Ti | Book Chatter

The Space Between Us

Welcome to Thrity Thursday, also known as “The Space Between Us” read-along. We’ll be reading the book over the next few weeks. Thanks to Lisa for putting it together and thanks to these other bloggers for joining in on the fun!

Dar at Peeking Between The Pages
Staci at Life In The Thumb
Kathy at Mommy’s Reading
Booksync at Book In The City
Bailey at The Window Seat Reader
Mari at Bookworm With A View

Chapters 1-11

My Synopsis:

I am playing catch-up since I was supposed to post about the first six chapters last week, so I will keep this short.

Bhima and Maya live in the slums of Bombay. Bhima is Maya’s grandmother and makes her living working for Sera. Sera has money and lives with her daughter Dinaz and her husband, and they are expecting their first baby. Maya is also expecting her first baby, but it’s a baby produced out-of-wedlock, and the pregnancy promises nothing but shame for Maya and her grandmother.

The two families, although tied together by Bhima’s employment to Sera, have their own history. Both have shared disappointment and grief and both bear their own burdens. Sera’s money is what puts Maya through college, so it’s only normal for Sera to feel some resentment when Maya becomes pregnant. Bhima shares in that resentment and is grateful when Sera once again, comes to their aid, but there are hurt feelings as each struggle with what they’ve been given.

My Thoughts:

When I read The Weight of Heaven, I was charmed by Umrigar’s talent as a storyteller. I had no problem getting into the story and the same can be said with The Space Between Us. I worried about being able to catch-up with the others since I was so far behind in my reading, but over one, lovely day I opened the book and before I knew it, I was already eleven chapters in.

The difference in class is great, yet the two families respect one another and often find themselves baffled over their differences. Sera manages to be fascinated and repulsed at the same time while visiting Bhima in her slum hut. Bhima realizes that although Sera’s family has money, that there are secrets there as well. No family is perfect.

I am so taken with these characters, that reading about them, takes no effort at all. I look forward to the second half of the book and from what I’ve read, this would make a fabulous book club pick.

Homecoming Book Cover

Homecoming
By Bernhard Schlink
Knopf Doubleday
January 2009 (reprint)
272pp

Here’s the blurb from the publisher:

A child of World War II, Peter Debauer grew up with his mother and scant memories of his father, a victim of war. Now an adult, Peter embarks upon a search for the truth surrounding his mother’s unwavering—but shaky—history and the possibility of finding his missing father after all these years. The search takes him across Europe, to the United States, and back: finding witnesses, falling in and out of love, chasing fragments of a story and a person who may or may not exist. Within a maze of reinvented identities, Peter pieces together a portrait of a man who uses words as one might use a change of clothing, as he assumes a new guise in any given situation simply to stay alive.The chase leads Peter to New York City, where he hopes to find the real person behind the disguises.

The Short of It:

I liked it, but I didn’t like it and if this brief statement makes absolutely no sense to you, then read on.

The Rest of It:

Homecoming is one of those novels that is a story, within a story. I usually love these types of books. A book about a book? I’m there. BUT, this one promised to be an adventure and for me, it sort of petered out halfway through. As Peter heads out on his quest to find the truth, the story starts to get a bit muddy and then I started to skim, and then I was completely lost. By the end, I thought I had a pretty good grasp of what happened, but after thinking about it for a day or two, I realize that I really have no clue.

To his credit, Schlink’s characters are lovely. I liked them very much and felt as if I really got to know them. If it weren’t for the strong characters I probably would have given up on the book because it just didn’t grab me as much as I expected it to. The ending was very strange too. Almost surreal at one point. It didn’t seem to fit the rest of the story.

Homecoming is my book club’s pick for this month so I’m hoping that the discussion on Thursday will shed some light on what exactly happened there at the end. Have any of you read it? If so, what did you think of it?

Source: Checked out from the library.

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