What do You think about Cracking India (2006)?
South Asian Diaspora writings are, to me, political mostly. They are perspectives against or for states, events, places and people . Ondaatjee's poetry is the kind of work I enjoy and relate more to. A kind of palimpsest , not dialogue, a mosaic not argument.Still, no doubt Sidhwa's expertise of story telling, the biographical details bringing in the issues of trauma and memory and witness etc are some commendable features of the novel.In comparison to The Pakistani Bride , the characters are more real and tangible in the novel despite the being prototypes of the Subcontinental conscious during partition. They have a developed subjective narrative that is weaved into the on goings of the place they reside in. While Pakistani Bride presents a limited insight into the character's journey of their inner world.
—Basila
"Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru, Iqbal, Tara Singh, Moutbatten are names I hear. And I become aware of religious differences. It is sudden. One day everybody is themselves-and the next day they are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian...What is God?" -Bapsi SidhwaThose sentences and that overarching question pretty much sums up this graphic and truly saddening book about the Partition of India. It is a story about Lenny-baby and her coming of age story during a time when India decided to split and partly become Pakistan. Lenny-baby lives with her relatively upper class family live in India amongst a wide diversity of religions. Her Ayah (nanny) is Hindu and gives Lenny the love that she seems to lack from her busy mother. Ayah takes Lenny around town with her and exposes her to many different things all the while hatred and discontent seep into the narrative. Religions begin to turn on each other. When it all comes to a peak no one is safe and everybody feels the traumatic effects of splitting a nation. I will heads up by saying this narrative is not for the faint of heart. There are rapes, beheadings, forced marriage/prostitution, domestic violence, and a creepy/uncomfortable incestuous love. (squirm, squirm) I will say that I appreciate this narrative for it taking on a very hard subject and give kudos to the author in her brilliant portrayal of a subject I had previously known little about. "Shall I hear the lament of the nightingale, submissively lending my ear?Am I the rose to suffer its cry in silence year after year?The fire of verse gives me courage and bids me no more to be faint.With dust in my mouth, I am abject: to God I make my complaint.Sometimes You favor our rivals then sometimes with us You are free,I am sorry to say it so boldly. You are no less fickle than we."-Iqbal
—Erika B. (Snogging on Sunday Books)
This book was unsuccessfully challenged in DeLand, Florida, so of course, I went out and read it right way. Sidhwa tells the story of the partition of India through the eyes of young Lenny, who is a Parsee girl living in Lahore. This book is violent. There's talk of rape and sex. And oh, the violence. I can see why some people would want it banned, but it is no more violent than the actual events were. This was a hard book. It deals with this period of time with no background information. I really don't know much about this, so I had to look a lot of things up. The writing style, while beautiful and fitting, isn't an easy read. This would be a wonderful book to teach and read in school. It's dense and layered and the history is tragic, but so much history is. It also really puts current India/Pakistani border clashes and politics in perspective.If you don't know a lot about partition, make sure you have access to an encyclopedia-- I had to look a lot of things up.
—Jennie
