Lee Siegel''s multilayered romance is: a translation of the Kamasutra, a commentary on that classical text, a murder mystery, a
love story.Lee Roth,
professor of Indology and translator of the Kamasutra, falls in love with one of his students, Lalita (oy veh, indeed). He
gets killed, eventually (not soon enough). This text -- Love in a Dead Language -- is
presented as an annotated edition of his Kamasutra, which doubles as a journal of sorts, and also comes with the annotations of Roth''s literary executor and student, Anang Saighal. This overclever academic thriller naturally also features a Professor Lee Siegel. A professor of Indian religions himself Siegel gets the Indian stuff down decently, but to little purpose and end. Parts of the book are fun, but the story itself is particularly empty and pointless, at least as presented in this manner, and the reader wants to go conk all the cartoonish characters on the head with the oversize dictionary that is the murder weapon.