The first known modern Indian novel, now abridged and translated into English, is a beguiling tale of love and life under the more tolerant British Raj of the 18th century. Written in 1790, in a strikingly realistic form that emphasizes dialogue over action, the largely autobiographical tale is narrated by Hasan shah, a descendant of a famous Mogul family who's now employed as clerk to a British officer and Member of Council at Cawnpore. Reflecting the more relaxed customs of the period, when the British often adopted the local culture, Hasan's employer, locally known as Ming Saheb, ``belongs to the breed of large-hearted, bold and adventurous Englishmen'' and puts Hasan ``solely in charge of his business.'' It's a charge that includes arranging performances of dancing girls, the famous nautch girls, and providing a mistress. And it is the arrival of these dancing girls, a class famous as much for their beauty and talent as for their availability as courtesans, that occasions the tragic romance of Hasan's life. While riding out on business, he is invited to meet the recently arrived troupe, and is instantly smitten with the beautiful but feisty Khanum Jan, who has vowed never to be a courtesan. Ming Saheb is persuaded to employ the girls, which enables the lovers to meet secretly, declare their passion, and eventually marry—also secretly. But their love is doomed: the army is ordered to leave Cawnpore; the dancing troupe must look for work elsewhere; and, though Hasan arranges to meet Khanum downriver and take her away as his wife, he is fatally delayed by his official commitments. Khanum falls ill and dies, and the grieving Hasan, affirming that ``love is superior in honor and unique in contentment,'' will never forget her. A charming and agreeably accessible portrait of a unique culture in a lyrically realized period setting—as well as an affecting love story. A multicultural plus.
Pub Date: Nov. 29, 1993
ISBN: 0-8112-1265-4
Page Count: 112
Publisher: New Directions
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1993
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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