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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Love Kamila Shamsie but this was quite ambitious. Gets a bit far fetched near the end but by that point I was hooked already.
Despite the slightly misleading cover, this is not frothy "women's" historical fiction. The central (I can't quite say "main") character is a woman, and the plot is about the people (lover, husband, friend, son) she loves, but it is much more serious and emotional than the usual HF geared toward women.
The writing was very beautiful at times. I found myself crying at her descriptions of Nagasaki in the wake of the bomb, of men reduced to crawling lizards, of people who transformed into burnt shadows (the bomb incinerating all but their fat), of purple books like birds in the trees, of dark birds embedded in Hiroko's back (from the kimono she wore when the bomb detonated) that sometimes take flight (in her imagination) and tear at her insides. It was heart-wrenching and terrible. I thought that beginning section, about a lone woman abandoned in a world that's falling apart, was the best part. The writing was the best, the setting was the best, the characters were the best, the plot was the best. I enjoyed the middle section too, though by the last section I felt like the story was running away from me. (Still, that could echo the feelings of the characters, who suffer loss after loss and struggle to find their way in a chaotic, violent world.)
The abrupt ending really left me with a strange feeling. It, like a lot of other events in the novel, was just too sudden. I think that is the main reason I was leaning toward a 2 on this one, though the beautiful writing and Horiko's character especially made me want to go up to a 4. So here we are, stuck in the middle.
While I have read many books about Partition, I have read none about Nagasaki or 9/11. The over exaggerated patriotism of the post-9/11 disgusts me, so the latter topic doesn't interest me. (In fact, I did like her treatment of the subject in the book, where it turns Americans into paranoid, prejudiced people.) However, I found Nagasaki to be a compelling subject for an historical fiction novel, and I might try to find another on the topic.
I think this book is definitely worth reading just for Hiroko's character, as well as the skillful contrast between Nagasaki, Partition, and the American War on Terror.
The writing was very beautiful at times. I found myself crying at her descriptions of Nagasaki in the wake of the bomb, of men reduced to crawling lizards, of people who transformed into burnt shadows (the bomb incinerating all but their fat), of purple books like birds in the trees, of dark birds embedded in Hiroko's back (from the kimono she wore when the bomb detonated) that sometimes take flight (in her imagination) and tear at her insides. It was heart-wrenching and terrible. I thought that beginning section, about a lone woman abandoned in a world that's falling apart, was the best part. The writing was the best, the setting was the best, the characters were the best, the plot was the best. I enjoyed the middle section too, though by the last section I felt like the story was running away from me. (Still, that could echo the feelings of the characters, who suffer loss after loss and struggle to find their way in a chaotic, violent world.)
The abrupt ending really left me with a strange feeling. It, like a lot of other events in the novel, was just too sudden. I think that is the main reason I was leaning toward a 2 on this one, though the beautiful writing and Horiko's character especially made me want to go up to a 4. So here we are, stuck in the middle.
While I have read many books about Partition, I have read none about Nagasaki or 9/11. The over exaggerated patriotism of the post-9/11 disgusts me, so the latter topic doesn't interest me. (In fact, I did like her treatment of the subject in the book, where it turns Americans into paranoid, prejudiced people.) However, I found Nagasaki to be a compelling subject for an historical fiction novel, and I might try to find another on the topic.
I think this book is definitely worth reading just for Hiroko's character, as well as the skillful contrast between Nagasaki, Partition, and the American War on Terror.
Wow. This book has broken me. Such an interesting narrative style, it lets you see every miscommunication and misunderstanding in real time as the characters are driven relentlessly through their narratives. This is a story about war, family, belonging, boundaries, love, betrayal, and how we are divided. So human. Heartbreaking.
Very interesting book. Would make a great book club read
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
A really interesting look at how Nagasaki, the Indian partition, and communism and the Soviet-Afghan conflict affected the people living through it; through the lens of one family. I really enjoyed this book, though it was challenging and sad at times, and I learnt a lot about things I didn't know about before (namely the Soviets in Afghanistan).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Xenophobia
Moderate: War
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
This is an anti-war novel, and a really good one. It’s intelligent, gripping and heartfelt. It’s too gentle to be called an epic, but it has an epic’s scope.
The novel covers sixty years and three generations, in the lives of two interlocked multi-cultural families. It begins with the bomb in Nagasaki and ends with the tension and paranoia of the post-9/11 world. It’s about culture shock, assimilation, and losing one’s homeland. The characters are all great; I wanted to follow them around forever. The cities also live: Delhi, Karachi, New York.
My main quibble is that it ends at a point of crisis that left me blinking. I guess the author’s message is that nothing can be resolved in a world perpetually at war.
The novel covers sixty years and three generations, in the lives of two interlocked multi-cultural families. It begins with the bomb in Nagasaki and ends with the tension and paranoia of the post-9/11 world. It’s about culture shock, assimilation, and losing one’s homeland. The characters are all great; I wanted to follow them around forever. The cities also live: Delhi, Karachi, New York.
My main quibble is that it ends at a point of crisis that left me blinking. I guess the author’s message is that nothing can be resolved in a world perpetually at war.
A compelling perspective on major events in this century as seen through the intersection (clash?) of cultures and perspectives across continents. Since it touches on vastly complex topics, some broad generalizations are made. Great read for global nomads.
When Hiroko Tanaka was 21, she was living in Nagasaki and engaged to be married to Konrad Weiss. Things were difficult for them, though, because it was 1945 and people were leery of Konrad because he was German. When the atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Hiroko’s life is changed forever – she lost the love of her life and she is emotionally and physically scarred for life.
Hoping to forget the past and start all over, Hiroko immigrated to India a few years later. She stayed with Konrad’s half-sister and her family and meets and falls in love with Sajjad Ali Ashraf. Against impossible odds, Hiroko and Sajjad got married and made a life for themselves, through good times and bad.
It is really hard to write a synopsis of Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie without giving too much of the story away. The book starts out slow, and although the pace really doesn’t pick up much, I found myself drawn to the book after a few chapters. Hiroko is such a strong female character and I really admired her ability to re-invent herself and her life when she needed to. She never told her son about her experiences in World War II because she wanted to protect him, but then he ended up getting caught up in some militant activity and she said,
"I wish now I’d told Raza. Told everyone. Written it down and put a copy in every school, every library, every public meeting place. But you see, then I’d read the history books. Truman, Churchill, Stalin, the Emperor. My stories seemed so small, so tiny a fragment in the big picture."
Passages like that really made me reflect on the past and the importance of remembering and learning from mistakes. It also reminded me that every person’s story is important.
I also learned a lot from Burnt Shadows. I’m kind of embarrassed to say I knew next to nothing about Pakistan and how it was formed and why there’s so much unrest in the area.
Burnt Shadows is really the story of two families whose lives are intertwined through the years and in five different countries and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about their triumphs and tragedies. My thoughts are inadequate to describe how much is in this book and the beauty of its words.
Hoping to forget the past and start all over, Hiroko immigrated to India a few years later. She stayed with Konrad’s half-sister and her family and meets and falls in love with Sajjad Ali Ashraf. Against impossible odds, Hiroko and Sajjad got married and made a life for themselves, through good times and bad.
It is really hard to write a synopsis of Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie without giving too much of the story away. The book starts out slow, and although the pace really doesn’t pick up much, I found myself drawn to the book after a few chapters. Hiroko is such a strong female character and I really admired her ability to re-invent herself and her life when she needed to. She never told her son about her experiences in World War II because she wanted to protect him, but then he ended up getting caught up in some militant activity and she said,
"I wish now I’d told Raza. Told everyone. Written it down and put a copy in every school, every library, every public meeting place. But you see, then I’d read the history books. Truman, Churchill, Stalin, the Emperor. My stories seemed so small, so tiny a fragment in the big picture."
Passages like that really made me reflect on the past and the importance of remembering and learning from mistakes. It also reminded me that every person’s story is important.
I also learned a lot from Burnt Shadows. I’m kind of embarrassed to say I knew next to nothing about Pakistan and how it was formed and why there’s so much unrest in the area.
Burnt Shadows is really the story of two families whose lives are intertwined through the years and in five different countries and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about their triumphs and tragedies. My thoughts are inadequate to describe how much is in this book and the beauty of its words.