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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
Finished this book last night. I'd really been looking forward to reading this for my book club's read this month as its been nominated before and I've heard a lot of praise for it, plus it's rating on Goodreads is quite high. Sadly though, I think I might have missed something!
The first couple of chapters were really laborious. I wasn't connecting or engaging with any of the characters. It starts off in Wales, and intertwines with Kashmir. I lived in Wales for a few years and I'm of Kashmiri heritage. This book still failed to connect with me! So there's this girl called Mair who discovers her grandma's exquisite Shawl from Kashmir and it sets her off on a journey of discovery to uncover the story of her long deceased grandma, Nerys who'd lived in British occupied Kashmir as part of her and her husband's Missionary work. Around about chapter three or four, Nerys makes a proper entrance and she's about the only character I really felt intrigued by. What choices would she make? I was genuinely interested, but also woefully able to predict every single one. Boring! Then there was her friendship with Mrytle and the annoying/pathetic Caroline. That was kind of cute to read about. But here's the real stickler for me.....there are NO KASHMIRI main players to the story. Ok, maybe there's one, kind of, Ravi something or other, and even then he's a spoiled rich little tyrant. Almost an archetypal oriental bad guy. Opulent, rich, tall, dark, smooth, silver tongued, hunky, bad guy -think Jafar from Aladdin, but good looking. Not only that, trust me you will learn NOTHING about Kashmir and it's struggles from this book. You will just learn of the frivolous and criminally lavish lifestyles of British occupiers of Kashmir, while Kashmir itself remains a benign, if not sometimes tragic/backwards backdrops to the story. This is such a let down because I love historical fiction precisely because I've been enriched by so many previously.
The ending felt rushed and super predictable too. I just don't understand why so many people liked this book. I gave it 2 stars on Goodreads: one for Nerys (I liked the old girl) and one for the author's efforts to research the intricate Kashmir Shawl making process .
The first couple of chapters were really laborious. I wasn't connecting or engaging with any of the characters. It starts off in Wales, and intertwines with Kashmir. I lived in Wales for a few years and I'm of Kashmiri heritage. This book still failed to connect with me! So there's this girl called Mair who discovers her grandma's exquisite Shawl from Kashmir and it sets her off on a journey of discovery to uncover the story of her long deceased grandma, Nerys who'd lived in British occupied Kashmir as part of her and her husband's Missionary work. Around about chapter three or four, Nerys makes a proper entrance and she's about the only character I really felt intrigued by. What choices would she make? I was genuinely interested, but also woefully able to predict every single one. Boring! Then there was her friendship with Mrytle and the annoying/pathetic Caroline. That was kind of cute to read about. But here's the real stickler for me.....there are NO KASHMIRI main players to the story. Ok, maybe there's one, kind of, Ravi something or other, and even then he's a spoiled rich little tyrant. Almost an archetypal oriental bad guy. Opulent, rich, tall, dark, smooth, silver tongued, hunky, bad guy -think Jafar from Aladdin, but good looking. Not only that, trust me you will learn NOTHING about Kashmir and it's struggles from this book. You will just learn of the frivolous and criminally lavish lifestyles of British occupiers of Kashmir, while Kashmir itself remains a benign, if not sometimes tragic/backwards backdrops to the story. This is such a let down because I love historical fiction precisely because I've been enriched by so many previously.
The ending felt rushed and super predictable too. I just don't understand why so many people liked this book. I gave it 2 stars on Goodreads: one for Nerys (I liked the old girl) and one for the author's efforts to research the intricate Kashmir Shawl making process .
I have a soft spot for books set in India (particularly those set under rule of the British Raj) which is what made me pick up this book. It actually starts off in the present day with Mair Ellis (a young Welsh girl who is at a bit of loose ends) finding an intricately embroidered shawl when cleaning out her late father's home. This leads her on a journey to Kashmir where she traces the steps of her grandmother Nerys Watkins who lived there with her missionary husband during the 1940's.
To be honest, it took me quite awhile to become invested in the story. I didn't find Mair's storyline to be particularly interesting and the alternate storyline of her grandmother doesn't begin for many pages into the novel. But once it does, I was hooked. I wish the book had been entirely about Nerys and her life - it would have been story enough. Mair's journey gets more interesting as it goes along but truly Nerys won my heart over in this. She is a character I won't soon forget.
To be honest, it took me quite awhile to become invested in the story. I didn't find Mair's storyline to be particularly interesting and the alternate storyline of her grandmother doesn't begin for many pages into the novel. But once it does, I was hooked. I wish the book had been entirely about Nerys and her life - it would have been story enough. Mair's journey gets more interesting as it goes along but truly Nerys won my heart over in this. She is a character I won't soon forget.
Beautifully told story about real love. High recommended.
3.5 stars. I'm not entirely sure why I didn't want to give this book 4 stars, especially as everyone else who's read it from my book club has given it at keast that many, but there you go :) It was two parallel stories about two generations where the granddaughter is trying to unravel the story behind her grandmother's high quality pashmina which is only discovered after the death of her father. Her only clues are a photo, a lock of hair, and the knowledge that her grandparents did work as missionaries in Kashmir prior to and during WW2. There are some lucky coincidences and the story slowly unfolds in both timelines. Sometimes there are some random interjections about the granddaughter's past too - but I'm not sure those were always entirely relevant. I did enjoy this book.
I really enjoyed this novel. The descriptions of the Kashmir region of India are breathtaking and I think that was part of what I enjoyed so much. I even looked the locations up on line. I also love historical fiction so this was a good read for me. The very end was a little predicatable from early on, but still very enjoyable overall.
This was another that was difficult to put down. The story AND how it was told was riveting. Dual timelines that were not confusing, plot lines that were tidied up by the end, yet not formulaic.
Highly recommended by a friend/patron who is British - she read it while visiting home last summer, couldn't say enough about it.
Could make a good movie - and I don't usually say that.
Highly recommended by a friend/patron who is British - she read it while visiting home last summer, couldn't say enough about it.
Could make a good movie - and I don't usually say that.
Charming, fast,(unexpectedly fast, dammit), sweet and insubstantial, this book is pretty much a winner. Also, an entry into the "remembering the war" genre. Only this time in Kashmir. (You're surprised about that last part, right? In Kashmir? A shocker, I know.)