The Space Between Us : Thrity Umrigar

Image Credit: KDL
I created this blog post, wrote the title, and then sat back, wondering what to write. The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar left me searching for memories of the time I spent reading it. I did not read this so long ago - just two or three days ago, perhaps. Yet, the characters have already faded from my memory, and I had to dig deep to recollect the feeling this book wrought in me. And I think I have now discovered it. A feeling of indifference.

In a lot of ways, the Space Between Us is similar to the Help. Both deal with relationships between the 'mistress' and the domestic help. But while the Help offered such sheer reading pleasure, the Space Between Us dragged along like an old cow left to wander on the highway. We have Sera Dubash, the Parsi homemaker, living with her daughter and son-in-law in Mumbai. And then we have Bhima, Sera's favorite maid, who lives with her granddaughter, Maya. The novel begins with Bhima cursing the fact that Maya, who she is training to become 'college-educated,' finds herself pregnant. Maya doesn't reveal the Dad, and Bhima is left to face the shame of having an unwed mother in her house. Maya never becomes a mother - with Sera's help, she has an abortion. This is the thick plot that runs through the book - there is supposed to be a mystery here - who is the Dad, and I found out by the 10th or so page who the Dad was.

Interspersed in between, and running through the story are various histories - Bhima's romantic tryst with husband Gopal. The fate that befalls her daughter. And there is Sera's own past - an abusive husband and a vulture-like mother-in-law. And Umrigar has to drop in references to AIDS, the shabby state of government hospitals, their apathy, the slums of Mumbai, poverty, middle-class India, and virtually everything else you can think of that can make a Western reviewer gasp with awe and claim, 'wow, this is the REAL India!' The result is that the character of Sera is never fully developed - and while Umrigar does more justice to Bhima, the relationship between them is only given in tidbits here and there instead of forming the spine of the book. I felt in the end that the Space Between Us became a kichdi of everything possible. There was too much of everything, and I could scarcely care what happened to Bhima or Sera or Maya or anyone in the end. But don't blame me for not trying - I really wanted to like this book, I really wanted to.

Verdict : It may be an unpopular verdict but this blog believes in expressing opinion, and that opinion here is that it is just an over-hyped, catering to the West book.


Rating : 2/5