INDEPENDENCE BY CHITRA BANERJEE DIVAKARUNI

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BOOK NAME: INDEPENDENCE 

AUTHOR NAME: CHITRA BANERJEE DIVAKARUNI

GENRE: HISTORICAL FICTION 

PUBLISHER: HARPERCOLLINS

BOOK BUY LINK : https://www.amazon.in/Independence-Chitra-Banerjee-Divakaruni/dp/9356294585



BOOK COVER IMAGE:





BOOK REVIEW: 

In 1947, in the remote village of Ranipur in West Bengal, life was all good for the local Doctor Nabakumar and his daughters - Deepa, Jamini and Priya. Deepa is sharp and innocent at heart and is blessed with an enchanting beauty. Though Jamini is a skilled artisan and caretaker of her family, she finds herself unloved and aloof. Priya is forthright and ambitious and wants to follow in her father's footsteps. Though Nabakumar and his wife always find themselves with contradicting opinions, their love bonds the family into a tight-knit one. 


While Amit and Priya hope for a beautiful future together and for Nabakumar's family a peaceful life, riots break out in most parts of India which gets dirty in West Bengal. Each of their lives and ambitions takes a fateful turn leaving the family dismembered. The story is about their fight back, the show of strength and survival in sisterhood in the face of calamity. 


For those who loved and celebrated this book, my review might be upsetting and nettling. But honestly, I thought I would love the book when I first started it. I like the book in parts where it tried to delineate the events of partition and its effects on the lives of common people. Nabakumar and Priya were likeable for their courageous and upfront attitude. The book was fast-paced and short, making it a quick read. But apart from these, I honestly did not enjoy the book at all. 


Firstly, DO NOT write a love triangle involving sisters who plot against each other to win the man. Secondly, I really did not see any sisterhood at all until the last page. It was always about how one sister secretly envied the fortune of the other and how they wouldn't keep each other's secrets. Plotting against their own sibling for a man, wishing the sister be dead so she could marry him herself, stealing the gift that her sister's betrothed had given her - if this is the sisterhood this book wants to promote, sorry, I just can't like it. 


The ending looked forced and laborious to achieve the claim of sisterhood that’s promised in the book. Apart from that, the characters were shallow and unbearable, and the book is a very one-sided projection of the partition event. It clearly needs more research on the partition and more commas and punctuation between sentences and descriptive words. The artistic freedom really took away the fun of reading. 


ONE LINE DESCRIPTION: A highly clichéd love triangle between sisters set in the partition era!


MY REVIEW: 2.5-3/5

I am participating in Blogchatter’s #TBRchallenge

#penbooksandscalpel


Comments

  1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 18, 2023 at 3:42 AM

    Sometimes even good writers produce mediocre work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RehanaSeptember 28, 2023 at 10:51 PM

      Exactly. I am going to try her other books because I believe they are better than this.

      Delete

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