My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Reading books about revolutions usually plunges me into a deep melancholia specially if it features and idealist revolutionary willing to lay down his/her life for the revolution convinced that utopia is just round the corner.
I almost did not read this book for this reason. But since this was given to me as part of the #TSBCBookExchange, I wanted to read it too. Now that I have read it, I find that it has a lot more to offer. The movement is the framework on which Lahiri weaves a rich tapestry of relationships, feelings, conflicts between various characters.
I usually like it when an author, instead of following a chronological order, keeps jumping back and forth through time.I keep a look out for when and how the authors reveals the various folds in the narrative and why did she choose to do it this way. In this book, this was used skillfully to keep the interest in the story alive but sadly what was lacking was content. The characters though interesting are not fleshed out fully and I particularly found the third person dialogues rather stilted and this failed to engage the reader. I remained detached from the characters as I never got a chance to peep “inside”.
Relation between Bela and Gauri is the least publicized aspect of this book. I found myself reading the confrontation between the two on Mother’s Day this year. Weird! 🙂
A HOUSEWIFE'S CHRONICLES 