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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
The Crow Eaters is something of an idyll, the story of a Parsi family in pre-Partition Lahore. I think the book was written largely to give the outside world a picture of Parsi culture. The characters are more caricatures than anything else--characters from a melodrama--and the story feels a lot like a folktale in spite of the more modern phenomena that appear, e.g. railroads and insurance fraud. Except... Sidhwa specifies a time when her novel occurs: it begins in 1901 and ends around 1940. On occasion, the author refers to things she and the reader know from our own time (e.g. WWII and discotheques) that the characters do not yet know about. Since it is otherwise a book set very much in its own time (without, say, overt nostalgia or attempts to take a lesson from our benighted ancestors) the anachronistic references are a bit jarring.
Quite good!
Quite good!
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
a pleasant read, i enjoy Sidhwa’s writing style. The Junglewalla’s make for complex and interesting characters, even if they are thoroughly unlikeable. I think it could be argued that the book is a scathing presentation of male narcissism, arrogance and misogyny - male characters who cannot bear to be wrong or to give ground to the women who dare to defy them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia
dark
emotional
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
funny
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
I loved this book and could have read it through again. It is a very entertaining story, full of hilarious episodes and characters. But it has more than humor to engage the reader--it has wisdom and insight into human nature, especially the humanity of the Parsis, that tiny but influential religious sect of India.
The time period is late nineteenth and early twentieth century and much of the novel is set in Lahore, a city now in Pakistan but then part of India. Freddy Junglewalla is a poor Parsi from Gujarat state who transports his family to the Punjab and becomes very wealthy. His relationship with Jerbanoo, his domineering mother-in-law, brings him misery but Freddy gains the upper hand. Although the novel contains some bawdy scenes, they are never in poor taste.
The time period is late nineteenth and early twentieth century and much of the novel is set in Lahore, a city now in Pakistan but then part of India. Freddy Junglewalla is a poor Parsi from Gujarat state who transports his family to the Punjab and becomes very wealthy. His relationship with Jerbanoo, his domineering mother-in-law, brings him misery but Freddy gains the upper hand. Although the novel contains some bawdy scenes, they are never in poor taste.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Having read Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice Candy Man earlier, I knew I could hope for a lovely storytelling and I wasn't disappointed. Interestingly, The Crow Eaters had been in my TBR even before Ice Candy Man but it was only now that I got my hands on it and I really enjoyed it.
Sidhwa's finesse with novel writing is quite evident in this very Parsee-centric, pre partition story of a Parsee family that migrated to Lahore and established themselves there from a humble background to a powerful one. The novel mainly revolves around the life of Fareedoon or Freddy Junglewalla and the people associated with him, and written in a humourous, satirical manner which made me laugh quite a number of times in the first half of the novel. Through this novel, you get to have a deeper insight into the lives, traditions and customs of Parsees or Zoroastrians, and I particularly loved how subtle yet poignant Sidhwa was in her expression of both love for her community and constructive criticism on some of its elements, and how all of this was portrayed through fiction.
I liked the details, the characters drawn in a way that I could visualise them, the story having no loose ends, the way Sidhwa builds on the quirks of the main characters throughout the story to use it as a climax later on, the detailed mention of Lahore and Bombay of 1900s, the satire, the glance at the British India and the irony of British empire. The writing of this novel have the beauty of classic writing but without the difficulty and jargons, and the relevance of it being set in this region makes it all the more interesting.
Overall, a really nice novel. Though I would have liked if it talked more about Yazdi and his character arc; I felt a few loose ends were left in his part of the story, and the ending seemed a bit abrupt to me after the slow and detailed built-up throughout the novel. If you enjoy slice-of-life family sagas, especially ones that focus on groups (in this case Parsis in pre-independence Lahore) that are typically underrepresented in literature, then I’d recommend checking this one out.
Sidhwa's finesse with novel writing is quite evident in this very Parsee-centric, pre partition story of a Parsee family that migrated to Lahore and established themselves there from a humble background to a powerful one. The novel mainly revolves around the life of Fareedoon or Freddy Junglewalla and the people associated with him, and written in a humourous, satirical manner which made me laugh quite a number of times in the first half of the novel. Through this novel, you get to have a deeper insight into the lives, traditions and customs of Parsees or Zoroastrians, and I particularly loved how subtle yet poignant Sidhwa was in her expression of both love for her community and constructive criticism on some of its elements, and how all of this was portrayed through fiction.
I liked the details, the characters drawn in a way that I could visualise them, the story having no loose ends, the way Sidhwa builds on the quirks of the main characters throughout the story to use it as a climax later on, the detailed mention of Lahore and Bombay of 1900s, the satire, the glance at the British India and the irony of British empire. The writing of this novel have the beauty of classic writing but without the difficulty and jargons, and the relevance of it being set in this region makes it all the more interesting.
Overall, a really nice novel. Though I would have liked if it talked more about Yazdi and his character arc; I felt a few loose ends were left in his part of the story, and the ending seemed a bit abrupt to me after the slow and detailed built-up throughout the novel. If you enjoy slice-of-life family sagas, especially ones that focus on groups (in this case Parsis in pre-independence Lahore) that are typically underrepresented in literature, then I’d recommend checking this one out.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character