Book Review | So What if Britain were to be India’s 30th State?
For two weeks since I finished the book, these questions have ruled my mind. I still don’t have answers. So I can’t review 30th State
In all my years of reading, I’ve seldom wondered why an author might have written or published a certain book. I’ve just been grateful for the ones I’ve liked, philosophical about the ones I didn’t like and sometimes furious at the waste of my time when I came upon a book I hated.
But with 30th State, a novel by British member of Parliament Alan Gemmell, the questions just keep coming.
I can perhaps figure out why Gemmell wrote it: with his experience as the UK’s trade commissioner to India and as a former British Deputy High Commissioner for Western India, the idea behind the book is quite intriguing. It’s about a time in the not very distant future when Britain is so politically weak and so economically debilitated that it has no option but to become India’s 30th state, turning its former colony into a colonizer.
But I have no answers for any of my other questions. Such as, what IS this book? Is it an extra-long speculative essay or a political thriller? Because while there is a very good idea laid out in excruciating detail — spoiler alert, the India in this book is quite the villain, like all colonizers everywhere and in all eras — there’s no sign of an actual plot movement till page 290 of a total of 297 pages.
As this existential question zipped around my head, I had even more questions. Such as, why do so many characters do villainous-type things but never further the plot, if indeed there was a plot to begin with? Why do so many characters exist when they don’t do anything — and that includes the leader of the opposition in the House of Commons and the commissioner sent to Britain from Mumbai?
There’s more. Why is the hero of the book so wishy-washy when he’s supposed to be the person who saves Britain? He pretty much does nothing but attend meetings, protest mildly, and then do what he’s told to do. Why is the hero’s wife first a terrifying Lady Macbeth type of character and then, from page 290 to 297, completely different? Why has the book not been edited? Is this a first draft that’s been published by mistake? And, to round the circle, if it’s not a first draft but a real book, then what IS this book?
For two weeks since I finished the book, these questions have ruled my mind. I still don’t have answers. So I can’t review 30th State. The only review it needs at this point is one between the author and a good editor.
30th State
By Alan Gemmell
Bloomsbury
pp. 297; Rs 499
