Trade is the foundation of human civilization. Not only does it provide the means by which we peacefully exchange goods, it underpins and empowers our economies which are the engines of innovation. For without trade, there would not be a means by which the inventive could profit from their ingenuity. Remove this incentive to innovate and our world would swiftly devolve into pre-industrial tribalism, knowledge hoarded by a select few while the masses eke out meager and ignorant existences in a world without light.
While we cannot dispute trade's value to our civilization, we can question its morality. For it often seems as though goodness and decency are left behind in the name of profit. All too often, the lives of the exploited are gathered up and ground down without the profiteers taking even a passing notice in their unjust fates. Is this simply a reflection of human nature, greed overpowering honor on the road to the future? Or is it a failure to look beyond our own stars, our own gain, to gaze upon a world driven by incentives but moderated by fairness? These are the questions Mr. Ghosh weaves into his textured tapestry of life in 19th century Asia. They are questions we all should ponder.
The year is 1838 and China is dusting off the drums of war in preparation for a vigorous pounding. For decades, this proud nation has looked the other way while British opium, grown and shipped from colonial India, made its way into its harbors and thence into the lungs, minds and dreams of its countless millions. For decades, China has watched helplessly as British merchants were enriched by this amoral trade while its own subjects were indentured, sold into slavery to the poppy. No longer... This situation is an offense to the dignity of the Chinese emperor and will not be tolerated, hence the appointment of an imperial commissioner to see to it that this addictive scourge is banished from its shores. Endowed with extraordinary powers, this commissioner must not be swayed by British bribes or British power in an effort to execute his divine mission.
Arrayed against the will of the emperor are the men who have made opium their exploitive stock in lucrative trade. A consortium of British and Indian operators based in the coastal town of Fanqui, they consider opium merely a product to be bought and sold, hiding behind the enlightened principles of free trade in order to avoid the grim reality of the lives their product destroys. Among this consortium is Bahram Modi, an Indian merchant who has elevated himself, through skill and marriage, from his meager roots into a position of wealth and status. This prominence is threatened, however, when the machinations of his family necessitate that Bahram wager his career and future on a single shipment of opium whose value could make him entirely his own master. Having succeeded in bringing this shipment through a terrible storm, Bahram is confronted by the Chinese crackdown on his product and must, with the help of is household, weather this latest and greatest tempest that threatens to engulf the entire region in war.
Picking up soon after the conclusion of the excellent Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, the second, expansive novel in a proposed trilogy by Mr. Ghosh, plunges the reader into the fumy tumult that presaged the First Opium War. Gathering up most of his well-rendered characters from the prior novel, the author transports Neel, the deposed Raj, Ah Fat, the escaped convict, and Paulette, the would-be botanist, from the sea to the hustle and bustle of the Chinese ports. Here, Mr. Ghosh is at his best, bringing to life a dead world with such exquisite clarity and lifelike vitality that the reader can almost feel the oppressive humidity, see the waterways clogged with fishboats, and hear the self-important justifications of British merchants trying to excuse their perfidy. Politics, culture and self-interest have rarely been more judiciously used to spice such a rich literary stew.
For all of Mr. Ghosh's imaginative and reconstructive talents, however, River of Smoke is severely hindered by a shocking absence of plot. At the best of times, the author's novels have a tendency to meander, a complaint readily forgiven when, as with Sea of Poppies, their conclusions are so rewarding. Here, though, Mr. Ghosh doubles down on this less-than-pleasant trait while failing to deliver anything like the conclusive punch that made River of Smoke's progenitor so memorable. This is, without doubt, a novel to delight the senses, a stimulating revivification of a world now lost to us. But this virtue, along with the author's nuanced critique of amoral capitalism, is not enough to rescue it from a disturbing absence of story.
Mr. Ghosh has few peers when it comes to quality, cinematic fiction. Unfortunately, his storyteller's instincts are, here, not equal to his imagination. (3/5 Stars)
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