Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found | 
| Author: Suketu Mehta
Publisher: Vintage
List Price: $16.95
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Rating:  79 reviews
Sales Rank: 12166
Media: Paperback
Pages: 560
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0375703403
Dewey Decimal Number: 954.79205
EAN: 9780375703409
ASIN: 0375703403
Publication Date: September 27, 2005
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Product Description
A native of Bombay, Suketu Mehta gives us an insider’s view of this stunning metropolis. He approaches the city from unexpected angles, taking us into the criminal underworld of rival Muslim and Hindu gangs; following the life of a bar dancer raised amid poverty and abuse; opening the door into the inner sanctums of Bollywood; and delving into the stories of the countless villagers who come in search of a better life and end up living on the sidewalks.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 74 more reviews...
 A good 300-page book... November 15, 2004
David Durman (Washington, DC)
82 out of 103 found this review helpful
...trapped inside a 500-page book. Like the blurb says, Maximum City explores Bombay's underbelly, with stories of gangster life, the sex trade, the movie business, politics and other shady pursuits. It should have been a recipe for seedy fun, but sadly Mehta is that guy you get cornered by at the party. You know, the one whose anecdotes are a little too long; who forgets the punch line to the three-minute joke; who is interesting, but not quite as interesting as he believes himself to be. And my goodness, I don't even know who half these people are, but even I can tell that Mehta is dropping way too many names. Maximum City is full of bloated stories that would have soared at two-thirds the length. What with 18 million people in Mumbai you'd think Mehta could have found a good editor. I thought Maximum City was an interesting but flawed book. I'm glad it was written, I just wish it had been written a bit better.
 Fascinating October 4, 2004
Kat Bakhu (Albuquerque, NM United States)
73 out of 80 found this review helpful
It was with great delight when I found by accident this sizeable book on Bombaby. My delight only increased when I started to read. Suketu Metha was taking me into a world that I had long wondered about but had never been able to visit. His book, Maximum City, is easily the best book on 20th Century India that I have ever read.
It is not written as a typical travel book. The format is to take major aspects and dominant personalities of the city and give them each a detailed, richly woven chapter. You'll learn about the quirks and numerous pitfalls of Bombay housing and how the Renter's Act has made everything much much worse. You'll meet the head politician who seems to view Bombay as his personal fiefdom. You'll meet an amazing police detective who is unique on the police force in that he is the only one who won't take bribes, and you'll even sit in on a number of torture sessions of criminals. You'll meet a whole lot of people who kill people for hire, as well as members on police force who kill criminals because the courts didn't do their jobs of prosecuting them (that reality was drop jaw amazing). You'll meet some of the top women in the Bombay beer bar/sex scene, as well as an engineer who gave up a promising career to become a poet living on the Bombay footpaths. The list goes on.
As I read this book, I was amazed at the people that Metha got to agree to give him a good chunk of their time, allowing him to develop a vivid flesh and blood portrait. To top it off, he is an amazingly good writer, who has a great sense of humor (I guffawed out loud several times as I read this book) while casting an unblinking eye on filth and corruption so deep that you feel like you're going to choke on it.
Maximum City is truly a fascinating book to read. Anyone who is interested in either India or the phenomenon of the modern city can't help but love this book.
 Leave Bombay Alone October 12, 2004
Peter Pratir
28 out of 69 found this review helpful
This is a typical book written by a South Asian with an eye on western awards. Such authors even though they hail from South Asia, can see only negatives in their own motherland and fail to give a balanced image of their native countries. Such sensational stuff sells well in western countries and gets them some awards so the cycle goes on....
"Bombay Nightmares" Explicitly Revealed, Intriguing Portrait October 31, 2004
Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA)
20 out of 22 found this review helpful
As a neophyte traveler to India planning my itinerary a few years back, I chose to limit myself to the Grand Trunk Road and at the time had regrets about having to bypass Bombay. According to author Suketu Mehta, it looks like my decision may have been inadvertently wise. His portrayal of this megalopolis and its inhabitants is fulsome but frequently bleak and sometimes stultifying. He offers an insider's view of Bombay in a way that makes you feel you are experiencing all dimensions of it, no small feat for a city that contains 18 million people. Of course, some of the details are on the sketchy side, but frankly the city is so overwhelming, I don't mind some of the book's more cursory aspects. After all, Mehta has the daunting task of encompassing the gang wars, the corruption, the poverty and the prolific industry known worldwide as "Bollywood" into a single tome.
The author paints an almost surreal picture of urban life there, but through his determined and often risky investigations, he is also intent on showing the layers underneath to provide the typical outsider a more comprehensive understanding of how Bombay has become so out of control. Mehta is particularly riveting when interviewing the rioters and hit men on both sides of the long-standing Hindu-Muslim divide that peaked with extreme violence in the early nineties. Promising to put their lives in the movies, the author extracts brutal yet fascinating confessions from people who murder for a living and trust no one. The tactic seems questionable, but the resulting confessionals are worthwhile. The other high point of the book is his first-hand account of the Indian film industry. Since Mehta himself is a screenwriter for a film highlighted in the book, "Mission Kashmir", he is able to extract some interesting perspectives, including his own, on the filmmaking process and the surrounding business and politics.
I would imagine a lot of what he writes will not be popular with native Mumbaikars (as they are known especially since the city's name changed officially to Mumbai in 1996), but it certainly feels real, especially as he expresses outrage at the tightening grip of the underworld bosses controlling much of the wealth of the city. In particular, Mehta paints an incisive portrait of Bal Thackeray, the city's uncrowned king who exercises unwarranted levels of power and influence through his political acumen and questionable ethics. Just by the startling revelations he gets, it's obvious the author is incurring a great deal of risk by uncovering Thackeray in this journalistic manner. At the same time, Bombay holds a strange fascination over anyone interested in Indian culture, and Mehta's writing will certainly satisfy those in need of his amazing insight. Despite all the travesties there, I actually never questioned Mehta's admiration for the city and those who survive living there day after day. So order up some vadapav and a masala Coke and be prepared for a dark journey. Needless to say, this is no Lonely Planet guide. Fascinating reading.
This book sucks September 27, 2004
Indian (NY)
17 out of 61 found this review helpful
The author is a charalatan, insensitive and (I am sure) "casteist" (worse than being a racist, in my opinion). He claims to have information about "murderers" that he has willfully withheld from the police and now wants to sue the Indian government for their mistreatment of children! How bogus can this guy be? If he wants to make a difference to Mumbai or to the world - he should start with himself.
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