pick“Astha was brought up properly, as befits a woman, with large supplements of fear. One slip might find her alone, vulnerable and unprotected. The infinite ways in which she could be harmed were not specified, but Astha absorbed them through her skin, and ever after was drawn to the safe and secure.”This excellent opening paragraph just gets more excellent.Can't recommend enough.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7083955636
pickA comedic and deeply heart-felt narrative of a Parsee family and its many internal familial dramas, played out in the commercial and cosmopolitan gem that is Lahore, amidst the British empire‘s slackening grip on an India beginning to whisper independence. That‘s the rest of my 2023 books, Happy New Year everyone!
"Blasphemy is a religious experience."
I don't mind a slow book in which not much happens as long as the characters are interesting. 20% in, and the narrator needs to start doing more than complain about his toilet facilities and poor quality food, or at least complain about them in more interesting ways. The quoted sentence is the first indication that things are looking up ?
Noone seemed to talk any more; everyone argued and not in the graceful tradition of our city where conversation was treated as a fine art, words were loved as mediums of artistic expression, and verbal battles were enjoyed as much as any delicate, scintillating, sparkling display of pyrotechnic skill.
It was as if someone had sneaked in live ammunition among the fireworks. In the thrust and parry there was a desire to inflict wounds.
I began reading even more than I normally did, with no censor to guard Baba Jan's library now, until Hakiman Bua, who had fed and nursed me, changed from her admiring, "My little bookworm finds no time for mischief" to remonstrating, "Your books will eat you. They will dim the light of your lovely eyes, my moon princess, and then who will marry you, owl-eyed, peering through glasses...
pan1.5⭐️ I read this for the IRL NYRB Bookclub in Singapore. The historical background (partition of India) was what enticed me to pick this, but oh boy, it was a chore to finish this book. I have so many problems with it: 1. Random character drops and not developed properly 2. Mixing first person and third person POV 3. Bad translation that makes the narration wonky 😫 I‘m just glad that it was over
