Book: The City of Palaces (also published outside of India as The Sleeping Dictionary)
Author: Sujata Massey
Pages: 488
Read: On Kindle
Read in: ~5.5 hours
Plot Summary:
An orphaned girl.
A cruel twist of fate.
A spectacular adventure.Bengal, 1930. Young Pom’s life changes forever when her family is wiped out in a devastating flood. She becomes a maidservant in a British boarding school where she discovers her gift for languages.
Amidst the drudgery of her duties, she finds unexpected friendship and experiences the stirrings of first love. However, tragedy strikes and she is forced into hiding.
Alone and desperate, she is recruited into a brothel for English officers. She hopes this secretive, decadent world will shield her from the demons of her past.
But fate intervenes, and our heroine is on the run again—to Calcutta, the city of palaces, where she finds herself caught up in the rising tide of Indian nationalism. Changing her name to Kamala, she creates a new life for herself, one that holds the promise of happiness and true love . . . until her past returns haunt her.
Filled with romance, danger, intrigue and betrayal, The City of Palaces is a lush, sprawling saga about a feisty young heroine and her struggle for survival.
Things I Liked:
1. This book is a great look at the social structures, practices, beliefs and values of the Indian society between 1930-1947. It focuses on the lives of women, not just Indian, but also Anglo-Indian, in that era. The lack of freedoms, the absolute lack of self-determination and their precarious place in an even more patriarchal society. We also get to see how women's place and position in society changes based on their socio-economic standing. Girls from educated, higher caste, wealthy families enjoyed more freedom and more of a right to self-determination than their not-as-fortunate counterparts. So, if you are interested in looking at how women's lives were in pre-Independence India, then this is a good book to pick up!
2. The protagonist of our story- the unnamed girl we get to know as Pom, Sarah, Pamela and Kamala- is a strong, determined woman, who works so hard to overcome the challenges life and people throw her way, but she never loses her spirit and humanity in the process. It would've been very easy for her to become hard and bitter, but she still has a child-like wonderment and enthusiasm about her and she always kind- looking out for those less fortunate than her. Pom's journey from a little farmer's daughter in a costal Bengal village to becoming Kamala Mukherjee- a well-read, polished 20-something woman in Kolkata is interesting and never does it feel super unrealistic.
3. The book offers us an interesting look into a different side of colonialism- the Anglo-Indian community, the British administrative machinery in Kolkata and of small-town India life. The Anglo-Indian's were a community of people who didn't belong anywhere. They were outside of the Indian (rather Hindu) Varna System and hence, didn't belong to any caste and ergo, could not be placed anywhere in the societal pecking order. So, they were not accepted by the Indian society. Also, as they were only half-British, with usually, the British parent missing-in-action, they were considered beneath the "pure-blooded" Britishers as they were "half-darkies". So, you have a section of people, apparently about 100,000 of them, who belonged nowhere. I have always been fascinated to read more about this community that were so badly treated by the rest of our populace and this book offers a look into some of the not-so-savoury choices made by some Anglo-Indian women.
4. This book has a range of interesting characters- kind, unkind, selfish, selfless, lovely and just plain evil. I really liked Simon Lewes, ICS and an Englishman, who was trying to see both sides of the Raj in India- some good and most of it bad. I also liked the friends Kamala makes in Calcutta- the young students, who joined Netaji Subhash Chandra Boses' Forward Bloc and, later, his Indian National Army. The feisty, strong and brave young women, who break the shackles of patriarchy and strict familial norms to join India's Freedom Struggle. Apart from these, there are many other people- kind domestic workers, drivers, nurses etc.- that Kamala/Pom meets along the way, who help her the best they can.
Final Thoughts: This is a very immersive and atmospheric book that takes you deep into that era. Read it at a leisurely pace on a weekend and I am sure you'll enjoy it as much as I did! There are parts of the book that are so hard to read. The Kharagpur bits as well as how poor Kamala was treated at the boarding school where she worked. However, those were some of the, very limited, options that orphaned girls in the 1930s had to survive in a world that was out to get them. If you enjoy historical fiction, then this book is for you!
Rating: 4.5/5
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