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A review by clarareads1000books
The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
4.0
I was luke-warm about this novel for the better part of it, perhaps because of the eagle-eye view of the narrator and ambitious number of characters, generating a general lack of character development in my opinion. However, I was really interested in the historical and cultural aspects of the book, that spans more than a century and lays out age-old ties between Birma and India, something I virtually knew nothing of.
Eventually, as most (good) family sagas do, this book ended pulling me in and making me care for the characters whose life we follow, not so much because of them (as their personalities were rather superficially explored), but because of the long time that we spend with them, seeing them age, fall in love, birth children and die, and accompanying them through the low and high tides of their lives. And I would say that Amitav Ghosh did a fantastic job within the genre of laying out the historical events in his character's lifetimes, how it affected them personally, and how their world changed from an indigenous kingdom, to a colony of the British Empire, to a totalitarian military regime.
One star removed for lack of character development, 4 stars added for excellent historical context, the great family saga feeling and making me cry like a baby at one of the most touching endings I have ever read.
Eventually, as most (good) family sagas do, this book ended pulling me in and making me care for the characters whose life we follow, not so much because of them (as their personalities were rather superficially explored), but because of the long time that we spend with them, seeing them age, fall in love, birth children and die, and accompanying them through the low and high tides of their lives. And I would say that Amitav Ghosh did a fantastic job within the genre of laying out the historical events in his character's lifetimes, how it affected them personally, and how their world changed from an indigenous kingdom, to a colony of the British Empire, to a totalitarian military regime.
One star removed for lack of character development, 4 stars added for excellent historical context, the great family saga feeling and making me cry like a baby at one of the most touching endings I have ever read.