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Summary: Detailed Stories
Review: Bombay time is a book of intertwined short stories based on the residents of Wadia Baug. I enjoyed the plots of the stories that were presented, at the same time I felt there were some things that the author just went, on, and on, and on about for no good reason. They were space fillers, time killers- you could remove whole pages from this book and not miss a beat in the story.
As soon as I began reading I saw many strong resemblances to all of Rohinton Mistry's books, and thus made some parts predictable.
Like another reader, I have a complaint about the in book glossary- ENTIRELY inadequate. There are at least 30 words without meanings- if they were going to put a glossary in it should be somewhat complete- or leave it out all together as in Mistry's books.
It was a nice read, I would give it as a gift.
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Summary: Life in Bombay among the Parsis
Review: Bombay Time is an excellent enjoyable book about a group of people who live in an apartment in Bombay. They are not as poor as the folks in Mistry's books which are also about Parsis. They are more involved in relationships than in a struggle for food and not particularly religious. The characters are very memorable and totally believable. If you enjoy reading about India and Indian cultural and Parsi customs in particular, you will enjoy this book. This book is evidence in the ability of the Amazon computer to recommend books as this is the second one that IT recommended to me that I have thoroughly enjoyed.
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Summary: Beautiful, Enthralling, Memorable
Review: I was completely enthralled with the book and the characters. I absolutely love Thrity Umrigar's writing style and the way in which she was able to make the reader truly identify with each of the characters, their lives, their pains. I have to say that the most disappointing part of the book, was when it ended.I could NOT put this book down. This author has a special way of really making you feel like you are inside the characters heads and hearts. I think this is a wonderful book about India, but for ANYONE and EVERYONE, from any country in any culture. If you are interested in reading a book rich with emotion and culture, a book that you will think about long after you are finished, and make you hungry for more of these people, and this author, THIS is the book to read! I honestly cried at several points and had to put the book down to contemplate the emotion and thoughts that were conjured up in me. I also laughed heartily at moments. I carried this book with me everywhere, stealing a sentence here and there while at work, and reading it everynight for about 3 days until I greedily ate up every word. This is a book you can finish in one sitting, but to savoir it, I would recommend spanning it over a couple days, if you can bare it!
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Summary: Chowpatty Beach, Breach Candy
Review: I was transported to Bombay without leaving my chair reading this book.The characters jump off the page into your imagination and you become immersed in their lives and you care about them. You hurt when they hurt,you are happy when they are happy. The book revolves about the invited guest to a Parsi wedding party given by a prominent Bombay attorney, Jimmy Kanga, father of the groom. I liken "Bombay Time" to an Indian "Canterbury Tales" but instead of going on a journey the travellers in this book have already arrived at their destination and are telling their stories up to the present.The book has an architecture to it in that each chapter of the book is like a free standing structure that is tied back in a neat package to the event all the characters have in common, the wedding party. I have read Paul Scott's "Staying On", Bapsi Sidhwa's "The Crow Eaters," and Kamala Markandaya's "Nectar in a Sieve" and I consider "Bombay Time" to be in the same class as those great books. If you like myself love India culture and just the names Chopatty Beach, Breach Candy, Apollo Bunder, Marine Drive and others conjure up visions of the sun rising or setting over the Indian Ocean or a steaming Bombay sweltering in the monsoon heat, you will love this latest addition to Indian literature. You can almost smell the pungent aromas of delicious dishes being prepared by the Parsi aunties, mothers, grandmothers, and wifes as your mind enters Wadia Baug. Parsi is an ancient religion that originated in Persia now present day Iran and Iraq. Many of the Parsi followers who were forced out of their homeland fled into India and formed pocket settlements in the midst of surrounding Hindu, Muslin, and Sikh populations. In "Bombay Time" you will learn more about Parsi culture and how it seems to be losing ground as the younger generation move away to England and America and sometimes never return. They usually leave to go to the universities in those countries and intend to return but as often happens they meet someone they fall in love with, marry and never go back. The Parsi do not have prearranged marriages made by their parents like the Hindu have and they are free to marry whoever the wish. They of course have to deal with the fact that all Parsi mothers want their sons to marry nice Parsi girls and likewise with the fathers marrying off their daughters to nice Parsi boys. Soli Contractor, a Parsi, falls in love with a nice Jewish girl, Marian, but you will have to read the book to find out how this relationship developed. I don't think that anyone will be disappointed with the time they invest reading this book. I know, I certainly wasn't.
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Summary: A Little Piece of India
Review: Of late, a suprising number of novels coming out of the Indian diaspora have focused on small apartment buildings within Bombay: SWIMMING LESSONS, BEACH BOY, SUCH A LONG JOURNEY, and THE DEATH OF VISHNU are a few outstanding examples. Each has in common a deeply felt affection for the people and families who live in the building, many of whom have lived in close proximity for generations, and rich understanding of the complexities of the lives of these people. BOMBAY TIME can proudly take its place with these fine novels. Thrity Umrigar has a lively, sympathetic but unsentimental view of her richly diverse characters. Her writing is lush and sensuous, conveying in few words the smells and sounds and colors and heat of a decaying but vital community. Her ability to convey the heart of her characters is striking, making reading her work a pleasure. Though each of these novels focus on a small Bombay community, each is its own gift. In the case of BOMBAY TIME, it is each individual character who provides a gift to the reader, the gift of understanding how another sees the world, and another way to make sense of the world. I finished BOMBAY TIME sadly, knowing I would miss each character, from the odiferous Tehmi to the rageful Coomi. Each character was memorable and gave me yet another little piece of India, another little piece of humanity. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
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Summary: Fairly interesting, but...
Review: Some of the characters are interesting and come to life. However, there is a tendency to purple prose (one of the characters hears the sound of his heart breaking), too many cute little Indian phrases, and the occasional howler: as an example, "valorized"(!) instead of "valued". There is no real story, just a series of vignettes. This author just is not in the class of Rohinton Mistry, S. Taroor, or Jhumpa Lahiri.
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Summary: Great book!!
Review: This book is worth reading again and again. I loved Thrity Umrigar's descriptions of Parsi life in Bombay. A fabulous read.
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Summary: Skillful use of words
Review: This book was good all around. A very light and easy read.
1. It shows us that people seem to like to be miserable wherever they are and at whatever time we choose to observe them. It doesn't seem to depend on anything.
2. The length was neither too long nor too short. Some books just drag on and on and on. In addition to the strong characterizations, the author gave us an idea of the magnitude of poverty in India and the destructive nature of the caste system that people don't seem to want to emerge from no matter how many centuries pass.
3. The characters were very well developed and believable. Again, just enough detail was used-- but not too much. And many of these characters are something that we might imagine having seen in real life.
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Summary: Parsi Pleasure
Review: This was an excellent book, written smoothly and beautifully. I read, or rather, devoured it in a day. It's been a while since I've done that (with the exception of Harry Potter book V). It's about family, about the way one's choices affects them for the rest of one's life. Beautiful imagery, touching and illuminating. We get a macro and micro view of India through the characters, the situations, the actions. Wonderful.
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Summary: Nostalgic trip down memory lane
Review: Thrity Umrigar has captured the essence of the experience of being a Parsi in Bombay, India and distilled it beautifully in her 271 page book -- Bombay Time. Reading this wonderful, complex story is like being wrapped in a quilt of stories of Parsis from different walks of life with the whole being greater than the sum of the individual tales. I must confess that I had some difficulty with Ms. Umrigar's writing style which I attribute to a matter of my individual taste. However, Ms. Umrigar is a skillful storyteller and I found myself unable to put the book down as it transported me back to the Bombay of my youth evoking tender, bitter sweet memories with every page. If you're interested in getting an insider's view of this endangered culture (the population of Parsis world wide is falling), I suggest you get yourself a copy of this book. If you're not familiar with the term "Parsi" - they are descendents of a group of Zarathushtis i.e. followers of the Prophet Zarathustra (anglicized to Zoroaster) who fled Parsa (anglicized to Persia) and came to India some time around the 8th century (may be earlier). Though they've lived in India for well over a thousand years, they've managed to keep certain aspects of their culture distinct especially those that pertain to practicing their religion while simultaneously integrating themselves into the vivid heterogeneous cultural tapestry of India. Try an Internet search on "Parsi" for more information or better still find one and engage in a conversation.
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