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Shashi Tharoor Riot: A Love Story New York. Arcade. 2001. 272 pages $24.95. ISBN 1-55970-605-8
SHASHI THAROOR'S third novel, Riot, confirms that he strives for novelty in his fiction. Novelty was a prominent feature of his very first novel, The Great Indian Novel, about Indira Gandhi's usurpation of civil rights during the Emergency. Tharoor perceived similarity between the situation during the Emergency and the situation in the Indian epic the Mahabharata and telescoped the two situations, turning a great epic into a novel which, according to one reviewer, was "century-- striding." Tharoor's second novel, Show Business, was about the appearances and realities of its titular profession, and it too was remarkable for its novelty of setting. The work was presented as a screenplay and as such, the narrative encompassed the celluloid world in all its aspects: staging, set design, scripts, music, makeup-room gossip, bedroom scenes, et cetera. Jonathan Loe of...