Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: HEAT AND DUST
Ruth Prawler Jhabvala's Heat and Dust was awarded the Booker Prize in 1978. I didn't read the other books in the shortlist that year; however, I'm quite convinced that this book deserved its winning the Booker. Its story reminds me of A Passage To India. Although I haven't read the E.M. Forster's novel yet, I've seen the David Lean's film adaptation and found it powerful and mesmerizing. In fact, A Passage To India remains to be one of my favorite films. The novel Heat and Dust may not be as epic and grand as A Passage To India but it, too, left me the same impression I had for the David Lean's film.
Heat and Dust involves two intertwined stories set at least fifty years apart: one in 1923 in colonial India, the other during 1970s mostly in the same places where the events in 1923 took place. The stories are told in the point of view of an outsider. The narrator set foot in 1970s India to 'discover' some details on the scandal in the midst of heat and dust that caused a stir in 1923 which involved her grandfather's first wife who fell in love (and ran away) with an Indian Prince. In the process of discovery, the narrator found out that, like her great stepgrandmother, India had slowly changed her, too.
Heat and Dust, for me, is an outstanding piece of literature. It's written in simple yet beautiful prose which is quite effective.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Comments