On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.
The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home?
This month we welcomed Amélie to our little book club family. Over September, we read The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff. When I say “we” I mean aside from those two members (who shall remain nameless) who didn’t finish the book. A mixed bag of scores again, ranging from 4 to 8 (with a special mention for the member who couldn’t make it but gave the book a 1). The average score was 6.3. It’s the second 6.3 score we’ve had this year (looking at you A Gentleman in Moscow) which means it’s also sitting alongside The Haunting of Hill House and Commonwealth. Meh all round. Not a ringing endorsement then.
For those who liked the book, it could be summed up as “enjoyable but forgettable”, “a light read that turned my brain off”. Some went as far as to say as it was “fierce” and “lighthearted darkness”. On the other end of the scale, it was described as “drivel” but a “promising debut”.
The conversation around this book was difficult to follow at times, and difficult to capture in my sporadic note-taking fashion. There were some big themes explored in the book (to a greater or lesser extent) and that meant big conversations.
The setting for the book wasn’t one that most of the group were overly familiar with. It was hard to know whether this was a portrait of one particular village of whether the challenges are ones which are more prevalent. This isn’t something I can answer but I did find this:
Here’s an ELI5 on the caste system (which yes, will be simplistic, but that’s the nature of “Explain Like I’m Five”).
We wondered what the reception was of the book in India. Did the author try and make the themes more palatable for western culture? Does it downplay the issues for the sake of the book? Slumdog Millionaire was mentioned quite a bit.
Others in the group said they didn’t want to read an epic about every issue. Which is fair enough – this isn’t really a book for that.
We talked quite a bit about the women, family, and community aspect of the book. The women of the book needed to stand up for themselves as no one else would. We questioned how limiting life is as a woman in this kind of village. Geeta seems to have a bit more freedom, and Saloni was able to choose her own husband. We discussed whether the men also had their own constraints – a public face they needed to uphold (article about the shift in this here)
Oh, and the dog was cute but the children were awful
In other conversations, if the book club had a boat, what would we call it?
And, are drop bears real?
Well, there’s a whole page about them on the Australian Museum website. There’s even suggested remedies against them “There are some suggested folk remedies that are said to act as a repellent to Drop Bears, these include having forks in the hair or Vegemite or toothpaste spread behind the ears. There is no evidence to suggest that any such repellents work.”
If you’re still not sure, why not ask this Scottish reporter?
