The Space Between Us: A Novel (P.S.)
by Thrity Umrigar
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Book Reviews of The Space Between Us: A Novel (P.S.)
Book Review: "Searching for something that linked them to the sun and the stars"
Summary: 4 Stars
This story of class distinction in current-day India is sometimes painful to read, but also brings to life a remarkable heroine, whose struggles in the world remind us to pay attention to one another with kindness. Bhima, a woman who has lost her husband and children, in different ways and circumstances, has long been employed as a servant by the Dubash family, an upper class group whose matriarch, Sera, has lived through hellish struggles of her own. The relationship between the two women is complex, and as the book unfolds their stories bit by bit, even quite similar in some ways, despite the 'space between' them, the gulf of class they can never bridge. Whereas Bhima's troubles are all very public, Sera has been able to hide hers behind money and privacy that Bhima's life does not afford her.
Bhima is immediately sympathetic, caring for her disgraced pregnant granddaughter, on whom high hopes had been placed and who now will bring great shame to even the slum she and Bhima inhabit if she won't consent to an abortion. Bhima counts on the help of Sera and the Dubash family, including Sera's daughter and son-in-law, as she has relied on them in the past. But Bhima's help to the Dubash family has also been great - no one cares for them all the way Bhima does, without any motive more complicated than loyalty and gratitude.
Sera is also sympathetic, when we come to see that her current happiness in having her family re-united in the house following her husband's death is a recent happiness. Sera's marriage had long been an abusive one, and one in which she was a hostage to her husband's rages and his mother's crazy ravings and abuse.
For all these years, Bhima and Sera have needed each other, although of course Sera will never need Bhima in the desperate ways that Bhima needs Sera. Bhima's story takes precedence, and rightfully so - her past is tragic and bigger in scale than Sera's domestice struggle. The class differences are huge here, and since the author lived it, I assume they are accurate. Bhima is a character who once knew a better life, a middle-class life, and at times it is difficult to read of how her circumstances came to be so different. She is stymied at every turn, and unable to lift herself out of the slum. And yet, there is much that is beautiful in Bhima: her love for her family, her belief in Sera, her honest and unflinching way of facing hard truths.
When the relationship between Bhima and Sera is threatened in yet another depressing twist in the tale, one wonders how Bhima can find the strength or resources to go on. This is not a feel-good book, and yet it has an appeal. Its message of compassion found in the midst of despair makes one keep reading to the somewhat hopeful end. Umrigar's writing is beautiful stuff as well.
Book Review: A study of social class in modern India
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a novel about social class in Modern Bombay. It tells the story of two women - Sena, an upper middle class Parsi woman and her servant Bhima, who resides in the slums. The novel starts out with two pregnancies, that of 16 year old Maya, Bhima's granddaughter and of Dinaz, Sena's daughter. Dinaz' pregnancy is cause for celebration but Maya's is tragic because she is unmarried and forced to quit college because of her pregnancy. Bhima sees this as a disaster. Sena had paid for Maya's education through the years and Bhima sees education as the only way out of the slums. Through the years, the novel shows how her illiteracy, lack of education, and poverty have made her life extemely difficult. Although she did not see education as important for her now dead daughter, after a horrible incident where Bhima is taken advantage of because she cannot read, she realizes that even a girl needs to read.
The novel traces Sena and Bhima's histories. Both have suffered as women in a patriarchal society. Umrigar captures well the bond between servant and mistress, as they know each other's secrets because they are together day in and day out. Yet, Umrigar also captures the distance between them. Umrigar does a fine job of depicting Sena's middle class sensibilities - for example, how she would not permit Bhima to sit on the furniture or use the same plates and cups as her family and her guilt over this or her inability to not project her revulsion for the slums onto Bhima's person. At the end, when the secret of who fathered Maya's baby is revealed, the nvel ends in tragedy, stemming from the complicated class relationship between Bhima and Sena.
In Umrigar's writing, you can almost smell India - the sounds, sites, and flavors are all in the novel and she has captured the cadence of Bombay voices. Having been to Bombay, I recognized the city, its sounds and its people. The only negative I saw was Umrigar's tendency to over-write. Sometimes, she was too wordy which detracted from the story. This is definitely a dark novel throughout. While Sena and her daughter are kind to Bhima throughout, ultimately, Bhima and her employers cannot traverse class (i.e. the "space between them.")
Book Review: Beautiful and Powerful Fiction
Summary: 4 Stars
In The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar takes her readers around the planet to Bombay, India which at first seems like a completely different world with it's own unique cultures and customs. However, the people in India are just that--people. And people really aren't that different from each other whether they live in Bombay, Salt Lake City or Copenhagen--we all dream for a better future, for love, for understanding.
Umrigar tells this story of human desires in the setting of Bombay where the very poor work in the houses of the middle class (labor is very cheap and they lack the conveniences such as dishwashers and washing machines, so even the middle class have maids). There are distinct divisions between the classes. Even the most well treated maids must use separate dishes and are not allowed to sit on the furniture.
Bhima has worked for Sera for many many years. They have become close and over the years Sera has paid for Bhima's granddaughter Maya to attend school and college. Now seventeen year old Maya is pregnant and everyone around her insists that she have an abortion so that she can return to college and not "ruin" her life. The destruction of the child will have lasting effects for both Bhima and Sera's families.
Bhima and Sera are not so very different in their personal desires and neither, whether learned and well-off or impoverished and illiterate, have had much power to direct the flow of their own lives.
The descriptions of the slums in which Bhima and Maya live are raw. Umrigar is a skilled weaver of beautiful and powerful fiction. She writes so well that I felt as if I were walking along the beach with Bhima and buying balloon animals from her balloonwalla or breathing in the smells from the open air market.
Dealing with painful subjects such as extreme poverty, abortion, rape and illiteracy (not unique to India), this is not a novel that will warm you heart. However, Umrigar treats these subjects with dignity and honesty through the sensitive eyes of two believable and likable characters.
I found the novel both gripping and heart breaking. It moved me.
Book Review: Poignant and Provocative
Summary: 5 Stars
In The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar, novelist and professor of Creative Writing at Case Western University, pushes the boundaries of traditional narrative and establishes an independent style, just as her characters push class boundaries and enter into each other's worlds. Revealing the story of Bhima and her granddaughter, Maya, as they endure the brutality of poverty, Umrigar presents scenes in a seemingly random order, each scene revealing some aspect of life for Bhima and her employer, Sera Dubash, a Parsi housewife, both in the past and the present. Moving back and forth, around, and inside out through Bhima's and Sera's recollections, Umrigar gradually unfolds Bhima's story to the reader, it's raw pain increasing as the reader makes the connections which turn disconnected scenes into a powerful and heartbreaking chronology.
As the novel opens, Bhima and Maya live in a small hut in a Bombay slum colony. Bhima struggles with feelings of rage directed at her granddaughter because Maya is pregnant. Most painful to Bhima are the deaths of Pooja and Raju, her daughter and son-in-law, though the reader doesn't know for many pages the tragic manner in which they die. As Bhima gradually discovers the truth behind Maya's rebellious behavior, the sorrow which has burdened Bhima seems close to breaking her.
The imperious, ignorant attitude of the upper class, the selfishness of men, and the desperate measures of the poor to protect themselves and provide for their loved ones come fully alive here, the sadness growing as the reader gradually discovers the real source of Maya's torment. By forcing the reader to make connections instead of spelling out the details in a traditional narrative, Umrigar strengthens the impact of the novel and its brutal revelations. Symbols of water and the city of Bombay connect the disparate scenes and keep the reader turning pages until the action is eventually resolved. A powerful, poignant and ultimately elegant tale, The Space Between Us is also a searing indictment of poverty and the damage it has done to the fabric of life, damage that cannot be repaired until it is fully acknowledged by all of us.
Book Review: Haunting...
Summary: 5 Stars
Thrity Umrigar's The Space Between Us focuses on the quiet strife suffered by the main character, Bhima, and the disparity between Bhima's difficult life and that of her long-time employer Sera. The incredible social dichotomy between the two women is interesting, yet sad - Sera considers the slum-dwelling Bhima to be her close friend and confidante, yet she still will not allow Bhima to sit on her furniture or use her utensils. Umrigar succeeds in making the reader feel uncomfortable as the strange (to us) relationship between the two women unfolds. Both women know tragedy in their own lives - Sera, while wealthy, privileged and educated, suffers an abusive marriage and responds to situations with caste-appropriate knee-jerk reactions that are not necessarily in her own best interest; while Bhima has endured blow after blow, landing her and her daughter struggling in a stinking slum. As the story progresses, we learn of the devastating chain of events that led to Bhima's low station in life - a sad, painful situation that she feels powerless to fight against financially, caste-wise, and as a woman. Her beloved daughter, for whom she toils in order to provide her with a chance at a better life, is quickly on her way to undoing everything Bhima has managed to achieve for her. Bhima bears her pain and the injustice leveled at her with stoic resignation, while feebly clinging to hope. As the story progresses, Sera's selfish devotion to her caste overrides her loyalty to her friend, delivering a final condemnation to Bhima and her daughter, and forcing Bhima to realize the futility of her situation. The reader feels Bhima's emptiness - and at times it is infuriating that Bhima does not appear to stand up for herself. Umrigar has succeeded in writing a touching story that explores the sad implications of loyalty, friendship and social standing. The story is thought provoking, vivid and heartbreaking - I think about it often, even though at this point I read it over six months ago. "The Space Between" makes you wonder why certain things happen to some people and not to others.