I read this novel some 3 weeks back but didn't write it on my blog because I was not sure where my thoughts are going. So finally here it is what I thought of this one.
This is a novel by Bapsi Sidhwa a famous Pakistani/American writer who writes in English.
This is a story of partition era when nothing was going well in India or Pakistan for that matter and the best part is that the story is told by a kid named Lenny who belongs to a Parsee family.
Lenny is seeing the things changing all around her and she is quite receptive to all these changes. There are other characters as well who belong to her family and others who happen to be there in her life as Ayah, Gardener, cook, neighbors, godmother and cousin etc.
The other character which I felt as a main one was Ayah. She is a Hindu and during all the chaos of partition she was kidnapped and raped by the mob.
Lenny thought she was gone but after sometime it turns out that her secret admirer kept her and make her sing as a sing-song girl. Godmother found it out and made arrangements for her to be sent to India to her relatives.
Her lover (one sided, of course) goes mad after she left.
I liked the narrative and there was not much pace (which was not required either) but I thought the whole story to be a bit biased. The book talks about the brutality of that time in a very mild manner, I don't want anybody to be condemned but the writer could have been more expletive to the situation in a rational manner rather than giving more space to the secret love and relation between Lenny and her cousin.
Bapsi Sidhwa is a Parsee and defines herself as Punjabi-Parsi-Pakistani.
The movie "Earth" by Deepa Mehta is based on this novel.
Movie is worth watching and you can read the novel too if you've some time to spare, but not a great read, there are much better accounts on Partition of India.
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