Point of View

Song of Kali by Dan Simmons is narrated in the first person and past tense by a promising poet, Robert C. "Bobby" Luczak. He has been hired by prestigious Harper's magazine to fly to Calcutta, India, collect a newly-found manuscript by the renowned Bengali poet M. Das, and interview him for an article, if, indeed, Das is alive. He has vanished for eight years and is presumed dead. Bobby sees this as a major opportunity to advance his career, and has written and lectured about Das and Das' mentor, Rabindranath Tagore. Bobby is conflicted about taking his Indian-born wife, Amrita, and infant daughter, Victoria, along. He believes that Amrita's linguistic abilities and cultural insights could come in handy, but he knows Calcutta's reputation for violence and squalor.

Calcutta is, from the start, a misadventure. Bobby dismisses seemingly minor incidents as coincidence or easily explained, but also...