Heat and Dust
2 journalers for this copy...
Winner of the 1975 Booker Prize, this synopsis comes from the Man Booker Prize Web site:
"Set in India, Heat and Dust is the story of Olivia, a beautiful, spoiled, bored English colonial wife in the 1920s who is drawn inexorably into the spell of the Nawab, a minor Indian prince deeply involved in plots and intrigues. Olivia outrages the tiny, suffocating town where her husband is a civil servant by eloping with the captivating Nawab. It is also the story of Olivia’s step-granddaughter who, fifty years later, is drawn to India by her fascination with the letters left behind by the now dead older woman, and by her obsession with solving the enigma of Olivia’s scandal."
I'd read this book 20 years ago for an English Lit class. I re-read it very recently and enjoyed it just as much the second time around.
Reserved for ApoloniaX's South Asian VBB.
"Set in India, Heat and Dust is the story of Olivia, a beautiful, spoiled, bored English colonial wife in the 1920s who is drawn inexorably into the spell of the Nawab, a minor Indian prince deeply involved in plots and intrigues. Olivia outrages the tiny, suffocating town where her husband is a civil servant by eloping with the captivating Nawab. It is also the story of Olivia’s step-granddaughter who, fifty years later, is drawn to India by her fascination with the letters left behind by the now dead older woman, and by her obsession with solving the enigma of Olivia’s scandal."
I'd read this book 20 years ago for an English Lit class. I re-read it very recently and enjoyed it just as much the second time around.
Reserved for ApoloniaX's South Asian VBB.
Sent to Annimanni, who chose it from ApoloniaX's South Asian VBB. Happy reading! I hope you enjoy this book.
The book has arrived in Finland, thank you very much!
Winner of the 1975 Booker Prize.
I found this an exquisite read and enjoyed it very much. The British colonial experience in India has spurned countless novels and Heat and Dust certainly gives a good, even if rather brief glimpse into the cultural divide - although it is not so much of India as of two British women searching for themselves and for understanding in a country not their own.
Funnily enough, I felt like I got to know Olivia better - even if it was mainly through her journal entries - than her step-granddaughter, the narrator.
I found this an exquisite read and enjoyed it very much. The British colonial experience in India has spurned countless novels and Heat and Dust certainly gives a good, even if rather brief glimpse into the cultural divide - although it is not so much of India as of two British women searching for themselves and for understanding in a country not their own.
Funnily enough, I felt like I got to know Olivia better - even if it was mainly through her journal entries - than her step-granddaughter, the narrator.
