Book Review: The Temple Dancer

I borrowed “The Temple Dancer” by John Speed from the library recently and read it this week. It was quite an interesting read and I was pleasantly surprised by how invested I was in a novel I randomly picked and had heard nothing about it. For being Speed’s first novel, the book was exquisitely planned and written, with a rich and constantly contouring story line placed in the backdrop of 1600s Moghul India. The characters are plentiful and beautifully developed, and the scenery and background are described to such an illustrious detail that it almost feels as though we are there in the rocking howdah perched atop the elephant.  Despite the tumultuous nature of the plot, the story does chivy along at a rather slow place, leading the reader to occasionally skim through the descriptive sections to get to the gist of the story.

"Greed, politics, commitment, courage, love, and intolerance mesh to form a vibrant Indian tapestry."

Within the first few pages of the novel, we are introduced to the two beautiful, yet extremely different heroines of our story; Lucinda Desana, the blaringly naive and wealthy Portuguese heiress and Maya, the exotically stunning devadasi (temple dancer) who was recently purchased by Lucinda's family as a concubine/bribe for the vizier. They are thrown together for the journey from Goa to Bijapur, along with a caravan consisting of a wily Desana cousin whom death follows, a notoriously dangerous settlement man, the deviously cunning eunuch, and a mysteriously secretive prince. As various narrators chronicle the tale, Speed takes the time to develop the personalities of each character, allowing us to fit them better into their surroundings. As Maya and Lucinda navigate their way through dangerous bandit-laden mountain passes and roads, they are also forced to work their way around greed, religious differences, shifty political alliances, commitment, scandal, death as a means of escape, and most importantly, love.

Speed explores a number of themes throughout his novel whilst simultaneously weaving a vibrant story line that fits beautifully into the tapestry of Moghul India. Before I continue singing praises of the novel, I must point out that I was extremely annoyed by the constant usage of “Hindi” when referring to a “Hindu”. As someone that claims to have studied Indian history for decades, Speed’s blatant inaccuracy was surprising and unexpected; “Hindi” is the language, “Hindu” is a follower of Hinduism. It should also be noted that the story is narrated at a slow place and occasionally feels as though it is lagging due to the heavy emphasis on detail, but we must take into account that Speed is a first time novelist, and furthermore he is trying to capture Moghul India as accurately as possible. Besides these minor setbacks, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and look forward to reading the next of the trilogy, “Tiger Claws”.