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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
informative
tense
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
A saga spanning many tumultuous times of the British Raj. Made me angry seeing how little regard the British had for the states and people they took control of. Disregard for another culture and idealising their own. The main character was very interesting as he had experience of both cultures as an insider of both. His choices and ideas were more sympathetic to Indian culture and he could see the irony in the idealising of “Britishness“.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Before you start reading this review, let's establish a few things:
1) I'm a Muslim, and I know my religion well.
2)I'm Asian ( I'm not Indian, or from anywhere near India, in fact, I'm from the West, but that does not change the fact that I'm from that continent, and I get its people pretty well).
3) I'm not going to answer any comments unless they're really worth answering, so don't try to pick a fight with me. If you need something explained, I'll be glad to explain it, but other than that, no thanks.
Now, to business.
First off, this is not my first time reading M.M. Kaye, and her writing, regardless of other things, is rich, captivating, and just plain worth reading.
I began The Far Pavilions expecting nothing less, and I wasn't disappointed, at least not in that area.
Yet despite that, I had many issues with this book. Most were of a moral nature, but not all.
Number One:
All those refrences to sex, brothels, affairs, mistresses.....the list doesn't end. I mean, do we need more of that in this world?!?
And for some reason, the author belived that going to brothels would've done Ash good. A great deal of it. Wow. Just wow.
He advised Ash to abandon any
thought of marriage for at least five years, and suggested instead a
visit to one of the better-known houses of ill-fame in Peshawar or
Rawalpindi.
Ash was strongly tempted to accept, and it would probably have
done him a great deal of good, for the life of an unmarried subaltern
in the Indian Army was a monastic one.
And we do get that Lily Briggs was an "amoral slutt" , but I don't see how Ashton is much better. He went to brothels, had any number of mistresses, and wasn't above sleeping with another man's fiancé.
Number Two:
We're still talking about the content here. About that sex scene in the cave. The author tried to make us believe that it was right, that there was nothing wrong about cheating on your fiancé (yes, they've never even seen each other, but that doesn't change the fact that Anjuli is another man's fiancé ) , or committing fornication.
Just because of 'Love'.
Should I clap my hands, or do you prefer a whistle?
Love is great, people, but there are greater things. And really, love and lust are quite different from each other. That scene was about as beautiful as an overflowing garbage bin that's been decorated for some celebration.
Number Three:
.....beautiful; Krishna the Beloved, Hanuman the Ape, and pot-bellied Ganesh with his elephant head who was, strangely, the son of Shiv and Parvati. These and a hundred other gods and godlings must all be propitiated by gifts to the priests. Yet Koda Dad said that there was only one god, whose Prophet was Mohammed. Which was certainly simpler, except that it was sometimes difficult to tell who Koda Dad really worshipped – God or Mohammed – for God, according to Koda Dad, lived in the sky, but his followers must not say their prayers unless they faced in the direction of Mecca, a city where Mohammed had been born. And although Koda Dad spoke scornfully of idols and idol-worshippers, he had told Ash about a sacred stone in Mecca that was regarded as holy by all Muslims and accorded a veneration equal to anything offered by the Hindus to the stone emblems of Vishnu. Ash could see little difference between the two: if one was an idol, so was the other.
The author seems to think we worship the Black Stone, or "the shrouded rock in Mecca" (the author's words). We don't. Its just a stone, but blessed by Allah (God). It was first positioned in Mecca when Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismael (Ishmael) first built the Ka'aba. And we don't face Mecca because the Prophet (PBUH) was born there, that actually has nothing to do with it. At all.
We face the Ka'aba, which is located in Mecca. The Ka'aba is The Sacred House Of Allah ( Bait Allah Al-Haram).That is why we face it. We'll still face it, even if it was located in the North Pole.
And for the billionth time, Prophets. Are. People. H-U-M-A-N B-E-I-N-G-S. You can't worship them. But you have to believe in them, all of them, from Adam to Jesus to Mohammed, because believing in Allah means believing in all the Prophets He ever sent to humanity. That's what we have in Islam. Take it, or leave it.
Oh, and we don't make offerings to Allah ( or to that stone). He owns The Earth and Skies and all in between. What makes people think He'd want offerings? He gives those thing to people, not the other way around.
There were a lot of these kinds of mistakes scattered throughout the book (not that I finished it), but they all probably just stem from ignorance, and basing things merely on what you see, or hear, and not what you know to be the truth.
I was mistaken in thinking this book safe to read just because it was written so long ago. I'll be sure not to make that mistake again. Though I feel betrayed by the author.Trying to subtly sell immoral, wrong thoughts and ideas to unsuspecting readers who have put their complete trust in you.......that's shameful.
When we read books, we like to be on the side of the main characters. We like to support them, even if what they do doesn't always agree with what we believe. But when things go too strongly against what you know is right, you find yourself having to withdraw that support. That's what I found myself doing here, so I couldn't finish this book. It's hard to read about characters you no longer care about.
What you write reflects what you are. Somebody once called that asinine. It's not. It's perfectly true.The author herself committed fornication. Whatever made me think her characters would have better morals or principles?
1) I'm a Muslim, and I know my religion well.
2)I'm Asian ( I'm not Indian, or from anywhere near India, in fact, I'm from the West, but that does not change the fact that I'm from that continent, and I get its people pretty well).
3) I'm not going to answer any comments unless they're really worth answering, so don't try to pick a fight with me. If you need something explained, I'll be glad to explain it, but other than that, no thanks.
Now, to business.
First off, this is not my first time reading M.M. Kaye, and her writing, regardless of other things, is rich, captivating, and just plain worth reading.
I began The Far Pavilions expecting nothing less, and I wasn't disappointed, at least not in that area.
Yet despite that, I had many issues with this book. Most were of a moral nature, but not all.
Number One:
All those refrences to sex, brothels, affairs, mistresses.....the list doesn't end. I mean, do we need more of that in this world?!?
And for some reason, the author belived that going to brothels would've done Ash good. A great deal of it. Wow. Just wow.
He advised Ash to abandon any
thought of marriage for at least five years, and suggested instead a
visit to one of the better-known houses of ill-fame in Peshawar or
Rawalpindi.
Ash was strongly tempted to accept, and it would probably have
done him a great deal of good, for the life of an unmarried subaltern
in the Indian Army was a monastic one.
And we do get that Lily Briggs was an "amoral slutt" , but I don't see how Ashton is much better. He went to brothels, had any number of mistresses, and wasn't above sleeping with another man's fiancé.
Number Two:
We're still talking about the content here. About that sex scene in the cave. The author tried to make us believe that it was right, that there was nothing wrong about cheating on your fiancé (yes, they've never even seen each other, but that doesn't change the fact that Anjuli is another man's fiancé ) , or committing fornication.
Just because of 'Love'.
Should I clap my hands, or do you prefer a whistle?
Love is great, people, but there are greater things. And really, love and lust are quite different from each other. That scene was about as beautiful as an overflowing garbage bin that's been decorated for some celebration.
Number Three:
.....beautiful; Krishna the Beloved, Hanuman the Ape, and pot-bellied Ganesh with his elephant head who was, strangely, the son of Shiv and Parvati. These and a hundred other gods and godlings must all be propitiated by gifts to the priests. Yet Koda Dad said that there was only one god, whose Prophet was Mohammed. Which was certainly simpler, except that it was sometimes difficult to tell who Koda Dad really worshipped – God or Mohammed – for God, according to Koda Dad, lived in the sky, but his followers must not say their prayers unless they faced in the direction of Mecca, a city where Mohammed had been born. And although Koda Dad spoke scornfully of idols and idol-worshippers, he had told Ash about a sacred stone in Mecca that was regarded as holy by all Muslims and accorded a veneration equal to anything offered by the Hindus to the stone emblems of Vishnu. Ash could see little difference between the two: if one was an idol, so was the other.
The author seems to think we worship the Black Stone, or "the shrouded rock in Mecca" (the author's words). We don't. Its just a stone, but blessed by Allah (God). It was first positioned in Mecca when Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismael (Ishmael) first built the Ka'aba. And we don't face Mecca because the Prophet (PBUH) was born there, that actually has nothing to do with it. At all.
We face the Ka'aba, which is located in Mecca. The Ka'aba is The Sacred House Of Allah ( Bait Allah Al-Haram).That is why we face it. We'll still face it, even if it was located in the North Pole.
And for the billionth time, Prophets. Are. People. H-U-M-A-N B-E-I-N-G-S. You can't worship them. But you have to believe in them, all of them, from Adam to Jesus to Mohammed, because believing in Allah means believing in all the Prophets He ever sent to humanity. That's what we have in Islam. Take it, or leave it.
Oh, and we don't make offerings to Allah ( or to that stone). He owns The Earth and Skies and all in between. What makes people think He'd want offerings? He gives those thing to people, not the other way around.
There were a lot of these kinds of mistakes scattered throughout the book (not that I finished it), but they all probably just stem from ignorance, and basing things merely on what you see, or hear, and not what you know to be the truth.
I was mistaken in thinking this book safe to read just because it was written so long ago. I'll be sure not to make that mistake again. Though I feel betrayed by the author.Trying to subtly sell immoral, wrong thoughts and ideas to unsuspecting readers who have put their complete trust in you.......that's shameful.
When we read books, we like to be on the side of the main characters. We like to support them, even if what they do doesn't always agree with what we believe. But when things go too strongly against what you know is right, you find yourself having to withdraw that support. That's what I found myself doing here, so I couldn't finish this book. It's hard to read about characters you no longer care about.
What you write reflects what you are. Somebody once called that asinine. It's not. It's perfectly true.The author herself committed fornication. Whatever made me think her characters would have better morals or principles?
Я взялась читать эту книгу как любовный роман, но он все же скорее приключенческий. Любовная линия не особо интересная, но вот все остальноооое! Я так не увлекалась со времен, когда в 18-20 лет читала Дюма, Владимира Неффа, Жорж Санд и вот это все. Отдельный интерес - почитать с другой точки зрения о сипайском восстании, которое я очень смутно помню по учебникам и очень несмутно - из болливудских фильмов, которые перевожу. Например, болливуд (внезапно) умалчивает о том, что королева Джханси укокошила не только британских чиновников, но и жен их с малыми детьми.
Перевод оч. хороший, наверно, и продолжения буду читать по-русски. На всю толстенную книгу единственное замечание у меня: boxwallah это не боксваллах, а боксвалла - ударение на первую А. Валла - это такой многоцелевой суффикс, в частности, обозначающий и торговцев (например, чайвалла - разносчик, естественно, чая). Ну и хузур - не совсем "ваша честь". Так обращаются, например, к главе клана в Раджастане. Я перевожу просто как господин/госпожа. Но и то сказать - в том контексте и "ваша честь" вполне катит, насколько я помню.
Перевод оч. хороший, наверно, и продолжения буду читать по-русски. На всю толстенную книгу единственное замечание у меня: boxwallah это не боксваллах, а боксвалла - ударение на первую А. Валла - это такой многоцелевой суффикс, в частности, обозначающий и торговцев (например, чайвалла - разносчик, естественно, чая). Ну и хузур - не совсем "ваша честь". Так обращаются, например, к главе клана в Раджастане. Я перевожу просто как господин/госпожа. Но и то сказать - в том контексте и "ваша честь" вполне катит, насколько я помню.
I have read this three times in the past. Time to do it again. I just adore it.
Excellent read! Full of intrigue and adventure! I highly recommend it!
This was incredibly hard to rate so I'm giving it a 3-star down the middle, because I'm at a loss. The primary relationship of this novel, the romance, is toxic AF. I had already decided I did not like Ash much, but then it got to a point where he was screaming at his wife and actually THREW HER AGAINST A WALL BECAUSE HE THOUGHT SHE WAS GRIEVING HER SISTER. That happens. Page 844. Rarely does he speak to her without anger and selfishness, so there's that. I hate to think what kind of marriage Kaye had that she thought THIS was a sign of great love and romance.
Additionally, this tome just drones on and has so little focus that I struggled to know why I should keep reading or finish it. I ended up skimming the last tenth (ok, but that's over 100 pages), to discover Ash barely plays a role in what turns out to be an epic war in Afghanistan. So our protagonist becomes fairly invisible as the novel devolves into a history text.
But what is absolutely brilliant about Kaye's writing are the descriptive passages. This is a vivid, sensory novel that was so enticing from its first pages that I was sure I was going to be madly raving about it. It took its time making love to my left frontal lobe. Only several hundred pages in did I realize the story had become fairly episodic and unfocused, zigzagging its way to a conclusion. But the beginning is divine.
The other reason to even consider reading this book is its thesis, and Kaye's genuine understanding of South Asian history and cultural dynamics. This was not the ethnocentric classical novel I expected a British woman to write. The understanding of India is deep and nuanced, and while the protagonist IS British, even he does not know that for half the novel, and all the Asian characters are portrayed as 3-dimensional, flawed, and beautiful people. Which, sad to say, is a step up from most European writers. It gets a little sticky with Ash being a colonialist character advocating for post-colonial ideas, but the conflict is portrayed well, I thought. He even says of himself, deprecatingly, that he had seen himself as the "White Hope of Asia," and sees the folly of his own hero-complex.
The thesis, if you choose to hold out for it finally becoming apparent, is the tragedy of tribalism. Two lovers try to find a space in the world where they will not be attacked for their relationship. States war over land, religions war over truth, races war over identity, and the result is that innocent lives fall like flies. It's a worthy topic for an epic novel like this, and had it been handled with a little more clarity, could have made this one of the greats.
Additionally, Kaye shows some remarkable insight, even writing "Afghanistan is no country to fight a war in -- and an impossible one to hold if you win." I don't know if this is educated, prescient, or just plain wise, but it was stunning to find that line in a book from the 1970s.
So there it is. Good and bad. If you are in the mood for a bumbling trip through India that takes approximately 1200 pages, have at it.
Additionally, this tome just drones on and has so little focus that I struggled to know why I should keep reading or finish it. I ended up skimming the last tenth (ok, but that's over 100 pages), to discover Ash barely plays a role in what turns out to be an epic war in Afghanistan. So our protagonist becomes fairly invisible as the novel devolves into a history text.
But what is absolutely brilliant about Kaye's writing are the descriptive passages. This is a vivid, sensory novel that was so enticing from its first pages that I was sure I was going to be madly raving about it. It took its time making love to my left frontal lobe. Only several hundred pages in did I realize the story had become fairly episodic and unfocused, zigzagging its way to a conclusion. But the beginning is divine.
The other reason to even consider reading this book is its thesis, and Kaye's genuine understanding of South Asian history and cultural dynamics. This was not the ethnocentric classical novel I expected a British woman to write. The understanding of India is deep and nuanced, and while the protagonist IS British, even he does not know that for half the novel, and all the Asian characters are portrayed as 3-dimensional, flawed, and beautiful people. Which, sad to say, is a step up from most European writers. It gets a little sticky with Ash being a colonialist character advocating for post-colonial ideas, but the conflict is portrayed well, I thought. He even says of himself, deprecatingly, that he had seen himself as the "White Hope of Asia," and sees the folly of his own hero-complex.
The thesis, if you choose to hold out for it finally becoming apparent, is the tragedy of tribalism. Two lovers try to find a space in the world where they will not be attacked for their relationship. States war over land, religions war over truth, races war over identity, and the result is that innocent lives fall like flies. It's a worthy topic for an epic novel like this, and had it been handled with a little more clarity, could have made this one of the greats.
Additionally, Kaye shows some remarkable insight, even writing "Afghanistan is no country to fight a war in -- and an impossible one to hold if you win." I don't know if this is educated, prescient, or just plain wise, but it was stunning to find that line in a book from the 1970s.
So there it is. Good and bad. If you are in the mood for a bumbling trip through India that takes approximately 1200 pages, have at it.
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This is my favorite genre - a meaty, heavy, historical saga with lots of information about the setting and characters. A lovely love story - but oh, so much more, the story of India, the British colonization, the people, and (interestingly, as it was written about a year before the Soviet invasion) Afghanistan.
All-in-all, delightfully satisfying.
All-in-all, delightfully satisfying.
I read this book many, many years ago,(and if you're 30 or under, before you were born :-( ) and I still remember the characters and the feel for the book. I remember the handsome Ashok and telling the story at night to my husband who is not much of a reader, but who loves a good story.