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A review by favvn
Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I'm already biased in having seen the film adaptation several times before, so it's safe to say I enjoy the book as well. I love the use of parallel and the swapping of timelines. It's neat to read a passage about Olivia only to have it mirror the current experience of the book's narrator or diverge from it, as happens later. (Almost as if the narrator wants to correct past wrongs so to speak? Or to show how she--unlike Olivia--was freer to choose to keep her pregnancy, unlike Olivia caught in the question of paternity, infidelity, and the ensuing ostracization necessitating an abortion.)
It's also neat to read this after A Passage To India because both books take on criticizing the British Raj but in different ways. Forster covered the whole messy spectrum of what British colonial rule did to India through the trial of Dr. Aziz and the impact on the local community be they British or Indian. Prawer focuses on how stifling the colonial rule was for a handful of British and even then only two people (Harry and Olivia) were really caught between India and Britain.
And, as an aside, much like A Passage To India before it, Heat and Dust is also gayer in book form compared to the film. (Not to say that a viewer can't put Harry and the Nawab's relationship together from moments shown in the film but Ivory cut things down for the runtime and you miss out on the messy details of jealousy between Harry and Olivia and that added side to how out of place Olivia feels.)
It's also neat to read this after A Passage To India because both books take on criticizing the British Raj but in different ways. Forster covered the whole messy spectrum of what British colonial rule did to India through the trial of Dr. Aziz and the impact on the local community be they British or Indian. Prawer focuses on how stifling the colonial rule was for a handful of British and even then only two people (Harry and Olivia) were really caught between India and Britain.
And, as an aside, much like A Passage To India before it, Heat and Dust is also gayer in book form compared to the film. (Not to say that a viewer can't put Harry and the Nawab's relationship together from moments shown in the film but Ivory cut things down for the runtime and you miss out on the messy details of jealousy between Harry and Olivia and that added side to how out of place Olivia feels.)