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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deeply Moving, April 14, 2009
This review is from: The Weight of Heaven: A Novel (Hardcover)
I discovered Thrity Umrigar in 2008, and she has since become a favorite author of mine. I felt honored to have received an advance copy of her new book: The Weight of Heaven, published by Harper Collins.
In her new novel we meet Frank and Ellie Benton, a grief stricken couple from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who have just lost their seven year old son Benny, after a short illness. Unable to cope with this horrific loss, Frank accepts a new assignment running a factory, Herbal Solutions, in Girbaug, India, a coastal village near Bombay.
Unfortunately, the factory and its Third World workers are in the midst of a labor dispute over low wages. Frank calls the workers "lazy", and his wife sees the workers as justified. Ellie sides with the workers, suggesting that Frank give them a few "rupees" to make them feel like they "won". Even in India, Frank and Ellie are conflicted. Frank has difficulties understanding why his workers don't act like his workers did in America. This additional conflict only adds to the pain he is still experiencing in India over the loss of his son. Ellie on the other hand sees her new surroundings as an opportunity to help the less fortunate women in the village (she is a psychologist/therapist), and believes there is so much to teach these poor women that she sees at a local health clinic. She is determined to not let grief define her life, because she believes her son would not have wanted that.
Frank before long begins to find some comfort tutoring Ramesh, the young son of the couple's housekeeper. The boy is very bright and eager to learn. Before long, his interest in helping the boy becomes an obsession and new conflicts arise between Frank and Prakash, the boy's resentful, bitter, father. Frank will do anything to keep that bright and personable boy close by, no matter what it takes.
The Weight of Heaven is a hauntingly beautiful story about cultural divides and misunderstandings. It is a story about loss and working through grief, and one of those rare books that forces you as the reader to take stock of your life, and to think about the things that really matter most. The ending is shocking, but in some strange way--- wonderful. I am happy to say that this is one of those rare books, that left an imprint with me long after the final page was turned. There are so many beautiful passages that I found myself reading over and over again; a true gem. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
DO NOT MISS THIS ONE!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Three-Quarters of a Powerful Novel (**Warning: Plot Spoilers**), May 6, 2010
I adored Thrity Umrigar's The Space Between Us so began this book with high expectations. The voice was not as breathtaking, but still I was drawn in to an author who wants her readers to think and feel and contemplate as they fall into the rhythms of her writing and the diverse, dynamic Indian worlds she so deftly creates. The theme of the wealthy and personally aggrieved encountering the poor and economically aggrieved was intriguing and I was compelled by Ramesh, a bright, enthusiastic but unworldly child who is caught up in the personal agendas and social machinations of the adults around him. At times, Umrigar really does get it -- displaying the deeply subtle ways that bias and inequity creep into relationships and cause devastation.
But the last part of the book was deeply disappointing for me. Like Chris Cleave in Little Bee, Umrigar seemed to have written her characters into a dilemma that only a HEAVY authorial hand could solve, and suddenly characters were doing things not organic to their apparent natures. Could Frank, who had suffered so greatly from the absence of a father and the loss of a son, really behave as he does? Only if he'd had a complete break from reality, which Umrigar does not convince us of at all. Instead, his actions are supposed to be the bold-stroke end result of his callous attitude towards India, towards the Indian people he does not fully value, but that is such a giant stretch. Earlier incidents much more realistically and truthfully show how cultural blindness and a lack of understanding can have deadly, unwanted effects, but Frank's outrageous and obviously perilous actions make no sense on a personal level. Uninformed, self-obsessed, agonized and lacking in empathy? Sure, that is Frank. Wholly without the most essential fundamentals of morality? No way. There is never any reason to believe he is that unhinged from his humanity. He is painted for nearly all of the book as lost not soulless, but in the end, seems overtaken by Umrigar's desire to hammer home her point more forcefully than necessary,.
Equally disappointing was the abandoning of Ramesh as a full character. He sort of fritters away and becomes just a pawn in Frank's drama, which seemed unsettling given that the book is an indictment of the dominance of the American view. In the end, we have only Frank's view and Ramesh goes back to being a cipher. That seemed a lost opportunity.
Umrigar is incredibly talented and has a lot to say -- I look forward to her writing another novel that hits the mark the way The Space Between Us did.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Pain of Banality, September 13, 2009
This review is from: The Weight of Heaven: A Novel (Hardcover)
This is the fourth novel written by Thrity Umrigar. The story involves the loss of a child by an American couple, who subsequently move to India to work at a Multinational corporation in a small town, which they see as a fresh start to their marriage,a way to get over their tragic past. Once they get to India it is mainly a train wreck waiting to happen, as you read the story unfold, one learns about their past lives, their current lives and till eventually the future is here and the train wreck happens. I found the book to be unimaginative and exceedingly unconvincing.
The author is a fantastically talented writer who unfortunately seems to never get beyond the most basic of stories and the most banal cliches. There are clearly a lot of emotions in this book, some of which are indeed believable, however adding some complexity to the characters would perhaps have added to their depth. The characters are very black and white and exceedingly stereotypical. The book deals with the issues of perceived American Imperialism, the impact of multinational corporation on small towns. That said it does not explore any of these issues in a seemingly comprehensive, unbiased way and uses the cliches to add to the predictability of the characters and the story line.
I have read most of the books written by Thrity Umrigar including her memoir First Darling of the Morning: Selected Memories of an Indian Childhood (P.S.), but I have been exceedingly disappointed in the lack of dimensionality in the last few novels written by her and this current one is no exception. I highly recommend reading Bombay Time: A Novel, that is a great piece of work by her. On a personal note, I did write to her after I read that book to tell her I had enjoyed it a lot and she wrote back to me a non-form e-mail, which I think says a lot about the author.
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