TUSK AND STONE

An adventure novel about the ups and downs of the life of Arjun, 14, a Brahman in seventh-century India who is tricked and sold into the army. His rise through the ranks—from lowly foot soldier to the king's elite elephant corps—is a success story that takes up three-quarters of the telling. In the remainder of the book, Arjun achieves another type of success, as a stonecutter, who experiences a Siddhartha-esque spiritual awakening as an artist. Throughout, Arjun devotes himself to finding his lost sister; in the end, he resigns himself to carving her image in a temple wall. A motley narrative is packed with adjectives, proper names, and colorful descriptions, like a dish with every available spice thrown in; it's full of digressions into Indian philosophy, mythology, and religions, cooking, elephants, military strategy, rock-carving techniques, even a detailed explanation of yoga postures. The sprawling plot brings together many figures, but all of them are unfinished—characters without personalities, or personalities without characters. Bosse (The Examination, 1994, etc.) wanders from topic to topic—sometimes investing in Arjun, sometimes using him merely as a lens through which to view his surroundings. For all that, the thematic construction of the novel is skillful and surprisingly tasteful. (Fiction. 11+)