Customer Reviews

The Space Between Us

5 star:		(108)
4 star:		(44)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Using turbulent India, with all its social, environmental and economic problems as a background, author Thrity Umrigar tells a very humanistic tale of love, loss and ultimately betrayal. Two very different women who, in their struggle to cope with their heartache and sorrow, discover an inevitable commonality, a spiritual unity, even though they are divided by the seemingly insurmountable gulf of money, opportunity and class.

Sera Dubash is a wealthy educated Parsi, who lives a privileged upper-class life in Bombay. Her married life fraught with violence and brutality, she ached for a marriage that was different from all the "dead sea of marriages she saw all around her," a marriage begun with such high hopes that fizzled out. Now she is widowed and lives happily with her daughter and son-in-law, looking forward to the birth of her first grandchild.

Bhima is poor and illiterate, forced to eek out an existence on the edges of Bombay, enduring the stench and fifth, the open drains with their dank pungent smell, the dark rows of slanting hutments, the gaunt and open-mouthed men. Bhima has worked for years as Sera's domestic housekeeper, and has built up a trustworthy relationship with her employer's family; Sera's the only person who treats her like a human being, has been steadfast and true to her, and never despised her for being ignorant, or illiterate or weak. Sera even promises to financially help Bhima's granddaughter Maya go to college. But no one - least of all Bhima - expects the seventeen-year-old Maya to get pregnant.

Bhima is convinced that only education is the key to success, an escape from the back breaking and menial labor that has marred the lives of her mother and her mother before her, and aware that a child will end Maya's chance at a better life, she tells her granddaughter she must have an abortion. Bhima seeks Sera's help; both convinced that terminating the baby is only way to ensure Maya will be able to break the hold poverty has had on the family.

Bhima, however, has had her own demons to contend with. Her daughter and son-in-law are dead, stricken by an incurable disease; the elderly woman talking herself into believing that this unborn child is but a "demon growing in her granddaughter's belly." Her emotions run the gamut of anger and fear, fear for this stupid innocent pregnant girl; yet she holds onto the unacknowledged hope that the child's father will perhaps step forward to assume his responsibility, to marry and build a life with the woman who would bear his first child.

Through their shared experiences, Sera and Bhima are inevitably bound; and it's almost as though Bhima has an eyeglass to Sera's soul, feeling exposed under the x-ray vision of Bhima's eyes. But they are divided by a hypocritical society that perpetuates discriminative caste differences, and looks down upon the poor: Sera is kindhearted and concerned for Maya's welfare, but during lunch, Sera always sits at the table, whilst making Bhima squat on her haunches on the floor nearby, forced to use separate utensils. Sera is secretly disgusted at the foul odor of the tobacco that Bhima chews all day long, the woman almost embodying everything that is repulsive about the slums just a short distance away.

Umrigar writes of a jolting, momentary world that is full of illusion and false hope, where Sera and Bhima - both disappointed by the men they loved - are obliged to make the best of any given situation they land themselves in. Sera often resorts to tears and frustration, determined to shut out the realities of the evil that lurks within her family, whilst Bhima is left to pick up the pieces, to soldier on, cloaked in anger and misery. Each wound penetrating deeper and deeper, as she feels the old familiar yearning of what she has left behind.

The author excels in vividly bringing to life the sights, sounds and smells of Bombay, the street urchins, the stray dogs, the impoverished nut vendors, and the hollow-eyed slum dwellers, a city mad with greed and hunger, power and impotence wealth and poverty, where the weak and vulnerable are elbowed out of the way, and where the poor treat the middle class like royalty, when they should actually hate their guts.

Gorgeously imagined, this intimate and sensuous tale is constantly fraught with tension, the human condition this author's specialty. It is impossible to imagine more frightening circumstances than those conditions that Bhima must endure at her age, her heart broken by the people around her with their deceit, their treachery, their fallibility, and their sheer humanity. Through the course of the story, Bhima learns that none of the old rules, the old taboos apply, hers is a fragile existence, a world constructed of sand - shaky ambiguous, and ultimately impermanent. Mike Leonard February 06.

Yet another wonderful and moving novel by Thrity Umrigar. The story vividly unfolds on each page, and I found myself unable to put the book down. It tells the story of Bhima and Sera, two people who's lives are very much different, but in many ways the same. Yes, there is much sadness in this book. However, that sadness is there for a reason and is meant to be thought-provoking. It forces you evaluate your life and your relationships. It also helps you to better understand not only the person you are, but the kind of person you want to be. The character of Bhima moved me the most, and will live on in my heart.

I was immediately drawn into this book which, at first, seemed so promising. Found Bhima's plight to be very compelling. Sera's situation was awful also, but I was still interested in their stories. I think that, for me, the story fell apart when the truth of Maya's predicament unfolded. I don't really know why, but I simply stopped caring.... This was Bhima's & Sera's story and should have remained as such. Again, the writing -- especially describing Bhima's entire story [the hut, the hospital scenes, etc.] -- was, for me, very real & beautifully rendered. However, the ending was unconvincing, in my humble opinion. Extremely disappointed given such a beguiling & goregous beginning!! [I probably would have rated this book a 2 Star read if not for the writing, as well as for Bhima's story [initially a 4 star which unravelled into soap opera].

The earliest chapters were pleasant, but not totally enthralling, so it took me a while to finish this book. But I was eventually pulled in and drawn along by prose and storytelling of the highest quality. The interplay between the upper class Sera and her poor servant Bhima is well told, as are the many surrounding subplots. Both the similar and the different challenges faced by very different social classes are illuminated in the telling of parallel lives. Central to the story is how Sera and Bhima form an intimate relationship without every overcoming the separation of social class that prevents a friendship between them.

The novel is driven by the unfortunate pregnancy of Bhima's granddaughter, Maya, which thwarts the college education both Bhima and Sera want for her. After many a subplot and flashback develops the history of the protagonists, there is a sudden revelation that upsets everything. Up to this point there is little to criticize.

The short denouement following the revelation is more problematical. While fitting with the class divisions illuminated throughout the novel, it is harder to reconcile with the personalities of the protagonists created by the author. I was left at the end feeling that the last few pages didn't quite ring true.

I don't want to spoil the story by discussing more detail because I do think this book is well worth reading. Take the opportunity and form your own opinion about the ending.

It is so beautifully and masterfully written I would forget I was reading, and instead felt I was walking alongside either Bhima or Sera as they lived their intertwined lives of love, deceit and such spirit, I won't soon forget them. This is a book you'll keep picking up at every chance and never want it to end. I envy Ms Umrigar's students. What an inspiration she must be. I will always be on the lookout for more of her work.

Ms. Umrigar has written a truly universal book. The story centers around a wealthy Indian woman and her housekeeper. The very poor housekeeper, who lives in the slums of Bombay, and her employer have developed a symbiotic relationship over many years. Each has become involved with the other's family, problems, dreams and disappointments. The housekeeper's 18 year old grandaughter has become pregnant by an unknown man. The wealthy woman as well as her own daughter and son-in-law become involved in trying to obtain an abortion for this very intelligent and underprivileged girl. The story is full of unexpected twists and turns, and finally teaches us what this class separation really means. Despite their years of friendship, the space between employer and employee is poignantly and devastatingly revealed over the course of the book. It is a breathtaking story, impossible to leave once started. It has humor as well as crying sadness. The ultimate lack of fairness in this world is driven home with cruel accuracy. It has left a permanent scar on my heart.

"Or perhaps it is that time doesn't heal all wounds at all, perhaps that is the biggest lie of them all, and instead what happens is that each wound penetrates the body deeper and deeper until one day you find that the sheer geography of your bones-has collapsed under the weight of your grief." Sprinkling it with heartbreakingly beautiful passages like this one, with The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar earns her rightful place amongst India's great storytellers. Within these pages you won't find easy lives or happy endings. What you will find is the authenticity of life, replete with all its trials, tribulations, heartache and betrayal. Friendship between the most unlikely of women, divided by class and caste, frames this novel, proving that neither one's familial nor financial inheritance can shelter her from the sorrow of this world. Yet for all its antiquated underpinnings, The Space Between Us is chockfull of modern-day issues like abortion, adultery and domestic violence, making it intensely current and relatable. Readers from all walks of life will quickly forget the "space between" Bhima and Sera and soon see them as regular women who are "living for more than just themselves." With its characters still haunting me, The Space Between Us earns my high recommendation.

The preceding comments are right on the money. You will not find a more beautiful,emotionally wrenching book published this year. The technical finesse of the storytelling is also first-rate- the author is able to juggle two eventful, interlocking life stories, involving the use of multiple flashbacks, and remarkably she makes this complex structure seem completely easy and natural (I'm sure that achieving it in the writing was anything but!) One additional point I do want to make is that nobody should even think of pigeonholing this book as merely an "Indian novel." While Mumbai provides the setting and the cultural backdrop for the story, the themes of class, gender and power relations are as universal as they can be, and are treated with rare depth and compassion.

This novel is sad, but more than that, it is beautiful, simple, and real.

Set in contemporary Bombay, The Space Between Us is the story of two women. Sera Dubash is an upper-middle class Parsi housewife who seems to have a perfect life. Bhima is a servant in the Dubash household (as if to reiterate Bhima's status in society, her surname is never mentioned). She lives in a slum with her pregnant 17-year-old granddaughter.

Despite their outward differences, the women have surprisingly similar lives and struggles. Both have experienced extreme love and loss. They have suffered greatly because of their mistakes and because of the misfortune of being born a woman. And, most importantly, each of them has been able to turn to the other in her greatest time of need.

Although it is a split narrative, the text flows smoothly and is eminently readable. Umrigar effortlessly weaves the stories of the two women together, using the past to inform the present. Her characters are so well written that even when you are appalled by their actions, you can understand why they could--why they had to do what they did.

In this novel Umrigar is showing us the true India of today, in all its glory and all its shame. She is telling a story and at the same time giving a subtle social critique. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the dedication, which reads: "For the real Bhima and the millions like her." As such it is eye-opening. All the characters in the book, including Bhima, have deep-seated prejudices.

Armchair Interviews says: As a reader you are forced to confront your own prejudices and to realize that, just like the characters in The Space Between Us, you cannot justify them.

Umrigar has done it again! Her second novel, The Space Between Us, has kept me up two nights until I finished it. I left my work, my family, and even my I-Pod!

Don't wait another minute to delve into the life of Bhima and her employer, Sera Dubash. You won't come out the same. Umrigar's a magician at character development and dialogue. This, her first time "real" plot was riveting.

You will have a new friend after reading The Space Between Us, her name will be Bhima, and you will know what it's like to walk in her shoes. You will feel the struggle, the despair, the unending battles of gender and class. You will hear the screech of wealth and the sobs of poverty and how they exist together in a city ugly with filth and poverty and beautiful with oceans and balloons.

Don't walk, run to your nearest bookseller and pick up Thrity Umrigar's The Space Between Us. Buy two, buy three because everyone you know will want one.

I am waiting for Umrigar's next treasure chest, maybe a sequel, or maybe a movie about The Space Between Us. If movie producers have ears, they should definitely hear the ring of this unforgettable book.

Enjoy!