Helpful Score: 12
This beautiful story of 3 women in India is now in my top 5, all-time favorite novels. I am fascinated with India anyway, but this book is more about women and the universal struggles we face to take care of ourselves while also nurturing those we love. The characters are vibrant, and by the time you read the last page, you will feel as though you know them personally and will be devastated by the social and cultural limits they face as they desperately try to bridge the gaps that stand between them and true friendship.
Helpful Score: 8
A beautiful book about two families of women in India. One is a servant, living in the slums, whose orphan granddaughter becomes pregnant. The other is the family she works for - led by Sera, whose daughter is married and pregnant. We discover much about the women's pasts and how they ended up where they are and what has shaped them in their lives.
It's a really wonderful story - it's unceasingly interesting and full of twists (the big twist I had not expected at all). You really begin to feel compassion for both the lead female characters. One has suffered through an abusive marriage and the other has lost husband, children, and her life to servitude. Beautifully written and completely enthralling.
It's a really wonderful story - it's unceasingly interesting and full of twists (the big twist I had not expected at all). You really begin to feel compassion for both the lead female characters. One has suffered through an abusive marriage and the other has lost husband, children, and her life to servitude. Beautifully written and completely enthralling.
Helpful Score: 8
This book is an unsung gem! It approaches a huge social issue, that of 'class', from a female perspective and really makes the reader put him/herself in place of the main character and examine the choices he or she would make. Beyond the intimate description of daily life in India, beyond the main character's clear and unabashed voice that just sings out to the reader, this book is a manifesto for the effect of education as the great equalizer. The author examines the lives of two very different women--different both in caste and character, and the choices each of them makes around certain life-rending events. I could not put it down.
Helpful Score: 5
Mans inhumnanity to his fellow man, (woman) has no earthly cruelty as the pain rendered to one another. Beautifully told, this story of 2 women, one rich, one her servant, one living with the secrecy of physical abuse, one living with alcohol abuse, both believing in the improvement of their legacy in the future generation. Twists in the plot
are classic. The end could not be sadder for all involved, yet still optimistic. Worthwhile and enjoyable read!
are classic. The end could not be sadder for all involved, yet still optimistic. Worthwhile and enjoyable read!
Helpful Score: 3
Excellent book showing the treatment of different castes, as well as the relationships between people.
Helpful Score: 2
I loved this book! It was one of those books that you want to speed through but also slow down and savor. Such a conflict... go fast, go slow, but I definitely didn't want to imagine a time when I could no longer share time with the main characters!
I loved how I learned a lot about India, Bombay (Mumbai), the different class systems, and the people within 2 different classes and what these women went through in life. The dialect was interesting, and the author's use of dialogue helped to make the book enjoyable.
What a great read!
I loved how I learned a lot about India, Bombay (Mumbai), the different class systems, and the people within 2 different classes and what these women went through in life. The dialect was interesting, and the author's use of dialogue helped to make the book enjoyable.
What a great read!
Helpful Score: 2
A compelling, beautifully written book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I highly recommend it.
This book was beautifully written and an engrossing story. It was a very sensitive and insightful novel about the relationship between people in 2 different classes in India. I could not put it down and it left me with the desire to read other books by the same author. I highly recommend it!
Helpful Score: 2
A riveting read, with two very different main characters who are nonetheless inextricably bound to one another. I found the inclusion of Parsi characters very interesting, as I hadn't yet read a (fiction) book with a person that particular ethnic group as a main character. Bombay really comes alive in this book! It was fun looking up some of the terms used, and I learned a lot about Indian cuisine while reading this book. Full of vibrant descriptions, well developed themes, and characters who you are sad to let go of once you finish. Looking forward to reading more from this author!
Helpful Score: 2
I love any well written book,I really enjoy a book that glimpses into a culture I know nothing about. Though this book is so much more it is a universal story of how far you would to protect your family.and who would you believe someone you have known your entire life or a family member? and what are our prejudices that sometimes we do not know we have.My only criticism of this book is that there are some Indian sayings that i have no knowledge of ,though this does not detract from this story as well.
Helpful Score: 2
This novel deals with the difficult issues of caste/economic disparities in Bombay as well as the the mistreatment of women. It tells the story of two women, one wealthy, one poverty-stricken, both of whom have had sad lives. Vey poignant, very well-written.
Helpful Score: 1
Great story of two friends, one a servant to the other in Bombay, India. Thrity Umrigar does a fantastic job of describing the differences between the upper and lower classes culturally.
Helpful Score: 1
I loved this book. It was beautifully written. The author has a wonderful way with words. The story takes place in Bombay and is about an upper class woman and her lower class house maid. As much as the women love and respect each other in the end there is still "the space between us".
Helpful Score: 1
This book was absolutely heartbreaking. I liked it because it was a window into a culture about which I know very little, but much like in Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," I kept getting angry at the author for NEVER letting her characters catch a break. The tone seems hopeful, but there's such a deep distrust and hatred of men throughout that the whole book can be summed up with the quote, "Women create and men destroy. The way of the whole world." I don't recommend this book if you're going through a dark emotional time, but it should be required reading otherwise.
Helpful Score: 1
This is an amazing story. The grandmother is raising her grandaughter in India. The grandaughter becomes pregnant and won't say who the father is. You'll find out though. Hard to put down!!
Helpful Score: 1
A riveting story of two women, from two different walks of life, yet bound together through much of their life. Their stories are interwoven through out the book-and they come to a life altering climax.
Helpful Score: 1
This was a wonderful portrait of two women of very different stations in India. One was the employer, the other, the maid. Both struggled to survive in a patriarchal society. Very sad, touching and enlightening.
Helpful Score: 1
I really liked this book and can't wait to read more by this author! Umrigar now ranks right up there for me with Rohinton Mistry. I read The Help by Kathryn Stockett earlier this year and find this book to be similar. There are so many levels of prejudice grown from ignorance. Humans are frustrating, fascinating beings --- no matter what race, religion, nationality.
Helpful Score: 1
The writing is fantastic. The story is gripping - well told through flashbacks. Unforgettable characters.
Helpful Score: 1
Loved this book. I was pulled in from the beginning & found myself thinking about the characters throughout the day.
Helpful Score: 1
I really enjoyed this book, but was not so fond of the ending, even though the ending is probably the only realistic one. Any other ending wouldn't have fit, even though as the reader I wanted something else, something happier, I guess. A couple twists towards the end that made it interesting...I had figured out one, but the other took me a little by surprise. Overall, a heart-wrenching, poignant novel that I would highly recommend.
Really enjoyed this book. Such an amazing account of how life is within a different culture. Different, yet at the same time so very similar!
A very good book - one I looked forward to reading and gives a lot of insight!
An enjoyable read. I have recommended it to many friends.
This book about two very strong women is very moving and gives a lot of insight to those wielding power over others and those trying desperately to keep some control over their own lives. It also is a very good narrative if the relationship between master and servant in India - which is still mostly the case today. The book is very well written.
Indian author Thrity Umrigar takes us to Bombay, to follow the life story of a grandmother and her granddaughter with all its sorrows and sometimes joys.
Excellent story about the intersecting worlds of a middle class Bombay woman and her servant, each playing an enormous role in each other's lives for decades.
Didn't love it but did like the book. Writing was good. Story depressing but well written.
Painful, but like a train wreck in that the story is so absorbing, you can't stop reading.
I loved this book and want to read more by the author!! Full range of emotions in this engrossing book!
Powerful story of two women whose lives are intertwined and yet separate. With a surprise ending.
Excellent study of class and culture with different classes of Indian women. How they react to the changing mores for women as they try to evolve womens' rights. Third world values and restrictions abound.But the characters are memorable and interesting. They are over ready for the "ME Too" movement.
This story is filled with insights into a way of life in India. It is not a cheerful book, but very insightful into a different way of thinking.
