My second review of The Siege: Inside the Taj Hotel Mumbai--

I finished reading The Siege:  68 hours inside the Taj Hotel Mumbai about 7-10 days ago.

The hyped up "journalistic" language annoyed me till the end, until I got to the section where the authors reported on how they did their research and organized the story/structured the story for the book.

Then the language stopped "trying too hard" and settled down almost into boring academic style, seemingly shooting to the other extreme.

Beyond that, I would still recommend the book, for the stories. 

It is very well-structured and scened, like a movie, and begins with one of the terrorists slitting the throat of a fisherman whose dinghy they commandeered as they rush towards the seaside Taj Hotel.

(Oh, they should have had a map of the seven Mumbai Islands)

The back story of how the terrorists were recruited and trained is also scary and informative.

I also like it for the complex weaving of the stories of everyone involved, from the Pakistani-American CIA operative double agent David Headly, to the girl in the computer center and the brave chefs and waiters.

It also draws comparisons between India's slow and tied up in red tape government sector and its efficient private sector, which I thought was very perceptive and real.

Also, as in the best fiction, the "characters"  i.e. the people, change over time.

Magnificent, if you can get past the bloated language at the sentence level.

It should just be pulled off the shelves again, properly copy-edited, and re-issued as a second edition with the same cover.

That's what should be done.

KMKaung
5-26-2014