The modern story weaves perfectly with the past story. Lovely. ( )

Reason Read: Booker Winner, 1975, ROOT, TIOLI #13

This is a story told by the unnamed woman who has traveled to India to learn more about her step-grandmother, Olivia. The story is told through Olivia's letters and the unnamed woman's own experience in India. But the author also uses flashbacks so we can experience India through Olivia's eyes. The story is good enough but really not sure that this was really Booker material. The step-granddaughter's experience mirroring her step grandmother seemed a bit of a stretch. As often the case, the book tries to show how the English keep themselves separate from the Indian culture and also feminist issues of the seventies; independence, pregnancy, abortion.

I rate it only 3 stars. ( )

Published in 1975, this book tells the story of an unnamed British woman who travels to India in search of her step–grandmother’s past. Her English step-grandmother, Olivia, had lived with her husband, a British official, in Satipur in the 1920s, during the era of the British Raj. She had developed a friendship with the local Nawab, an Indian Muslim prince. Later, the friendship became an infatuation, and a scandal ensued. The narrator has always been intrigued with her family’s history. In the 1970s, she inherits Olivia’s letters and journals, which further piques her curiosity. While in India, the narrator’s life starts to parallel that of her step-grandmother.

Throughout this story, the reader will become familiar with conditions in India in the 1920s – poverty, disease, crime, and the ever-present “heat and dust.” The letters contain the views of Olivia’s British social circle. Their view of India’s population comes across as mostly negative. Women have a subservient role and are expected to be dutiful and reserved. Olivia, through her contact with the Nawab, provides his views of the British, so the reader gains multiple perspectives. Both the British and the Nawab live in relative luxury compared to the majority of the population.

The reader comes to understand why Olivia and the Nawab are mutually attracted. He treats her with respect, confides in her, and sees her as a woman of agency. It is a character-driven novel. The 1970s story is narrated in first person. The historical story is told as if it were unfolding. Near the end there is conflict introduced by two male characters that results in Olivia taking a drastic action. It is not a happy story and not for anyone seeking one with all the loose ends tied up. I can see why this book won the Booker prize. ( )

A little treat of a book where nearly everyone was both likable and not. ( )

Heat and Dust (1975) is a novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala which won the Booker Prize in 1975. The book was also ranked by The Telegraph in 2014 as one of the 10 all-time greatest Asian novels.