The Space Between Us: A Novel (P.S.)
by Thrity Umrigar
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Book Summary Information
Author: Thrity UmrigarEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-02-06
ISBN: 006079156X
Number of pages: 321
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780060791568
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Space Between Us: A Novel (P.S.)
Book Review: "Searching for something that linked them to the sun and the stars"
Summary: 4 Stars
This story of class distinction in current-day India is sometimes painful to read, but also brings to life a remarkable heroine, whose struggles in the world remind us to pay attention to one another with kindness. Bhima, a woman who has lost her husband and children, in different ways and circumstances, has long been employed as a servant by the Dubash family, an upper class group whose matriarch, Sera, has lived through hellish struggles of her own. The relationship between the two women is complex, and as the book unfolds their stories bit by bit, even quite similar in some ways, despite the 'space between' them, the gulf of class they can never bridge. Whereas Bhima's troubles are all very public, Sera has been able to hide hers behind money and privacy that Bhima's life does not afford her.
Bhima is immediately sympathetic, caring for her disgraced pregnant granddaughter, on whom high hopes had been placed and who now will bring great shame to even the slum she and Bhima inhabit if she won't consent to an abortion. Bhima counts on the help of Sera and the Dubash family, including Sera's daughter and son-in-law, as she has relied on them in the past. But Bhima's help to the Dubash family has also been great - no one cares for them all the way Bhima does, without any motive more complicated than loyalty and gratitude.
Sera is also sympathetic, when we come to see that her current happiness in having her family re-united in the house following her husband's death is a recent happiness. Sera's marriage had long been an abusive one, and one in which she was a hostage to her husband's rages and his mother's crazy ravings and abuse.
For all these years, Bhima and Sera have needed each other, although of course Sera will never need Bhima in the desperate ways that Bhima needs Sera. Bhima's story takes precedence, and rightfully so - her past is tragic and bigger in scale than Sera's domestice struggle. The class differences are huge here, and since the author lived it, I assume they are accurate. Bhima is a character who once knew a better life, a middle-class life, and at times it is difficult to read of how her circumstances came to be so different. She is stymied at every turn, and unable to lift herself out of the slum. And yet, there is much that is beautiful in Bhima: her love for her family, her belief in Sera, her honest and unflinching way of facing hard truths.
When the relationship between Bhima and Sera is threatened in yet another depressing twist in the tale, one wonders how Bhima can find the strength or resources to go on. This is not a feel-good book, and yet it has an appeal. Its message of compassion found in the midst of despair makes one keep reading to the somewhat hopeful end. Umrigar's writing is beautiful stuff as well.
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