge, Amir Ali, a reformed member of a criminal gang, has been brought to England for interview and study. Khair (Filming) takes two large, mainly invisible cultural narratives--the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the world--and blends them in powerful and enlightening ways. One narrative is the story told by English aristocrats about moral and physical superiority; the other a mostly unheard, disturbing story told by colonized subjects like Ali about exploitation and subjugation. VERDICT A fascinating and emotionally moving novel for fans of literary fiction.--Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2012
The thing about Indian writer-educator Khair's first novel to be published in the U.S. is its deceptive simplicity. At first glance, this slim Victorian thriller seems no more than an expose of British imperialism wrapped in a Kill Bill plot. Khair uses a familiar Victorian literary frame (an unnamed narrator shares a supposedly true story) and formal, descriptive language to evoke the nineteenth-century setting and to create an atmosphere of eerie suspense. Night . . . crawls like a spider between the cobblestones. Soon the reader is enmeshed in stories within stories, in images outside common reality, and in bizarrely fascinating personalities. This tale of an Indian cult assassin brought to England as a phrenological guinea pig; of m'Lord, whose fascination with head-reading becomes a focal point of the story as his minions search for the perfect Thing; of London's invisible peopleprostitutes, opium dealers, immigrants, child spies, and so-called thugsbegs the question, Who are the real villains? The changing narrative modes, obscure historical references, and nested plots may prove challenging to some, who might also find Khair's colloquial use of racial slurs offensive, but they help forge literary suspense that is authentic and deeply thought-provoking. Readers who enjoy Collins and Dickens will recognize their influence on Khair and revel in his creation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)