About book The Temple Dancer: A Novel Of India (2006)
For being Speed’s first novel, "The Temple Dancer" is an exquisitely planned and written, with a rich and constantly contouring story line placed in the backdrop of 1600s Moghul India. The characters are plentiful and beautifully developed, and the scenery and background are described to such an illustrious detail that it almost feels as though we are there in the rocking howdah perched atop the elephant. Despite the tumultuous nature of the plot, the story does chivy along at a rather slow place, leading the reader to occasionally skim through the descriptive sections to get to the gist of the story. Within the first few pages of the novel, we are introduced to the two beautiful, yet extremely different heroines of our story; Lucinda Desana, the blaringly naive and wealthy Portuguese heiress and Maya, the exotically stunning devadasi (temple dancer) who was recently purchased by Lucinda's family as a concubine/bribe for the vizier. They are thrown together for the journey from Goa to Bijapur, along with a caravan consisting of a wily Desana cousin whom death follows, a notoriously dangerous settlement man, the deviously cunning eunuch, and a mysteriously secretive prince. As various narrators chronicle the tale, Speed takes the time to develop the personalities of each character, allowing us to fit them better into their surroundings. As Maya and Lucinda navigate their way through dangerous bandit-laden mountain passes and roads, they are also forced to work their way around greed, religious differences, shifty political alliances, commitment, scandal, death as a means of escape, and most importantly, love.Speed explores a number of themes throughout his novel whilst simultaneously weaving a vibrant story line that fits beautifully into the tapestry of Moghul India. Before I continue singing praises of the novel, I must point out that I was extremely annoyed by the constant usage of “Hindi” when referring to a “Hindu”. As someone that claims to have studied Indian history for decades, Speed’s blatant inaccuracy was surprising and unexpected; “Hindi” is the language, “Hindu” is a follower of Hinduism. It should also be noted that the story is narrated at a slow place and occasionally feels as though it is lagging due to the heavy emphasis on detail, but we must take into account that Speed is a first time novelist, and furthermore he is trying to capture Moghul India as accurately as possible. Besides these minor setbacks, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and look forward to reading the next of the trilogy, “Tiger Claws”
I like how another reviewer described this book as "pause-filled" writing. There were times when the story would be racing and exciting. And other times where the plot was so slow I struggled to the next page. I liked this book, but not enough to read the whole trilogy. I found myself hating the character of Maya, because I didn't feel that her personality and characteristics were consistent. One minute she seemed indifferent, then weak, then passionate, etc. Even Speed makes mention in the back of the book that in his first few editions, his editor said the female characters were like cardboard. He admits that e struggled with developing his female characters, and it definitely shows. I wish that Speed had included a glossary or index of terms. I found myself constantly having to google certain language terms or historical words that I wasn't familiar with. This was one of my biggest pet peeves of the novel. I'm also not sure how great of a historian Speed is. I was intrigued by the use of arsenic in the story by Lucinda to "lighten her skin". I tried to look up the practice on the internet, but I found little information about it. I actually found out that European women who started to use arsenic, quickly stopped using it because it darkens the skin.
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This novel is set in Hindustan (India) in 1657. We follow the Dasana family as they set up to make or break their fortunes in politics. I'm not quite sure what I expected this book to be after I read the the synopsis, but I do know that it wasn't quite it. It was good though, I haven't read many books at all set in India and there were quite a few characters that I really liked. Maya, the dancer in the title, Lucinda Dasana, Pathan & De Gama. I especially grew to despise The Brotherhood (eunuchs) they were a main bad force, and they are everywhere in the book. Actually John Speed did a really good job of making the eunuch Slipper very distasteful in such a way that at first, you don't really know why it is you mistrust him, just that you do. I really liked that about the story, it also had love and adventure, and I think the inner workings and politics will be seen in the next book as I do believe this is a series. On that note, I will probably be reading the next book(s) as well, just to see what happens.
—Cayleigh
Not bad...Interesting cast of characters, the men being extrememly grotesque and cruel and the women beautiful and weak at times. You have Maya, a brainwashed temple dancer that honestly believes that opening her body to men is serving her god. Lucinda is a pampered Portuguese girl that is all about dresses and corsets and the woman she is in the end is amazing and I enjoyed reading her change. Geraldo, Victorio, and Slipper (and about 20 other fellows) are the most disgusting, vile men I have ever read about. There is an immense amount of cruelty, greed, and hate and a hint of homosexuality here and there. The women alone, and the way they grew and blossomed and grew stronger on this amazing journey amongst the perversion made the book worthwhile. To sum it up, the book is about men and how their greed controls them and the deeds and bad deals they make to advance themselves. The women are simply caught in the middle of it.
—Tara Chevrestt
This book led me to believe that the subject was the temple dancer and it would take place from her view. There was very little in the book that took place from Maya's view however. I felt as if the author took on too much story in here and was unable to finish any of them. The main characters she tended to kill off or send into the unknown and you don't really know what happens to them. As for Maya her character is inconsistant and not well developed. It would have been better if there was either a little more background, more focus on the one character or more of a conclusion to the story at hand.
—Ann Marie
