Customer Reviews

Clear Light of Day

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I've read this book three times, and every time I wept for the astounding truth it forced me to face. Bim's stubborn acknowledgement is one we all must someday make; even though we should never have to. Families are the most difficult part of life, and they are the most rewarding. No other book that I have read expresses this better than Clear Light of Day (with the exception of Anna Karenina).

This was a book that kept my interest from the beginning, in large part because of the expert characterization of the central characters. It is both depressing and optimistic; the characters mostly are constrained by their personality and history, yet at the end are able to transcend themselves. It seems that in returning to what they are attempting to escape from - the family - they are finally able to become whole. Their flashes of insight and the author's analysis may seem contrived at times, but it's difficult to imagine how it could be expressed better.

This is a very warming, touching book about family interactions, moments of happiness and moments of sadness all intertwined together to become what life is, a series of events, sometimes good, sometimes bad, what comes, comes. What is gone is gone just like the snail mentioned in the book that was found by the characters at times but only to lose the pearl again where the cycle repeats itself. This is a story that informs us about the ups and downs in life and how everyone faces it differently. To do so, the author cleverly uses true realistic characters to portray this

Each member of the Das family is distinctly unique. It is a touching story about how distinctly different each individual is and how each has their own separate lives, keeping them apart from each other. Bimla is independent and intelligent and is able to survive on her own without the help of others but unfortunately she is very dissatisfied with life. Tara, unlike her elder sister, is not ambitious and is very dependent. All she wanted is to find a life where she will not have to take responsibility and have no need to worry about her life which she succeeded in finding an ambassador as her husband. Lastly Raja, the elder brother, who is ambitious and has always dreamt of being the hero ended up as a successful, well-off man. With each leading a different life, each has a different view of things and this leads to many conflicts between the siblings.

However no matter how different they are, they grew up together, shared many precious moments together, creating a bond that can never be broken, love. Love is what connected them to each other. Love teaches the characters how to forgive and forget, how to compromise with one another with compassion, how to move on and how to stand side by side with each other to face the world together. Especially to Bimla who had melted her anger and learn to love the world again for what it is with the help of her loving sister, Tara. Love will overcome all differences and difficulties and is the exact recipe to help us get through the ups and downs of life.

This is a truly, amazing book that I greatly enjoyed. It stays true to how family relationships are like. Being a member of a three child family, I can understand how each characters is feeling and is amazed at how it greatly relate to how I feel for my siblings at times. I both hated and love my siblings at the same time. Sometimes it may get so frustrating that I vow never to talk to them ever again but it is always love that turns out to be the winner for I always forgive the wrongs they did at times and is able to embrace the frustrating side of my siblings for I love them and love them just the way they are just like the characters Anita Desai portrayed in this book.

The beautiful and easily accessible language makes it a very enjoyable book to read. The language is filled with so much emotions and passion, that it sometimes feel like I am reading a prose with some poetic element in it. Anita Desai has also skillfully put in many insightful views to what life is and helps us to be both expectant of the bad sides of the world and yet be optimistic to the good sides of the world.
However at times, the plot seems to be developing at a slow rate with no great climax in the story, in fact it is a book that is presented almost in a monotone that makes readers to hope for more movements in the story. However I like it just the way it is, for life does not always consist of shocking, exciting events like the made up stories from fictions, in fact life is rather dull, boring at times and most of the time is spent on waiting for something to happen just like the events and the tone of the book.

This is a passionately, beautifully written domestic drama that is definitely a must to read. Get it now!

Quiet, sensitive writing is the hallmark of the author - where words and sentences are never wasted. Like a good feeling it seeps into you - a feeling that is unfortunately sad yet warm. I cried profusely as I read and reread the last few pages. I am sure every reader will find something to identify with when they read the book.

This is the best book I have ever read. Anita Desai has beautifuly crafted this book. She is one those rare authors who have depicted Indian settings in a truthful and spirited manner. Even without Indian background the book would have made a great piece as charactersation is very solid and anyone can identify their own lives with those of the main characters in the book. This is a story of family, passions, egos and love. From the start to end it feels you are reading some wonderful prose and poetry. A MUST READ!

Anita Desai captures truth of life in an manner that captivates you and keeps you drawn to the last page. Very emotional, passionate and true account of family life and personal attitudes.

The partition of the Indian subcontinent into two nations has held sway over the Indian imagination for more than three decades. In fiction and in films, the troubles figure as watershed and as metaphor, having as much force for Indians today as the Civil War had for Americans at the turn of the last century, although with the important difference that the War Between the States left this country united rather than divided.

The shadow of partition falls heavily on the characters in this novel by the distinguished Bombay storyteller Anita Desai. In place of neo-Marxist realism or Kiplingesque romanticism, two favorite Indian modes, "Clear Light of Day" is a hauntingly beautiful story of a bourgeois family's struggle against the forces of disintegration. Two sisters, long separated by distance and life-style, take stock of their family's lives and their own. Tara, beautiful and worldly, has returned from living abroad as the wife of a diplomat. Bim, conventional and competent, has never left Old Delhi where she cares for their younger brother Baba. Their older brother, whose childhood ambition was to be a hero, has married a Moslem and become a successful businessman.

"Clear Light of Day" is an ironic title for a novel so preoccupied with the shadowy border between illusion and reality. Memory forever shields most events from the clear light of day. We who conduct our lives without apparent reference to the momentous times we inhabit will discover new ways of seeing ourselves as we wander in the dying gardens of this thoughtful, imaginative and expressively written book.

I think Ms. Desai would capture the heart of any woman of Indian origin. The book does start of very slowly but nevertheless beckons your patience. Bimla, Tara, Raj and Mira Masi are not the most admirable characters, yet they touch you so. Despite the underlying depression, I could not help but smile!

A fantastic work by Desai. This is a story of love and conflict among members of one family. Very passionately and delicately written, this book immerses one into ocean of emotions. Brilliant in all respects.

Set in the 1970's in India, Bim, Tara, Baba and Raja are four children who grew up in Delhi at partition. The novel starts with them 20 years later and then looks back and forth tracing the history of India and the history of their relationships. The main focus is on Bim, the oldest sister who ends up caring for Baba, the retarded brother when Tara, the "pretty" sister marries a diplomat and leads a life of travel and Raja marries a Muslim women, the daughter of a wealthy man and moves away. Bim is resentful caring for the brother in the decaying remains of the family home, symbolic for India and old Delhi itself. The Clear light of day is her recognition towards the end of the book that her love for her family is actually enough, and she begins to give up her resentment. An alcoholic and almost forgotten aunt who briefly plays a powerful role in these almost parent-less children's lives adds an additional dimension to the breadth of potential histories for women.
The book succeeds at providing a close-up look at one Indian family in a deeply troubling and changing time in history. Perhaps Bim's recognition of the "clear light of the day" at the end of the book is contrived, but it works at suggesting how people (like countries) can change.