Author: Farrukh Dhondy

“Bombay duck isn’t duck at all but dried fish, and as such works very well as the central metaphor of this energetic first novel.

The West Indian actor who narrates part of the story has taken the Black Muslim name of Ali Abdul Rahman, understandably tired of the one he grew up with – Gerry Blossom. The problem is not so much that it is a white man’s name but that, being a near-homonym for a well-known commercial product, it has landed him with the nickname Polish. And suddenly Ali, alias Gerry, find himself playing the lead role in a genuine Indian epic, the Ramayana, opposite an Indian actress from a wealthy family who now lives in Paris.”

Source: Joan Smith, ‘A duck upstream’, The Guardian, 3 May 1990