The Peacock Spring by Rumer Godden (with bonus giveaway)

Cover of the 1975 edition, of which I now have 2 copies

As I read a lot of middlebrow fiction, Rumer Godden is a writer that's been on my reading radar forever. Last year I was browsing on the cart outside Alabaster Books in New York, a tiny used and rare bookstore that is often overshadowed by the much more famous Strand Bookstore on the opposite side of the block. I found a 1976 copy of Peacock Spring and paid the bargain price of $1. 

Then last weekend I was killing time in another used bookstore in Pittsburgh (touristy post to follow soon) while waiting for a rideshare. Lo and behold, I found another copy of Peacock Spring and started reading it as I waited. I felt guilty about spending so much time there so I felt compelled to buy the second copy (only $7) and read it that night and on the plane home the following day. That didn't work out exactly as planned but I did finish the book this week and HOO BOY.

Cover of the 2004 paperback edition.
A new copy can be yours via Amazon $632. Or $695. I did not omit the decimal point.  
(Or a good used copy for 16 cents.)

Set mainly in post-Independence India, this is the story of Una Gwithiam, the teenaged daughter of Sir Edward Gwithiam, a diplomat newly appointed to a post in Delhi. Una and her younger half-sister are at boarding school in the UK when the headmistress tells her that she and her sister Halcyon (nicknamed Hal) are to leave their school and join their father in India, for reasons unexplained. Hal is thrilled but Una, more studious, is not, especially after she meets her new governess, Alix Lamont, a half-caste Eurasian who seems under-qualified. Una had had hopes of entering Oxford or Cambridge but now it seems those are dashed. Miss Lamont seems more interested in taking them sightseeing and socializing, and Una is forced to attempt higher mathematics on her own. This leads to a meeting with Ravi, an attractive young gardener who promises to secretly help her study. Meanwhile, Una and Hal aren't getting along with their governess Miss Lamont who seems to have secrets of her own. 

Rumer Godden was born in the UK but grew up in what is now Bangladesh (then colonial India), and moved back and forth before and after both world wars, so she knew India really well. The descriptions of India and of colonial life are really interesting, the highlights of the book for me. The book began rather slowly and it took awhile for me to get into, but by the second half I sped through it to find out what would happen -- which was sort of predictable, if somewhat problematic. And I don't mean problematic because of racism or classicism, which are definitely addressed pretty well, but problematic because of the age difference between Una and Ravi. Una is only 15 when the book takes place and though they never specifically Ravi's age, he's at least seven or eight years older than her which is pretty icky. There are definitely some consent issues in this book which made me absolutely cringe and want to throw the book across the room. 

Cover of the 2013 edition. These do not cost $632.

I did, however, complete the book and I was not surprised at how it ended up. Overall it's interesting and I loved the descriptions of India, a country I've always wanted to visit, but it's definitely problematic. It was first published in 1975 but I'm not sure of the exact year in which it's set. There was a PBS Masterpiece adaptation in 1995 which set the story in 1959, but I don't remember it being specifically mentioned in the book, not that it really matters. 

And I discovered the adaptation is streaming on Amazon Prime! I couldn't find any stills but here's an image from the website. Might have to check it out soon. 

That's a very young Hattie Morahan as Una, in her first TV role. 
I know her best as Elinor Dashwood in the 2008 adaptation of Sense & Sensibility

And now that I have two copies of the 1975 hardcover, I have an extra to share. (The $1 copy, not a $632). If anyone is interested in a free copy of this book, drop a comment below. If I have more than one person interested in the next week, I'll draw a name at random. Make sure you leave contact info so I can get a good mailing address! 

This is my second novel completed for the TBR Pile Challenge.

The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott

After watching the Masterpiece drama Indian Summers in 2015/2016 I became fascinated with the British Raj. I was really annoyed when the series wasn't renewed so to comfort myself I searched for as many books as I could find about the period, and The Jewel in the Crown was at the top of my to-read list. I received the first book of the series for Christmas last year and realized is almost 500 pages of tiny print and it is dense. Luckily, it was also available on audio via digital download from my library! It took me more than a month to listen to the audio on 1.25 speed, but I finally finished it.

Here's the setup: most of the story takes place in 1942 in Mayapore, a fictional place in India, towards the end of the British Raj, or authority over India. It's pretty obvious the Indian population is ready for independence but the British are resisting, using the war with Japan as an excuse -- they are afraid that a Japanese invasion will loosen their final hold on India. After the Indian National Congress votes to support Gandhi, riots break out, and a young English woman named Daphne Manners is raped and a group of young men are arrested by the local police. The police sergeant has ulterior motives because he is in love with Daphne, but she's actually in love with an Indian journalist, Hari Kumar, who is among the group of innocent men arrested and tortured. The same evening, another British school teacher named Edwina Crane is attacked by a gang as she drives back to Myapore from a remote village. She isn't physically harmed but her companion, an Indian teacher from the school, is beaten to death by the gang as she looks on in horror.

The format of the book is unusual, not told in traditional chapters, but in different long sections which are alternately third person narration of different characters, police reports, interviews, and diary entries. It seemed a bit disjointed at first, changing viewpoints every 50 or 100 pages, but the reader begins to get a more complete picture of the complicated relationship between the British and the Indians in the years before the end of the Raj. The narrators and writers are both Indian and British, and though I liked the audio version (which clocked in at more than 22 hours), but the narrator has a very clipped, posh accent for the British characters, but I didn't much care for the accent he gave the Indians. 

Overall, though, I really found the story fascinating, even though the central event is quite brutal (though it's never described in specific detail). I feel like Daphne and Hari's relationship was symbolic of the relationship between India and Britain, and how things could go horribly wrong. It's always tricky reading colonial literature written by white people but Scott takes a really unflinching look at the British in India, and it isn't very flattering. He also takes some serious jabs at both the British and Indian class systems, and the racism between the British and Indians is just devastating and extremely timely. 

I found Hari and Daphne's story really heartbreaking, but the book is really engaging as soon as you get used to the format and I'm eager to read the next three volumes. The other three are also available on audio digital download but I think I need to take a break before diving into the next one as they're equally long -- the final volume is more than 600 pages in print and more than 27 hours of audio! There was also a TV adaptation filmed in the 1980s that was voted one of Masterpiece Theater's all-time favorites, but I will probably wait until I've finished reading (and listening) to the books before I watch it.  

I'm counting this as my 20th Century Classic for the Back to the Classics Challenge. 

Never Get Involved in a Land War in Asia

No, this is not a blog posting about The Princess Bride, probably the most quotable movie ever. (Though I really should reread it someday -- does Vizzini actually say the line in the book? I can't remember. And I didn't realize until after I'd written this post that it's the 30th anniversary of The Princess Bride!!)

Anyway. After a solid month of reading (with some other audiobooks mixed in), I have finally finished the 950-page behemoth that is The Far Pavilions. Written by M. M. Kaye, in 1978, this is an epic story about an Englishman, raised as an Indian, who falls in love with a half-Indian princess against the backdrop of the Second Anglo-Afghan War in the late 1800s. (Did you know there was a second Anglo-Indian War? I never knew there was a first, but I'm a Yank and we are not taught such things in school. I barely learned about the British Raj and the East India Company).

So. The book start with the birth of young Ashton Pelham-Martin, born in the Himalayas in the 1850s to English parents -- an eccentric academic father and a young mother who dies in childbirth. His father then dies of cholera during the Indian Rebellion of 1858. Fearing for his safety as a foreigner, little Ash is then raised by his Indian nurse Sita as Hindu boy whom she renames Ashok. (He has dark hair and eyes and can pass for a native). He spends much of his childhood knowing nothing of his family history and ends up as a servant in the local prince's household, until palace intrigues force his adoptive mother to reveal his true parentage and return him to his ancestral home in England.

Because of his upbringing, Ashton's loyalties are forever divided between his Englishness and his love for India, and eventually he joins the military and returns to India, where his knowledge of Indian language and culture make him both invaluable and suspect to the British Raj. There is romance, there are intrigues, there are battles and action scenes galore. Also, lots and lots of war strategy and politics which I wasn't expecting. It's a very dense read so I definitely couldn't zip through it. (But I did learn that the Soviets invading Afghanistan in the 1980s wasn't a new idea).

Overall, I really enjoyed the book but darn it all, my edition was 955 pages with tiny print and very narrow margins, and honestly, I think M. M. Kaye could have used some more editing. Naturally, there are amazing coincidences and lots of exposition where characters are explaining political and military history and I do feel like there was a lot more telling of events than showing. Plus, the book is so huge, I really feel like it could have been split into three stories: Ash's childhood, the love story with the Indian princess, Anjuli; and the Afghan war story.

Also, I found Anjuli's character to be incredibly undeveloped and there are chapters upon chapters when she's barely mentioned, which I found irritating. She's hardly in the final third of the book at all. One of the blurbs on the back cover describes it as "a high-adventure love-story" but if you're looking for a sweeping romance, this isn't it. I was expecting Gone With the Wind in the Himalayas, but there's far more war and politics than character development in this book, which I found disappointing. Also: NO MAPS, which is a pet peeve when characters are traveling in books, and there is a lot of traveling in this one. I am unfamiliar with Indian and Afghani geography, so I found this especially irritating. (However, they do include a diagram of a military compound).

However, I did like that Ashton really was supporting the Indian and then the Afghani viewpoint, rather than blindly following the British Colonial idea that White People Know Best. I'm debating now as to whether I should watch the 1980s TV adaptation, which turned a book of nearly a thousand pages into a six-episode mini-series starring lots of white people, including Amy Irving as a half-Indian princess. Seriously.

That's Ben Cross as the adult Ashton, and Amy Irving in brownface as Anjuli. Really.

I'm still planning on reading The Raj Quartet (also turned into a mini-series), which is thankfully divided into four different books since it totals nearly 1800 pages. And A Suitable Boy, because it would be nice to read an epic book set in India actually written by someone Indian. It won't be for a while because I'm not quite sure if I can dive right in to another epic doorstopper.

Kim by Rudyard Kipling

I put Rudyard Kipling's Kim on my TBR Pile Challenge list this year because it was on the Modern Library's Top 100 list, and because I bought a copy for a mere $1 at a library sale several years ago -- I've moved it with me to two different houses since then!  I chose Kim off my TBR pile because it was fairly short and because it's May, which is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month (I'm on the Diversity committee at the library, and we've been planning events for it all year.  Since Kim is set in India, I thought it would fit in nicely).

Basically, this is the story of Kimball O'Hara, also known as Kim, a young orphan boy growing up mostly on the streets of Lahore, India during the Victorian era.  He's not an Indian though, being the child of an Irish soldier and a nameless mother.  When book opens, Kim is about 13 and he meets a Tibetan lama (a holy man) and becomes his apprentice -- his chela. The lama has a quest to find a particular river, and Kim also has a quest.  He's always been told that it was his destiny to meet a red bull on a green field.  Kim joins the lama, but on their quest, he encounters a group of British soldiers.  They find evidence that Kim's father was once in their regiment -- and they have an emblem on their regimental flag that's a red bull on a green field.  

Naturally, they have to make sure he's raised as a white child.  Plans are made to give him a proper education, but a clever colonel realizes that if trained, Kim's knowledge of Indian languages and culture could be a great asset to the British forces.  He's shipped off to school but spends his holidays being trained by secret agents.  Kim becomes drawn into the "Great Game" of British imperialism.  Eventually, he rejoins the lama while still working as a secret agent for the British. 

I always thought this was some kind of adventure book, but it's the slowest adventure I've ever read -- my edition was 286 pages but it took me nearly three weeks to finish it! I did enjoy the details about Indian culture, and the sense of place, but the pace of the story was just glacial.  If you're looking for a great swashbuckling adventure tale, this isn't one I'd pick.  It's really more about Kim's quest, but I'd say it's really about his quest for identity as an Anglo child growing up in India.  Over and over, he's reminded that he's a Sahib, and therefore superior.  

I was surprised at how much religion was in the book.  There's a lot of Buddhism, and an awful lot of references to Indian gods and legends, most of which I didn't get (I was actually reading two different editions, one at home and library copy on my breaks at work -- that copy didn't have any footnotes).  Apparently this was quite groundbreaking for its time.

Kim sometimes considered a children's book, which I don't get at all.  I can't imagine any child today picking this up and reading it for fun -- it's a fairly interesting story, even though Kim is yet another child that speaks and thinks like an adult.  I'm pretty sure the language of the story would turn off most modern children. (I did check my library catalog, and half the copies in the system are cataloged as Children's Fiction.  I should go back and see how often they've circulated!)

So, my final verdict: if you're looking for a fast-paced, rollicking adventure -- I would read Kidnapped or Treasure Island.   If you're interested in Indian culture and an insightful look at British Colonialism in the late 19th century, this is a fine read, as long as you're not in a hurry.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

This is a tough book to review.  The White Tiger is the July selection for my monthly library book discussion group, and I knew hardly anything about it before I started -- just that it's set in India, and it's about a man who's telling his life story, and there is some kind of murder involved.  And that's OK -- sometimes I think it's better not to know anything about a book when you start.

This is not a flattering portrait of India.  One of the blurbs on the back says there's "not a whiff of saffron or saris to be found" and that couldn't be more true.  If the idea of India brings to mind beautiful view of the Taj Mahal or gorgeous women with hennaed hands and sparkly jewels, this is not the book for you, to put it mildly.  This is not romanticized at all.  If you have read Q & A by Vikas Swarup (also known as the movie title, Slumdog Millionaire,) that is a whole lot closer to what you should expect.

In fact, it reminded me quite a lot of Q & A.  Both of these books are about young men born into horrific conditions in India, and how they basically pull themselves up by their bootstraps and use their wits to survive.  The comparison pretty much ends there, however.  There's no dancing and singing and uplifting love story in The White Tiger -- just a lot more of the filth and horrific poverty and oh my God, the corruption of India.  If you are squeamish or faint of heart, you might not enjoy this book.  Like Q & A/Slumdog, there's a lot of description of the unpleasant living conditions in India -- the pollution and disease and lack of sanitation.  A few times I had to put the book down and take a break.  Not a book to read while eating.

Anyway, back to story. The main character of The White Tiger, Balram, is born into extreme poverty in northern India -- what he refers to as The Darkness.  According to the book, there are two Indias, The Light and the Darkness -- two different worlds depending on if you're rich or poor.  Balram's so poor, he doesn't even have a real name.  His family just calls him Manna, or Boy.  When he goes to school he's given a name by his teacher, but that's about all he gets from his school, since the teacher is stealing the school money meant to be used for books, uniforms, and lunches.  And Balram's family yanks him out of school when he's a teenager anyway, since he has to get a job smashing coal to pay for his cousin's dowry and wedding.  It seems like all the poor people in India are faced with this downward spiral of no choices, no opportunities, and no real government to look out for them.

Everyone has to hustle to get ahead, and Balram manages to learn how to be a drive a car, and eventually to get a job as a driver with a rich family, where he gets quite an education by keeping his eyes and ears open.  I really did feel sorry for Balram -- he does start out basically honest, and it seems like he's trying to resist falling all the corruption that surrounds him.  This entire book is filled with people either getting or taking bribes or favors, which I found so depressing.  However, I still kept turning back to it.  Balram is not a pleasant character, and does some terrible things to get ahead in life.  Really terrible, horrific things.  This story is one of those fascinating train wrecks -- I knew it would end badly, but couldn't stop reading because I had to find out what happened.

I don't know if I would have read this book if it hadn't been a book club selection.    Coincidentally, I read this just before Fingersmith, another book about criminals.  Ultimately, I think I liked it -- it gave me a lot to think about. It made me think about the choices people have depending on their circumstances.  As bad as the economy and my job situation are, I'm far, far better off than most people in India or in Victorian England.  How far would you go to get ahead in life?  What crimes would you commit to make a better life for yourself and your family?  I can see that this is going to make for a great discussion.  I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but it definitely gave me some perspective.