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Sto caricando le informazioni... Time Change (edizione 1982)di Hope Cooke
Informazioni sull'operaTime Change di Hope Cooke
   Nessuno Sto caricando le informazioni...
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Time Change is the story of the education of a woman. A precocious American girl growing up in upper-middle-class New York is drawn to the East before it becomes popular and then marries the king-to-be of a tiny Himalayan land. With the novelist's eye for detail, Hope Cooke tells of growing up in the Victorian atmosphere first of her wealthy, snobbish grandmother's home; then with her aunt and uncle, the U.S. Ambassador to Iran. Between brilliant terms at Sarah Lawrence College she plunged into an often hilarious, if occasionally painful, obsession with the East. It was in Darjeeling, India, during a summer's stay, alone in the cozy atmosphere of a family hotel, that Cooke met the recently widowed Crown Prince of Sikkim. The story of her engagement and wedding to the Prince and her life in this exotic hidden-away world became the center of international attention and fascination. It is told in full here, for the first time, in Hope Cooke's own voice, with a sharp eye and an uncommon ear for atmosphere and intrigue. It was very soon after their marriage that her husband succeeded his father to the throne. Nearly submerged by the responsibilities of her husband's public (and private) preoccupations and weighed down by the isolation, Cooke worked with children and the schools and coordinated the handicrafts industry for export. Gradually, Hope Cooke grew from a spirited, gifted girl to a many-faceted woman of depth and independence. Eventually Sikkim, increasingly a pawn of power politics, was annexed by India. After a harrowing siege at the beginning of the takeover, in which she and her children were held hostage, Cooke returned to the United States to begin a new life as immigrant and adult. - Jacket flap. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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 Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni...GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)954.167History and Geography Asia India and South Asia Northeastern India Northeast SikkimClassificazione LCVotoMedia: (4)
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The perennial description of her as a "socialite" isn't accurate. Yes, her family was well-off and she attended private schools and Sarah Lawrence. But she didn't have expensive habits or trifling interests or socialite friends (they included the actress Jane Alexander). She had lived in Iran (with an ambassador uncle)and was a very serious student of Asian philosophy, arts and religion, likely heading for grad school. Not so common for a woman in the 1950's.
But she ends up agreeing to marry the much older widowed king of Sikkim on second meeting (the first was at the Windermere). And you never get a clue why. He's cheating on her even as they are engaged (with a European woman) and the affair seems to continue for years. You never get a clue what they talk about. She mentions that her husband and the Sikkimese drink a lot, then there's the affair(s) so I don't know how serious he was about Buddhist practice. And what's with the in-laws who have been separated since forever?
I kept thinking of that smallish house. It wasn't like she could even go to Darjeeling and be inconspicuous. She'd have to go all the way to Calcutta, which in those days would be a long day's drive, or a drive and then hours on the train.
It's not like Sikkim or Tibetan Buddhism were her strongest interests but, regardless, most of that intellectual curiosity seems to instantly evaporate on marriage. She's already got a young, speaking son (5 or 7?) when she says, in an aside, that she still doesn't speak Bhutia. And what of Nepali? What's the attitude to the language of the majority immigrants?
Despite the overseas trips, which must have been expensive in the day because of plane flights, the family lives quite modestly by the standards of, say, The Thai upper-middle-class today. They have old cars. When they stay in England,they rent a dinky apartment and welcome Sikkimese students in school there. They also had a apartment in Calcutta for a while but it's not luxurious. I don't think they even had air-con.
Strange story. What happened to her? (