Last Man in Tower Reviews
BookBrowse
Last Man in Tower was a struggle to finish. The reviews I've read all seem to skirt around the central issue that I imagine many readers will have with this novel: it's slow-moving, and there are far too many characters. In a single page, ten characters might be named, all of whom you've heard of before but must be introduced again and again (a third of the way through the novel, central characters are still being identified by their ages and professions; even the author seems to acknowledge that it's difficult to keep everybody straight). There is some absolutely beautiful descriptive language on display throughout, but the author spends far too much time setting the scene, so that by page 200, you're still waiting for something to happen." - Morgan Macgregor
Other Reviews
"Starred Review. Though occasionally overwritten ("The hypodermic needle of the outside world had bent at his epidermis and never penetrated"), Adiga is a master of pacing." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Adiga nails the culture of corruption. How exciting to watch a writer come into his own, surpassing the achievement of his first novel." - Kirkus
"A funny yet deeply melancholic work, Last Man in Tower is a brilliant, and remarkably mature, second novel. A rare achievement." - The Economist
"Magnificent ... A richly evoked, Dickensian world that explores the chasm between rich and poor, the venal and the incorruptible ... Adiga succeeds in giving a voice and a sense of humor to the powerless. .... All human life - and longing - is here. Marvelous stuff." - The Tatler (UK)
"As well-paced as any crime story. Every one of the huge cast of characters is brilliantly drawn. I’m aghast with admiration. There is no one writing fiction as good as this in Britain or America." - Reader's Digest
"Evocative, entertaining, and angry ... All of Adiga's gifts for sharp social observation and mordant wit [come] to the fore.... Teeming with life and skullduggery." -
Ceri Radford, The Telegraph (UK)
"A subtle and nuanced examination of the nature of personal corruption ... [Adiga] continues his project of shining a light on the changing face of India, bringing us a picture that is as compelling as it is complex." - The Guardian(UK)
"Timely ... An unsettling novel, well suited to the febrile and shifting city it seeks to reclaim." - The Observer (UK)
"Richly comedic ... Beautifully done. ... Funny and engaging as he can be, Adiga never forgets the seriousness of his subject ... A morality tale for the modern age [that is] as honest as it is entertaining." - The Times
"Acute observations and sharp imagery ... An indictment of the hypocritical mores of the middle class, prepared to cut corners and take recourse to ‘number two activities’ in its hurry to move up in life. Like all cautionary tales, it embodies more than a little truth about our times." - Financial Times (UK)
"Ambitious ... Memorable ... Adiga is Dickensian in the extent of his cast. Around his two main characters he marshals more than 20 others ... [He] lays out this most frenetic of megalopolises before us, by turns fascinating, sensual and horrifying, as his writing takes an impressive step onwards." - The Independent on Sunday (UK)
"Richly evocative ... To make a building such as a block of flats the frame for a novel has rich possibilities in a modern world where lives are forever being forced together by collective structures.... Adiga [shows] considerable skill at evoking the quotidian lives, domestic and communal, of Tower A’s inhabitants." - The Sunday Times (UK)
The information about Last Man in Tower shown above was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's online-magazine that keeps our members abreast of notable and high-profile books publishing in the coming weeks.
In most cases, the reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication.
If you are the publisher or author of this book and feel
that the reviews shown do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available,
please send us a message with the mainstream media reviews that you would like to see added.
