Title: China Room by Sunjeev Sahota
Book Beginnings/First Line Friday quote:
Mehar is not so obedient a fifteen-year-old that she won't try to uncover which of the the three brothers is her husband.
Friday56 quote:
I sat on the end of the bed, which was high enough to leave my feet dangling, and I kept drumming my heels together, anxiously, impatiently. She'll be back any minute now. Any minute now. Any Minute. Now. She wasn't.
Summary:
Mehar, a young bride in rural 1929 Punjab, is trying to discover the identity of her new husband. Married to three brothers in a single ceremony, she and her now-sisters spend their days hard at work in the family's "china room," sequestered from contact with the men--except when their domineering mother-in-law, Mai, summons them to a darkened chamber at night. Curious and strong willed, Mehar tries to piece together what Mai doesn't want her to know. From beneath her veil, she studies the sounds of the men's voices, the calluses on their fingers as she serves them tea. Soon she glimpses something that seems to confirm which of the brothers is her husband, and a series of events is set in motion that will put more than one life at risk. As the early stirrings of the Indian independence movement rise around her, Mehar must weigh her own desires against the reality--and danger--of her situation.
Spiraling around Mehar's story is that of a young man who arrives at his uncle's house in Punjab in the summer of 1999, hoping to shake an addiction that has held him in its grip for more than two years. Growing up in small-town England as the son of an immigrant shopkeeper, his experiences of racism, violence, and estrangement from the culture of his birth led him to seek a dangerous form of escape. As he rides out his withdrawal at his family's ancestral home--an abandoned farmstead, its china room mysteriously locked and barred--he begins to knit himself back together, gathering strength for the journey home.
Partly inspired by Sunjeev Sahota's family history. (Publisher)
Review: China Room was a book club selection. No one in the club loved the novel but we did have a decent discussion with all of us wondering a few things: Why did the story involve the two storylines? There was plenty to tell in the 1929 portion without adding the second story in the 1990s. We decided it must have been a literary tool to tell Mehar's story from the perspective of time. Secondly, we couldn't figure out why Mai, the mother-in-law, wanted her three new daughter-in-laws to not know who their husbands were. It was so perplexing. None of us have heard of any religious reason for this kind of cloak and dagger type of relationship with husbands at the hands of a mother-in-law before. The fact that this story is partially true is also very intriguing. Which parts?
Though I wasn't crazy about the story I was sort of mesmerized by it, ultimately rating it with 4 stars.
____________________________________________________________
Sign up for The Friday56 on the Inlinkz below.
RULES:
*Grab a book, any book
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)
*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!
*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it!
*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!
First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.
-Anne
No comments:
Post a Comment
I look forward to your comments and interactions! Join in the conversation.