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The set up sounds like a fairy tale— ragamuffin orphan breaks into the palace and falls in love with the princess's maid—but this book is not about dashing deeds or happy endings. It's a gorgeous story about a man and the visually real people who make up his legacy. No heroes, muddy morality, everyone is flawed and that's that makes this story of generations so powerful. I loved the nuance in the backdrop, too: a world struggling with colonialism, two world wars, and the implications of being Indian in the British army.
This book made my cry on an airplane. Would recommend.
This book made my cry on an airplane. Would recommend.
Book Riot Read Harder 2016: Read a book that is by an author from Southeast Asia
As is the case with Ghosh's Ibis trilogy, Glass Palace is full of historical anecdotes, well researched details and not a lot of plot. I enjoy reading his books with a certain level of detachment because the characters take a back step in narration as Ghosh glosses over the plot and write more about history. This isn't necessarily bad especially when the subject matter is new. But it does made me wonder if I could have as well read Burmese history. I was aware of the Japanese invasion of Malaysia so there wasn't anything new there.
For someone who isn't versed with South Asian history, Glass Palace is a fantastic read in historical fiction genre.
For someone who isn't versed with South Asian history, Glass Palace is a fantastic read in historical fiction genre.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Reading History sometimes becomes hard for us to understand things but if we read it in a fictional way it turns out that we can remember the things that we could not by reading it in the from of textbook. History remains as real as the events happened in the past but it takes form in the way of fiction or a story which is imagined...
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Amitav Ghosh is my most most and most favourite Author and I found it when I read his another book Sea of Poppies in the very beginning of this year which is the first book in Ibis Trilogy. As I told earlier that his books are the kind of thing I look forward to... they beckon me and I have even marked the chapters and paragraphs that I read time to time in particular mood levels. It's his talent that he starts his book with different characters and stories and how amazingly their stories entwined with each other and at the end these tales become the part of one major story.
.......
This book The Glass Palace is a historical fiction which tells us about the Last King of Burma... King Thebaw, and his wife Queen Supayalat who are forced into exiled from their Burmese Palace by the British to the obscure town called Ratnagiri, India. It tells us how they live there and there is another story of Rajkumar, the main character of this book, who involves himself in teak industry and from a poor man becomes one of the richest people in Burma and in old age lose everything he owns because of the trouble due to The Second World War. It's a story of a Royal Family in exile and of Rajkumar's life. There is a huge coverage of different things like Indian National Movements, Castism, Military, teak industry, rubber industry, Colonialism, British Indian Army and many more things and the book takes place in some places of India and many more places of Burma(now called Myanmar, Malaya(now Malaysia), Siam(now Thailand), Singapore and a few other countries from 1885 to nearly 1995.
Loved it...this is definitely a must read..
Thank you 😊🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️
.....
Amitav Ghosh is my most most and most favourite Author and I found it when I read his another book Sea of Poppies in the very beginning of this year which is the first book in Ibis Trilogy. As I told earlier that his books are the kind of thing I look forward to... they beckon me and I have even marked the chapters and paragraphs that I read time to time in particular mood levels. It's his talent that he starts his book with different characters and stories and how amazingly their stories entwined with each other and at the end these tales become the part of one major story.
.......
This book The Glass Palace is a historical fiction which tells us about the Last King of Burma... King Thebaw, and his wife Queen Supayalat who are forced into exiled from their Burmese Palace by the British to the obscure town called Ratnagiri, India. It tells us how they live there and there is another story of Rajkumar, the main character of this book, who involves himself in teak industry and from a poor man becomes one of the richest people in Burma and in old age lose everything he owns because of the trouble due to The Second World War. It's a story of a Royal Family in exile and of Rajkumar's life. There is a huge coverage of different things like Indian National Movements, Castism, Military, teak industry, rubber industry, Colonialism, British Indian Army and many more things and the book takes place in some places of India and many more places of Burma(now called Myanmar, Malaya(now Malaysia), Siam(now Thailand), Singapore and a few other countries from 1885 to nearly 1995.
Loved it...this is definitely a must read..
Thank you 😊🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️
This was an adventure. It just transports you to other times, and other places - it makes you bear witness of love, of sadness, of brutality. In short, it makes you a witness of the real life of real people, who are very different from what we're used to.
Careful when you pick this one up, though. You're in for a huge, long run.
Careful when you pick this one up, though. You're in for a huge, long run.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was an incredibly informative and thought-provoking book (read for a class) and I enjoyed discussing it. It was a bit dense for my tastes, but I was glad to have read it nonetheless.
Ya know, Ghosh is such a specific sort-of writer. You are either going to love his style or hate it. It's just so "This happened. That happened. And this other thing happened" with very little internal monologue, character building, or really story telling. Essentially, his books are not to be read a stories about people but the story of a country. I normally hate that style of writing because it's very emotionless but I love Ghosh. His books are just so smack full of research and interesting things, I end up spending more time on Wikipedia and Google than reading, and man...that's a good thing.