In Jai, Anappara has created a boy vivid in his humanity, one whose voice somersaults on the page. Rich with easy joy, Anappara’s writing announces the arrival of a literary supernova ... Telling a story from the perspective of a child always risks a descent into sentimentality. There’s not a lick of it here ... We marvel at...threads, so vibrantly woven by Anappara ... This is the power of this novel, how it keeps us grounded—not in the flats of the hi-fi dwellers but in something closer to India’s heart, which she locates in the minds of children with bony shoulders and dirty feet.
Sometimes, voice is all ... it’s their singular voices that give...characters their life and complexity. So it is with Jai, a 9-year-old Indian boy who’s the narrator and main character of Deepa Anappara’s extraordinary debut novel ... The moving and unpredictable novel Anappara wrote defies easy classification. Given the sometimes capricious exploits of its young investigators, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line could conceivably be shelved in the YA section ... Yet, the tale darkens into urban noir as it reaches its awful conclusion. By story’s end, Jai has grown more hesitant, humbled by tragedy and evils beyond his once-childish imaginings, Even so, his remarkable voice retains a stubborn lightness, a will to believe in the possibility of deliverance in this fallen world.
Despite the challenging subject matter, Anappara keeps the tone light-hearted ... The gaps in the children’s innocent reasoning are quickly filled in by a world-wise, grown-up reader and rendered the more horrible for it ... Anappara offers no direct solution to the crisis she identifies, although most readers will infer that ending police corruption would be a start. Rather than lecture, she allows the characters to simply tell their stories which proves to be a far more effective method of delivering her message. If enough people hear it, then this story could very well save lives.
Like its nine-year-old narrator, Jai...Djinn Patrol, too, shape-shifts, matures from genre to genre: a murder mystery, a high-stakes detective story, a coming-of-age story, crime fiction, political satire. The plot is simple and more or less progresses straightforwardly ... it’s what Anappara does with language(s) that makes Djinn Patrol utterly and wholly distinctive, inventive, and immersive ... As a bilingual speaker and reader of Hindi and English, this felt like a bonus: to 'get' the cues, clues, and cultural references; to always nod along in recognition; enjoy plenty of 'Aha!' moments; and, most considerately, to not have one’s culture explained to oneself ... Anappara’s Jai is endearing, entertaining, and earnest; he keeps you on the edge of your seat ... What a child narrator affords Anappara is the ability to write about institutional injustice and negligence, unimaginable atrocities and harsh lived-realities ... And for this, we can hold Deepa Anappara’s story close to our hearts.
... part detective story, part coming-of-age tale, with a powerful undercurrent of social commentary ... Anappara seduces us with tastes and smells, reminding us that even within this environment, where pollution weighs heavy in the air and scavenging from the local landfill is commonplace, there is still beauty and enjoyment in food ... Overlooking the slum is a gated community, populated by those at the other end of the economic spectrum, where Jai’s mother works for a demanding and domineering boss. The juxtaposition is nicely conceived and Anappara creates a sense of claustrophobia ... What really sets Djinn Patrol apart, though, is the authenticity of Jai’s voice. Narrating in the first person, Anappara immerses us not only in Jai’s world of deep social inequities, but also in his internal world. Precocious experiences are juxtaposed with childlike sensibilities ... In channelling complex social and political realities through Jai’s voice, Anappara creates an endearing and highly engaging narrator to navigate us through the dark underbelly of modern India.
It’s difficult to convey what’s so special about Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line without spoilers, but suffice to say it’s transformed utterly by its concluding chapters. In a day, our child narrator changes beyond recognition, and through his eyes, the world he inhabits does too. A book that started by feeling like a cute comic novel about a ragtag gang of poor kids who ingeniously defeat the baddies turns into an unsparing portrayal of the real world. In this world, stories will not save your life, and, if the powerful will not protect them, poor kids can never be safe. There is no fun adventure story to be told about the trafficking of children ... This is a first novel, and it has some of the clumsiness that goes with that. The bad characters can feel like caricatures; at moments, Jai’s voice isn’t convincing as that of a child. Sometimes, too, the political message can be a little heavy-handed. But in the end Anappara, a journalist with a background in reporting on poverty and religious violence, delivers something more powerful and complex than the vast majority of more highly crafted novels. The narrative goes beyond portraying how the poor of India have been betrayed by their government, and suggests they might also be betrayed by the stories we like to tell about them. Jai has to grow up overnight: this book asks that the reader does, too.
... dazzling ... an enthralling narrative, grounded in Jai’s growing awareness that fairness does not guide his world and that happy endings are hard to come by.
As a one-time journalist in Delhi, Deepa Anappara knows of what she writes, and her prose, richly punctuated by local idiom, is exceptionally vivid. She evokes the variety, individuality and vitality of the characters in Jai’s community with skill and humour, whilst underlining the appalling conditions in which they live ... Jai’s perspective is bold, brave, funny, touching and multi-faceted...his voice transforms some pretty grim material into something life-affirming ... This is the kind of fiction that beguiles whilst packing a huge political punch. Even aged nine, Jai is aware of the casual injustices of his world, how the police value the lives of hi-fi dwellers more than slumdogs like himself.
... a debut novel that is teaming with life despite its deadly subject matter ... captivating ... Anappara shifts skilfully between different narrative voices throughout her novel ... a masterful eye-opener to the casual cruelties of contemporary India ... The chief success of Anappara’s novel is her depiction of the basti, and the exploration of the cultural and societal issues that underpin it. Through the innocent eyes of Jai and his friends, the details are striking ... [a] vibrant rendering of an unequal, corrupt Indian society ... A particular strength of Anappara’s writing is her portrayal of the plight of young Indian women.
... moving ... Ms. Anappara, who was born in the southern Indian state of Kerala and won awards for her journalism before turning to fiction, brings Jai’s stressful world to life in all its camaraderie, prejudice and peril.
The author has done an excellent job of telling her sometimes sad story in Jai’s credible nine-year-old voice, and her treatment of her setting, with its ingrained social inequities, is a model of verisimilitude. Best, however, is her characterization, especially that of Jai, who comes to life on the page to live on in readers’ memories.
Anappara’s journalist training helps create a keen sense of place populated by vivid characters, but her fiction skills aren’t quite as honed, and the narrative drags, proving more unsatisfying than edifying.
... a story full of humor, warmth, and heartbreak ... entrancing ... There’s an almost Harry Potter–ish vibe to the relationship among the three intrepid kids, and Jai’s voice is irresistible: funny, vivid, smart, and yet always believably a child’s point of view. Anappara paints all of her characters, even the lost ones, with deep empathy, and her prose is winningly exuberant. But she also brings a journalist’s eye to her story, one that is based on the shocking numbers of children who disappear from Indian cities every day ... Engaging characters, bright wit, and compelling storytelling make a tale that's bleak at its core and profoundly moving.
... witty, resonant ... Jai’s carefree nature lends a lighthearted tone to an increasingly grim tale ... The prose perfectly captures all the characters’ youthful voices, complete with some Hindi and Urdu terms, whose meanings, if not immediately obvious, become clear with repetition. Anappara’s complex and moving tale showcases a strong talent.
