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A review by didsreads
Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree
4.0
4.5 to be precise.
Echoing my wonderful friends who had finished this tome of words, it is SUREly not for everyone but if you're committed enough, it could be rewarding. Such a humbling experience for me. This one is not an straightforward literature to be consumed easily. A 700++ pages serving flavorful Indian taste; the culture, the family-drama, the stigmas.
An eighty-year-old woman slips into a deep depression at the death of her husband, then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention – including striking up a friendship with a hijra (trans) woman – confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to thinking of herself as the more 'modern' of the two.
At the older woman's insistence they travel back to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, a feminist.
What I found interesting was Geetanjali's subtle stroke on various social criticism, laced in between Bollywood and other literature references. Songs, poems, books. If you are not familiar with huge, merry Indian family setting or just Bollywood movies in general, it could be quite a Googling work but what's reading if you're not immersing yourself in the book's world?
Tomb of Sand touches on so many issues and more than once, i found myself lost in between the lines. The similes, symbolisms and foreshadowing could be overwhelming at some points i felt 'this texts were meant to be appreciated without being understood'.
Yep. I was that... clueless.
All I could say, Tomb of Sand was brilliantly done. The translation; pure magic.
Glad I could finish and appreciate this piece of literature.
Echoing my wonderful friends who had finished this tome of words, it is SUREly not for everyone but if you're committed enough, it could be rewarding. Such a humbling experience for me. This one is not an straightforward literature to be consumed easily. A 700++ pages serving flavorful Indian taste; the culture, the family-drama, the stigmas.
An eighty-year-old woman slips into a deep depression at the death of her husband, then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention – including striking up a friendship with a hijra (trans) woman – confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to thinking of herself as the more 'modern' of the two.
At the older woman's insistence they travel back to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, a feminist.
What I found interesting was Geetanjali's subtle stroke on various social criticism, laced in between Bollywood and other literature references. Songs, poems, books. If you are not familiar with huge, merry Indian family setting or just Bollywood movies in general, it could be quite a Googling work but what's reading if you're not immersing yourself in the book's world?
Tomb of Sand touches on so many issues and more than once, i found myself lost in between the lines. The similes, symbolisms and foreshadowing could be overwhelming at some points i felt 'this texts were meant to be appreciated without being understood'.
Yep. I was that... clueless.
All I could say, Tomb of Sand was brilliantly done. The translation; pure magic.
Glad I could finish and appreciate this piece of literature.