Rich Like Us - Softcover

Nayantara Sahgal

Softcover

ISBN 10: 8172233752 ISBN 13: 9788172233754

Publisher: HarperCollins India, 1999

Synopsis

New Delhi, one month after the declaration of the Emergency, is the setting for this novel, an ironic, tender and exquisitely crafted study of India and its people in the aftermath of Independence. Included is many individual histories, and many voices, in one - a compelling and vivid tapestry of India's past and present. Above all it is the story of Rose the Cockney memsahib, a family that neither wants nor welcomes her. In Nayantara Sahgal's tale, with its humour and tragedy, is mirrored some of the grandeur and folly of the Indian experience itself.

About this title

About the Author:

Nayantara Sahgal is a novelist and political commentator who has published eight novels and seven works of non-fiction. She has won the Sinclair Fiction Prize, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Review:

The setting is New Delhi shortly after Indira Gandhi declares a state of emergency; its impact is viewed through the lives of sixty-three-year-old Rose and thirty-eight-year-old Sonali. Born and raised in England, Rose moved to India more than forty years ago when she married Ram. Rose was wife number two; she shared a house with Ram's first wife and son and struggled to adapt to a new country and culture. She willingly voices her opinions about the state of emergency, the current business practices in India, and her husband's son, who now controls the family's wealth. Rose and Ram were friends with Sonali's family and over the years a true friendship has developed between the two women. Sonali, a civil servant seeking to "Indianize India," feels that she and her co-workers must remain silent about the state of emergency to keep their jobs. Her dreams and ideals for her homeland evaporate with her sudden dismissal. Sorting through her deceased father's papers, learning much of her family and country's history, Sonali realizes the importance of her dreams. Through Rose and Sonali's lives we witness compassion, corruption, courage, and trust. In Rich Like Us "the present is the merest flicker between the long long time past and the things that haven't yet happened but most assuredly. --Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins India
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 8172233752
• ISBN 13: 9788172233754
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 301