Publication
VINTAGE (RAND) (2001), Edition: New Ed, 192 pages
Original publication date
1980
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Description
"The novel begins with the triennial visit of the younger sister Tara and her diplomat husband to the old family home, a decaying suburban mansion on the banks of the Jumma outside Old Delhi. Here Bim the older sister, lives with the youngest brother, Baba. Baba is autistic, a childlike, speechless whisp of a man who spends his days playing 'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas' and 'Donkey seranade' on an ancient wind-up gramophone. The oldest brother, Raja, has moved away. The book divides itself equally between the present of Tara's visit and the sisters' memories of the past ... The visit is a strain -- a series of under-the-surface estrangements and rapprochements, with sisterly care ebbing and flowing." Times Lit Suppl. "This work 'does what only the best novels can do: it totally submerges us. It takes us so deeply into another world that we almost fear we won't be able to climb out again.'" N Y Times Book Rev.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member jcranium
I have to admit from the outset that I love Desai's sentence structure. It is quite possible that she could write a novel of complete gibberish, and that, because I am so in love with the way she forms her phrases, I would still like it.
That said, I found this novel to be the epitome of
Desai's structure is deep and murky, but the mud seems to be something desireable, something worthwhile. From beginning to end, the voice of the narrator, the ambience-- the whole damn thing-- it reached out, pulled me in, slowed me down, and made me think and feel things I never had before.
Don't be put off by the thinness of this novel-- there is much thought-provoking literature between the covers.
That said, I found this novel to be the epitome of
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post-colonial literature. One cannot help but wonder about what exactly the characters have lost in English colonisation. At the end, I was left with littie more than hope, something I had not experienced at the end of any other novel. Or, anyway, at the end of any novel I had enjoyed.Desai's structure is deep and murky, but the mud seems to be something desireable, something worthwhile. From beginning to end, the voice of the narrator, the ambience-- the whole damn thing-- it reached out, pulled me in, slowed me down, and made me think and feel things I never had before.
Don't be put off by the thinness of this novel-- there is much thought-provoking literature between the covers.
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LibraryThing member Clurb
Written in layers of history, Clear Light of Day is the story of an Indian family coping with love, jealousy, and escape. The layering of the story uncovers the characters wonderfully and I finished the book caring deeply about them all.
LibraryThing member npl
Bim continues to live in the family home as Old Delhi decays around her. Her younger sister Tara married an ambassador and travels the world in style. Her younger brother Raja married the Muslim landlord’s daughter, and is now her landlord. As the eldest, she was responsible for their aging
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parents, alcoholic aunt, and mentally handicapped youngest brother. Bim never got to leave home to find something new, different, brighter. Like her turgid and fetid surroundings, the world has left her behind. When Tara arrives and starts trying to persuade Bim to go to the wedding of Raja’s daughter, Bim’s lethargy is broken. As she remembers the family’s past, she will have to sort through the tangles of emotion weighing her down before she can reestablish familial connections. If she can’t find happiness, perhaps she can at least find a release for some of malignant bitterness she harbours. Show Less
LibraryThing member Stevil2001
This Indian novel is a postcolonial tale (but then, aren't they all?); I liked it. It's about a woman who returns home to the brothers and sister she left for a husband so long ago; there's a sad, lyric quality to her homecoming-- it's both bad and good that she left, but things wouldn't have been
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any better if she'd stayed. It starts in the "present", then there's a backwards jump, then there's another backwards jump, then it goes back to the present. The nested structure worked well, each time putting events into a new light. The final section in the present was a little limp, though; it seemed to be there because a "wrap up" was obligatory more than that Desai had something to say at that point. Hm, that's perhaps a little unkind, but I still didn't feel like it added a lot to the novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member nbarman
If this book is on your reading list, I recommend you promptly remove it. This is a meandering tale of people, families and a country, all falling apart. While this theme alone could have had much potential, in Desai's hands it turns into a meditation on hopelessness and depression. The book might
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be lyrical or technically well put together but it leaves the reader feeling empty and the words never take on any greater meaning or provide any greater experience than their own shabby existence on the page. The book, like its subject, never really comes to life. Show Less
LibraryThing member thorold
Beautiful, rather tentative exploration of the lives of four siblings growing up in a decaying middle-class district of Old Delhi in the 1940s.
LibraryThing member bodachliath
This is my final book from the 1980 Booker shortlist and possibly the one that surprised me most. Its strengths are quiet ones - at heart it is a family story in which very little happens - indeed the Hindu family at its heart is part of the Old Delhi owning class, for whom work was not always a
In the first part of the story we meet Tara as she returns to her decaying childhood home with her husband, who would rather be with his own family in new Delhi. This section is slow moving but necessary to establish the situation, and the tensions within the divided family gradually appear. Bim is educated and works as a teacher, and is contrasted with the younger sister Tara, who was an apathetic dreamer as a child but has moved on to better things unlike her more ambitious sister. Much of the story concerns the elder brother Raja, who has moved away to Hyderabad and married the daughter of their Muslim landlord and former neighbour, creating resentment in Bim who is left looking after the house and what is left of the family. The middle two parts are set further back during their shared childhood, and the moving final section (which for me moved it into the five star bracket) brings them back to the present with a kind of incomplete resolution.
Music is a recurring theme - Baba spends much of his time listening to old records on a wind-up gramophone, the doctor who failed in his courtship of Bim is a violinist who plays western classical music with a mother who sings Tagore's Bengali songs, and a neighbour is an aspiring singer of Indian classical music. Poetry is another theme - Raja aspired to write Urdu poetry as a teenager and shared his interest in Eliot, Byron and Tennyson with Bim - their works are often quoted.
Desai's writing is often very powerful - she often returns to themes mentioned in passing, for example a cow that drowned by falling into a well, and she draws you into the story mesmerically.
A very enjoyable book.
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necessity. The book deals with siblings orphaned and parted at the time of the partition of India, and specifically the relationship between Bim, who has remained at home partly to look after a younger brother Baba who has learning difficulties, and Tara, who married a diplomat when very young and spends most of her life abroad.In the first part of the story we meet Tara as she returns to her decaying childhood home with her husband, who would rather be with his own family in new Delhi. This section is slow moving but necessary to establish the situation, and the tensions within the divided family gradually appear. Bim is educated and works as a teacher, and is contrasted with the younger sister Tara, who was an apathetic dreamer as a child but has moved on to better things unlike her more ambitious sister. Much of the story concerns the elder brother Raja, who has moved away to Hyderabad and married the daughter of their Muslim landlord and former neighbour, creating resentment in Bim who is left looking after the house and what is left of the family. The middle two parts are set further back during their shared childhood, and the moving final section (which for me moved it into the five star bracket) brings them back to the present with a kind of incomplete resolution.
Music is a recurring theme - Baba spends much of his time listening to old records on a wind-up gramophone, the doctor who failed in his courtship of Bim is a violinist who plays western classical music with a mother who sings Tagore's Bengali songs, and a neighbour is an aspiring singer of Indian classical music. Poetry is another theme - Raja aspired to write Urdu poetry as a teenager and shared his interest in Eliot, Byron and Tennyson with Bim - their works are often quoted.
Desai's writing is often very powerful - she often returns to themes mentioned in passing, for example a cow that drowned by falling into a well, and she draws you into the story mesmerically.
A very enjoyable book.
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LibraryThing member Dreesie
Desai eloquently describes a dysfunctional Hindu Indian family, and what becomes of the children as they grow up.
Raised solidly middle class, in their own home, their parents spend all of their free time at their club playing bridge. Their mother is diabetic and occasionally has bouts of illness,
Mira brings fun, predicatability, and love to the children's lives. Each in his own way appreciates her: Bimla, the eldest, learns caregiving from her, and goes to college to be a teacher. She takes over her role as family carer--and much of the book is through Bim's eyes. Raja, the elder son, spends much time with the Muslim neighbors, learning Urdu and poetry. Aunt Mira permits this, though his own father is not supportive. Tara, the younger sister, loves Mira with all her heart, and as a newly married woman is sad but overwhelmed with her own life in Ceylon as Mira's illness takes her life. Baba, the younger disabled son, can only communicate with his carers, and Bim takes that role.
As much as the 4 children jostle for heir parents' attention and to meet their own dreams, this book is also about love, and how the siblings struggle to honor their love for each other and that for their own families and responsibilities.
Raised solidly middle class, in their own home, their parents spend all of their free time at their club playing bridge. Their mother is diabetic and occasionally has bouts of illness,
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keeping her at home. The children are essentially ignored. When the youngest's disabilities begin to be obvious, they call for Aunt Mira to come assist, as the elderly nurse cannot do it all.Mira brings fun, predicatability, and love to the children's lives. Each in his own way appreciates her: Bimla, the eldest, learns caregiving from her, and goes to college to be a teacher. She takes over her role as family carer--and much of the book is through Bim's eyes. Raja, the elder son, spends much time with the Muslim neighbors, learning Urdu and poetry. Aunt Mira permits this, though his own father is not supportive. Tara, the younger sister, loves Mira with all her heart, and as a newly married woman is sad but overwhelmed with her own life in Ceylon as Mira's illness takes her life. Baba, the younger disabled son, can only communicate with his carers, and Bim takes that role.
As much as the 4 children jostle for heir parents' attention and to meet their own dreams, this book is also about love, and how the siblings struggle to honor their love for each other and that for their own families and responsibilities.
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LibraryThing member cbl_tn
Tara’s visit to her childhood home in Old Delhi triggers memories of the past for both Tara and her older sister, Bim. The sisters’ different personalities different life choices have set them at odds, but by the end of Tara’s visit they will work through their painful memories to find
This novel transcends the genre of domestic fiction in ways that remind me of authors like Jane Austen. The family home in Old Delhi and the family circle are central to the plot. The action travels no farther than next door, except in memory. The social milieu is confined to the small Old Delhi neighborhood. However, the neighborhood was irrevocably changed with India’s partition in 1947, and the effects of change reverberate in the novel’s present.
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forgiveness, acceptance, and peace.This novel transcends the genre of domestic fiction in ways that remind me of authors like Jane Austen. The family home in Old Delhi and the family circle are central to the plot. The action travels no farther than next door, except in memory. The social milieu is confined to the small Old Delhi neighborhood. However, the neighborhood was irrevocably changed with India’s partition in 1947, and the effects of change reverberate in the novel’s present.
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LibraryThing member Castlelass
Every three years, Tara and her husband, Bakul, travel to Old Delhi to visit her sister, Bimla, the central character. Tara fondly remembers their shared childhood when everyone got along. Bim has never married. She lives in the old family home, teaching school and caring for her younger brother
The primary theme relates to changes that occur due to the passage of time. Music, poetry, and arts are referenced throughout. There is not a lot going on in this novel. It is a family story that delves into the details of the characters, and their past and present lives. It explores Partition to a certain degree, but it is not the primary focus of the story. It is slow in developing and beautifully written. It will appeal to those who enjoy reflective stories about family relationships.
“Although it was shadowy and dark, Bim could see as well as by the clear light of day that she felt only love and yearning for them all, and if there were hurts, these gashes and wounds in her side that bled, then it was only because her love was imperfect and did not encompass them thoroughly enough, and because it had flaws and inadequacies and did not extend to all equally.”
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who has autism. The storyline follows the Das family conflicts and uncovers their sources. Bim is estranged from her other brother. There are lingering jealousies and rivalries between the sisters. In the later parts of the book, the narrative flashes back to the days of Partition, with its civil unrest. Finally, we come back to the present and find Bim reassessing her relationship to her family.The primary theme relates to changes that occur due to the passage of time. Music, poetry, and arts are referenced throughout. There is not a lot going on in this novel. It is a family story that delves into the details of the characters, and their past and present lives. It explores Partition to a certain degree, but it is not the primary focus of the story. It is slow in developing and beautifully written. It will appeal to those who enjoy reflective stories about family relationships.
“Although it was shadowy and dark, Bim could see as well as by the clear light of day that she felt only love and yearning for them all, and if there were hurts, these gashes and wounds in her side that bled, then it was only because her love was imperfect and did not encompass them thoroughly enough, and because it had flaws and inadequacies and did not extend to all equally.”
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Language
Original language
English
ISBN
0099276186 / 9780099276180
Physical description
192 p.; 5.08 inches
Pages
192