This will be an interesting experience as I’m typing it from my phone. This may work well or it may frustrate the hell out of me.
Anyway, this is another book from our book club telling two stories one from the 1850s and the other during the 1940s, juxtaposed against each other with Colonial India as the backdrop. This seems to be the literary fad of the century (think Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, The Virgin Blue, Sarah’s Key, People of the Book and so many more). Some do it well and some well not so much.
Elle Newmark does it okay leaning more towards the doing it on the well side. I wish though that she kept one story to its original format of letters and diaries rather than reverting into narrative when she felt she needed to in order to convey parts of the story. Also, it may have been interesting to have us learn the story from the 1850s solely from the letters and diaries of that time and in the same moments as the narrator in the 1940s rather than always being ahead of the game via the narrative.
Either way I enjoyed the story and this brief glimpse into colonial life in India only left me wanting to visit there more.