June 2007: The Space Between Us (Umrigar)

Post date: Jan 07, 2010 9:1:56 PM

Monica started us off with a discussion about aging and exercise being recently back from her 60th reunion on the warm evening of Wednesday June 13, 2007 at Sophie's house in Berkeley. Gradually we moved on to our book of the month, The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar, whose main character, Bhima, was a woman in her 60s who worked as a servant for a Parsi woman. While the world of mistress-and-servent seemed like distant past to us, some speculated that in the American South some of those relationships between benevolent employer and long-time servant of the family, and indeed the arrangement of working mother and nanny is reminiscent, yet less interactive than Sera and Bhima sipping their tea from cups they do not share, one on a chair and the other squatting on her haunches. Umrigar's writing was engaging and although the time in the book moves backward and then forward again, no one felt distracted by that.

Several women mentioned other books about India and Indian culture in the U.S., and even suggested reading another because this was so engaging. Many of the stories are vastly depressing because of the difficulty of life for lower-caste and/or poor people in India, yet important for us in our privileged, Smith-educated position to be aware of as citizens of the world!

Sophie, thank you for hosting!