To my delight, I picked this up at a garage sale last weekend. Having just finished Heat and Dust (which I loved), I'm looking forward to reading this one.

Published in 1956, The Nature of Passion predates both Prawer Jhabvala's Get Ready for Battle (1962) and Heat and Dust (1975), both of which I enjoyed very much.

Passion tells the story of the family of wealthy Indian businessman Lala Narayan Dass Verma ("Lalaji") -- his unnamed wife and his two sons and two daughters, around whom most of the action revolves. Like Prawer Jhabvala's other novels, the book examines the rapidly changing lives of middle and upper class Indians in the post-1947 period, in this case focusing on changing mores around marriage and women's rights. Beyond everything else it offers, Passion does a subtle and excellent job of illustrating how traditional values around marriage and family are passed on from generation to generation (in this case through no small amount of financial manipulation), and how they are in most cases absorbed by even the most rebellious and liberation-minded of young people. The ending of this novel was a little depressing in that respect, but I still found it an excellent, worthwhile read.

RELEASE NOTES:

I'll be leaving this in the Starbucks at Queen & John (or thereabouts) between 3 - 4 pm today. Best wishes and happy reading to whomever picks it up.