'Sacred Games' by Vikram Chandra  Mumbai mystery is as sprawling
as the city itself  Share with others:  Print Email Read Later
What can we make of Vikram Chandra and his 916-page detective
novel? It seems utterly antithetical to our Age of Brevity.
"Sacred Games" is written by a well-educated student of
literature, which means that Chandra (who studied with John
Barth and Donald Barthelme and teaches at the University of
California at Berkeley) knows when to break rules and when to
follow them.   By Vikram Chandra HarperCollins ($27.95)   Like
any good epic, his novel has two heroes, one good and one evil.
Sartaj is a fortysomething Sikh police inspector in Mumbai, the
former Bombay. Divorced, he drives a beat-up car and drinks two
to three scotches per night, usually alone. He is nice to his
mother and is respectful of women.  His nemesis is Ganesh
Gaitonde, a well-heeled mobster who pulled himself up from
nothing by violence, street smarts and sheer will. Ruthless,
vain and greedy, he is addicted to sex