 "It was all a waste, just an endless cycle of birth and death; of love and loss" |
| Review Date: February 2, 2006 |
| Reviewer: M. J Leonard, Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States |
Using turbulent India, with all its social, environmental and economic problems as a background, author Thrity Umrigar tells a very humanistic tale of love, loss and ultimately betrayal. Two very different women who, in their struggle to cope with their heartache and sorrow, discover an inevitable commonality, a spiritual unity, even though they are divided by the seemingly insurmountable gulf of money, opportunity and class.
Sera Dubash is a wealthy educated Parsi, who lives a privileged upper-class life in Bombay. Her married life fraught with violence and brutality, she ached for a marriage that was different from all the "dead sea of marriages she saw all around her," a marriage begun with such high hopes that fizzled out. Now she is widowed and lives happily with her daughter and son-in-law, looking forward to the birth of her first grandchild.
Bhima is poor and illiterate, forced to eek out an existence on the edges of Bombay, enduring the stench and fifth, the open drains with their dank pungent smell, the dark rows of slanting hutments, the gaunt and open-mouthed men. Bhima has worked for years as Sera's domestic housekeeper, and has built up a trustworthy relationship with her employer's family; Sera's the only person who treats her like a human being, has been steadfast and true to her, and never despised her for being ignorant, or illiterate or weak. Sera even promises to financially help Bhima's granddaughter Maya go to college. But no one - least of all Bhima - expects the seventeen-year-old Maya to get pregnant.
Bhima is convinced that only education is the key to success, an escape from the back breaking and menial labor that has marred the lives of her mother and her mother before her, and aware that a child will end Maya's chance at a better life, she tells her granddaughter she must have an abortion. Bhima seeks Sera's help; both convinced that terminating the baby is only way to ensure Maya will be able to break the hold poverty has had on the family.
Bhima, however, has had her own demons to contend with. Her daughter and son-in-law are dead, stricken by an incurable disease; the elderly woman talking herself into believing that this unborn child is but a "demon growing in her granddaughter's belly." Her emotions run the gamut of anger and fear, fear for this stupid innocent pregnant girl; yet she holds onto the unacknowledged hope that the child's father will perhaps step forward to assume his responsibility, to marry and build a life with the woman who would bear his first child.
Through their shared experiences, Sera and Bhima are inevitably bound; and it's almost as though Bhima has an eyeglass to Sera's soul, feeling exposed under the x-ray vision of Bhima's eyes. But they are divided by a hypocritical society that perpetuates discriminative caste differences, and looks down upon the poor: Sera is kindhearted and concerned for Maya's welfare, but during lunch, Sera always sits at the table, whilst making Bhima squat on her haunches on the floor nearby, forced to use separate utensils. Sera is secretly disgusted at the foul odor of the tobacco that Bhima chews all day long, the woman almost embodying everything that is repulsive about the slums just a short distance away.
Umrigar writes of a jolting, momentary world that is full of illusion and false hope, where Sera and Bhima - both disappointed by the men they loved - are obliged to make the best of any given situation they land themselves in. Sera often resorts to tears and frustration, determined to shut out the realities of the evil that lurks within her family, whilst Bhima is left to pick up the pieces, to soldier on, cloaked in anger and misery. Each wound penetrating deeper and deeper, as she feels the old familiar yearning of what she has left behind.
The author excels in vividly bringing to life the sights, sounds and smells of Bombay, the street urchins, the stray dogs, the impoverished nut vendors, and the hollow-eyed slum dwellers, a city mad with greed and hunger, power and impotence wealth and poverty, where the weak and vulnerable are elbowed out of the way, and where the poor treat the middle class like royalty, when they should actually hate their guts.
Gorgeously imagined, this intimate and sensuous tale is constantly fraught with tension, the human condition this author's specialty. It is impossible to imagine more frightening circumstances than those conditions that Bhima must endure at her age, her heart broken by the people around her with their deceit, their treachery, their fallibility, and their sheer humanity. Through the course of the story, Bhima learns that none of the old rules, the old taboos apply, hers is a fragile existence, a world constructed of sand - shaky ambiguous, and ultimately impermanent. Mike Leonard February 06.
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Captivating and Moving
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| Review Date: July 13, 2007 |
| Reviewer: David Dunaway, |
| Yet another wonderful and moving novel by Thrity Umrigar. The story vividly unfolds on each page, and I found myself unable to put the book down. It tells the story of Bhima and Sera, two people who's lives are very much different, but in many ways the same. Yes, there is much sadness in this book. However, that sadness is there for a reason and is meant to be thought-provoking. It forces you evaluate your life and your relationships. It also helps you to better understand not only the person you are, but the kind of person you want to be. The character of Bhima moved me the most, and will live on in my heart. |
I highly recommend this book
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| Review Date: April 12, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Queenie, Camano Island, WA USA |
| It is so beautifully and masterfully written I would forget I was reading, and instead felt I was walking alongside either Bhima or Sera as they lived their intertwined lives of love, deceit and such spirit, I won't soon forget them. This is a book you'll keep picking up at every chance and never want it to end. I envy Ms Umrigar's students. What an inspiration she must be. I will always be on the lookout for more of her work. |
"Or perhaps it is that time doesn't heal all wounds at all, perhaps that is the biggest lie of them all."
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| Review Date: February 11, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Kathy K, Northeast, PA |
| "Or perhaps it is that time doesn't heal all wounds at all, perhaps that is the biggest lie of them all, and instead what happens is that each wound penetrates the body deeper and deeper until one day you find that the sheer geography of your bones-has collapsed under the weight of your grief." Sprinkling it with heartbreakingly beautiful passages like this one, with The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar earns her rightful place amongst India's great storytellers. Within these pages you won't find easy lives or happy endings. What you will find is the authenticity of life, replete with all its trials, tribulations, heartache and betrayal. Friendship between the most unlikely of women, divided by class and caste, frames this novel, proving that neither one's familial nor financial inheritance can shelter her from the sorrow of this world. Yet for all its antiquated underpinnings, The Space Between Us is chockfull of modern-day issues like abortion, adultery and domestic violence, making it intensely current and relatable. Readers from all walks of life will quickly forget the "space between" Bhima and Sera and soon see them as regular women who are "living for more than just themselves." With its characters still haunting me, The Space Between Us earns my high recommendation. |
A BREATHTAKING NOVEL
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| Review Date: May 17, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Paul R. Scheer, new york, ny |
| Ms. Umrigar has written a truly universal book. The story centers around a wealthy Indian woman and her housekeeper. The very poor housekeeper, who lives in the slums of Bombay, and her employer have developed a symbiotic relationship over many years. Each has become involved with the other's family, problems, dreams and disappointments. The housekeeper's 18 year old grandaughter has become pregnant by an unknown man. The wealthy woman as well as her own daughter and son-in-law become involved in trying to obtain an abortion for this very intelligent and underprivileged girl. The story is full of unexpected twists and turns, and finally teaches us what this class separation really means. Despite their years of friendship, the space between employer and employee is poignantly and devastatingly revealed over the course of the book. It is a breathtaking story, impossible to leave once started. It has humor as well as crying sadness. The ultimate lack of fairness in this world is driven home with cruel accuracy. It has left a permanent scar on my heart. |
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