A modern masterpiece that's elegantly written ... a good introduction not only to Chaudhuri's writing, but also to Indian music, Indian culture, and Indian thought. The author is often at his best when he zigzags back and forth from Bob Dylan and Julie Andrews to Boy George, Dante, and Tagore, the Indian author who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Chaudhuri tells readers that critics of his own work have argued that he doesn't come to 'the point.' There is some truth to that assertion. Chaudhuri approaches a point he wants to make and then backs away, only to approach the point again from another direction. It's also fair to say that he doesn't come to 'the point,' but rather to many different points ... Perhaps the best thing about Finding the Raga is that it can make the reader a better listener and more aware of sounds ... It's a book for East and West, listeners and musicians, lovers of Hindustani classical music and American rock 'n' roll.
[Chaudhuri] improvises on a number of themes, among them autobiography, writing, and his relationship with music, deftly weaving them all together in crisp and compelling prose. His analysis of the concepts and experience of listening to music is illuminating, and his exploration of music’s place in cultures and in the world is enlightening. To the Western ear, Indian music can be an unfamiliar challenge, and Chaudhuri’s insights will motivate readers to expand their musical horizons. Musicians and listeners of all kinds will recognize a kindred spirit here ... Readers familiar with Indian music will find much to appreciate, and those unfamiliar with it need only go to YouTube for examples of Chaudhuri’s work as a performer and composer.
... a syncretic work that draws on a great variety of Western and Indian sources and genres, combines memoir and musicology, and reads like an essay. At times the vocabulary is technical, yet one doesn’t necessarily feel instructed. This narrative could be studied, but it’s nothing like a textbook. Instead, it is an inquiry into a method and a way of life, a work of praise and of belief suspended ... [Chaudhuri's] life, even in England, was transformed by this musical devotion, and his chronicle, like a raga, is a wonderful exposition of becoming.
