Scan barcode
A review by irreverentreader
The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore
2.0
I understand why this book is important, but in the end, it just wasn't for me.
The only two things I could really appreciate were the fact that the writer's poetic prose still came through in the translation, and the struggle that people in India during this time of Nationalism and upheaval felt. Other than that, it was completely flat for me.
It was the second time in two book that the synopsis on the back of the book was more entirely interesting than the story itself. It promised betrayal, awakening, passion, and fervor. But instead of reading like the novel that it proclaimed itself to be, it read more like a manifesto, a conscious continual stream of thought with little in the way of actual storytelling. While there was flowery language, it lacked a well-laid out narrative and character development. Good in concept, poor in execution.
I hated Sandip and, especially, Bimala throughout, and when you have two of three POV's you cannot stand, that leads to bad reading. I, personally, could not relate to either of them. I couldn't grasp how Bimala couldn't appreciate her wise, kind, forward-thinking, pacifist husband, how she instead gravitated towards the vulgar, self-absorbed Sandip. And then I also couldn't understand her very abrupt shift away from Sandip either. The human emotions in this story were not well-fleshed out to me, and that made it unbelievable and frustrating.
It was honestly very dull overall, and I'm not ashamed to say I was eagerly wishing the second-half of it away.
The only two things I could really appreciate were the fact that the writer's poetic prose still came through in the translation, and the struggle that people in India during this time of Nationalism and upheaval felt. Other than that, it was completely flat for me.
It was the second time in two book that the synopsis on the back of the book was more entirely interesting than the story itself. It promised betrayal, awakening, passion, and fervor. But instead of reading like the novel that it proclaimed itself to be, it read more like a manifesto, a conscious continual stream of thought with little in the way of actual storytelling. While there was flowery language, it lacked a well-laid out narrative and character development. Good in concept, poor in execution.
I hated Sandip and, especially, Bimala throughout, and when you have two of three POV's you cannot stand, that leads to bad reading. I, personally, could not relate to either of them. I couldn't grasp how Bimala couldn't appreciate her wise, kind, forward-thinking, pacifist husband, how she instead gravitated towards the vulgar, self-absorbed Sandip. And then I also couldn't understand her very abrupt shift away from Sandip either. The human emotions in this story were not well-fleshed out to me, and that made it unbelievable and frustrating.
It was honestly very dull overall, and I'm not ashamed to say I was eagerly wishing the second-half of it away.