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The Ivory Swing
A professor's wife, Juliet, already feeling too far from the excitements of city life in her small Canadian college-town, obligingly journeys with husband David (and their two children) even further: to Kerala in southern India, for David's research sabbatical year.
252 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
4 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
About the author
Janette Turner Hospital
30 books79 followersBorn in 1942, Janette Turner Hospital grew up on the steamy sub-tropical coast of Australia in the north-eastern state of Queensland. She began her teaching career in remote Queensland high schools, but since her graduate studies she has taught in universities in Australia, Canada, England, France and the United States.
Her first published short story appeared in the Atlantic Monthly (USA) where it won an 'Atlantic First' citation in 1978. Her first novel, The Ivory Swing (set in the village in South India where she lived in l977) won Canada's $50,000 Seal Award in l982. She lived for many years in Canada and in 1986 she was listed as by the Toronto Globe & Mail as one of Canada's 'Ten Best Young Fiction Writers'. Since then she has won a number of prizes for her eight novels and four short story collections and her work has been published in multiple foreign language collections. Three of her short stories appeared in Britain's annual Best Short Stories in English in their year of publication and one of these, 'Unperformed Experiments Have No Results', was selected for The Best of the Best, an anthology of the decade in l995.
The Last Magician, her fifth novel, was listed by Publishers' Weekly as one of the 12 best novels published in 1992 in the USA and was a New York Times 'Notable Book of the Year'. Oyster, her sixth novel, was a finalist for Australia's Miles Franklin Prize Award and for Canada's Trillium Award, and in England it was listed in 'Best Books of the Year' by The Observer, which noted "Oyster is a tour de force… Turner Hospital is one of the best female novelists writing in English." In the USA, Oyster was a New York Times 'Notable Book of the Year'.
Due Preparations for the Plague won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award in 2003, the Davitt Award from Sisters in Crime for "best crime novel of the year by an Australian woman”, and was shortlisted for the Christina Stead Award. In 2003, Hospital received the Patrick White Award, as well as a Doctor of Letters honoris causa from the University of Queensland.
Orpheus Lost, her most recent novel, was one of five finalists for the $110,000 Australia-Asia Literary prize in 2008.
Orpheus Lost was also on Booklist's Top 30 novels of the year in 2008, along with novels by Booker Prize winner Anne Enright, National Book Award winner Denis Johnson, Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, Michael Ondaatje, Ian MacEwan, Ha Jin, and Michael Chabon.
The novel also made the list of Best 25 Books of the Year of Library Journal, and Hospital was invited to be a keynote speaker at the annual convention of the American Library Association in Los Angeles in June 2008.
The Italian edition, Orfeo Perduto, has been so well-received in Italy that it will be a featured title at the literary festival on Lake Maggiore in June 2010 where Hospital will be a featured author.
She holds an endowed chair as Carolina Distinguished Professor of English at the University of South Carolina and in 2003 received the Russell Research Award for Humanities and Social Sciences, conferred by the university for the most significant faculty contribution (research, publication, teaching and service) in a given year.
Her first published short story appeared in the Atlantic Monthly (USA) where it won an 'Atlantic First' citation in 1978. Her first novel, The Ivory Swing (set in the village in South India where she lived in l977) won Canada's $50,000 Seal Award in l982. She lived for many years in Canada and in 1986 she was listed as by the Toronto Globe & Mail as one of Canada's 'Ten Best Young Fiction Writers'. Since then she has won a number of prizes for her eight novels and four short story collections and her work has been published in multiple foreign language collections. Three of her short stories appeared in Britain's annual Best Short Stories in English in their year of publication and one of these, 'Unperformed Experiments Have No Results', was selected for The Best of the Best, an anthology of the decade in l995.
The Last Magician, her fifth novel, was listed by Publishers' Weekly as one of the 12 best novels published in 1992 in the USA and was a New York Times 'Notable Book of the Year'. Oyster, her sixth novel, was a finalist for Australia's Miles Franklin Prize Award and for Canada's Trillium Award, and in England it was listed in 'Best Books of the Year' by The Observer, which noted "Oyster is a tour de force… Turner Hospital is one of the best female novelists writing in English." In the USA, Oyster was a New York Times 'Notable Book of the Year'.
Due Preparations for the Plague won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award in 2003, the Davitt Award from Sisters in Crime for "best crime novel of the year by an Australian woman”, and was shortlisted for the Christina Stead Award. In 2003, Hospital received the Patrick White Award, as well as a Doctor of Letters honoris causa from the University of Queensland.
Orpheus Lost, her most recent novel, was one of five finalists for the $110,000 Australia-Asia Literary prize in 2008.
Orpheus Lost was also on Booklist's Top 30 novels of the year in 2008, along with novels by Booker Prize winner Anne Enright, National Book Award winner Denis Johnson, Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, Michael Ondaatje, Ian MacEwan, Ha Jin, and Michael Chabon.
The novel also made the list of Best 25 Books of the Year of Library Journal, and Hospital was invited to be a keynote speaker at the annual convention of the American Library Association in Los Angeles in June 2008.
The Italian edition, Orfeo Perduto, has been so well-received in Italy that it will be a featured title at the literary festival on Lake Maggiore in June 2010 where Hospital will be a featured author.
She holds an endowed chair as Carolina Distinguished Professor of English at the University of South Carolina and in 2003 received the Russell Research Award for Humanities and Social Sciences, conferred by the university for the most significant faculty contribution (research, publication, teaching and service) in a given year.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 29, 2023
Janette Turner Hospital's writing is enchanting here, as it always is. I found the central character, Juliet, frustrating for the first half, and found Yashoda and Annie's stories comparatively more interesting. Likewise, I found David frustrating, although I feel like that was the point? Once I got halfway through, I did really start to enjoy the book and found this to be an interesting comparison of patriarchy in cultures, questioning where the line between customs and oppression is.
March 30, 2011
This author is really good at invoking the feel, smell and texture of India. She is also very good at showing us how nothing is black and white in this world and particularly in a country like India where the past, present and future mingle in beauty and confusion and horror. In its political context, it reminded me of Rohinton Mistry's 'A fine balance'; the people of India seem so much more in tune with their leaders and so much more at risk by committing to a cause. The Canadians in this story are drawn in to the lives of others and try to make sense of everything around them. In doing so, they come to some bad conclusions, but suffer guilt and remorse. I assume that a lot of what we are reading comes from the author's own experience as a professor's wife in foreign lands. This is not your usual "travel is so broadening" experience. Hospital proves that it can be painful and beautiful.
December 29, 2014
A deft explanation of how the lack of cultural awareness can cause unimaginable chaos. Although the central character, Juliet, means well, her outlook is the product of her western upbringing and her inability to see past her own world view. The outcome, of course, is inevitable and tragic. I wondered at the end if she had really absorbed that lesson or would continue to rail against the reality of other cultures.
Janet Turner Hospital is a wonderful writer and her descriptions of the oppressive heat of southern India had me perspiring in sympathy. I was drawn into the story and found myself inwardly shouting at Juliet that the consequences of her actions were all too obvious to me, the reader, and why could she not see that for herself.
Janet Turner Hospital is a wonderful writer and her descriptions of the oppressive heat of southern India had me perspiring in sympathy. I was drawn into the story and found myself inwardly shouting at Juliet that the consequences of her actions were all too obvious to me, the reader, and why could she not see that for herself.
February 15, 2023
Hospital's story, 'The Ivory Swing', started off as a short story, which is published in 'Dislocations', a collection of her story fiction. It compares the lack of freedom a young Canadian mother feels, on moving to India, with the complete lack of freedom experienced by her young Indian widow neighbour. Patriarchy is international, men have thought of different ways to oppress women in every culture on Earth.
July 2, 2011
After Rushdi, I found this book much more enjoyable. There was a great deal of evidence of social custom and political/historical issues were explained, although not in great detail at least so that you understood what was going on.
March 2, 2023
Both outdated in some ways (colonial pov, mostly) and in others, little has changed (women as property, sexual dissatisfaction and painful compromises in marriage). An interesting portrait of Canadians in India of that era.
October 4, 2020
Audio. Life for Westerners in India. Dilemmas.
October 2, 2022
Covers a lot of classism to feminine liberation, poetically written story about an American woman living with her family in India. Progressive for the time of writing.
April 15, 2023
One cultures impact on another. Could see where it was heading but it was great getting there.
Want to read
February 6, 2012The Ivory Swing
By Hospital, Janette Turner
The first novel by Australian-Canadian writer Hospital has aged well. Hospital's tale follows a Canadian family's stay in south India.
Publisher Comments
The Ivory Swing has been reprinted as a stylish new volume in University of Queensland Press's Classic series. This novel is a winner of a prestigious literary award in Canada for a first novel. The story is alive with wit and tragedy, ripe with sensuousness as it deals with the migration of a woman from Canada to Southern India. This is a story of a women who is divided between family loyalties and her need for self-expression. And when you defy ancient mores of a culture it can lead to tragedy.
----mom's travel fiction list
By Hospital, Janette Turner
The first novel by Australian-Canadian writer Hospital has aged well. Hospital's tale follows a Canadian family's stay in south India.
Publisher Comments
The Ivory Swing has been reprinted as a stylish new volume in University of Queensland Press's Classic series. This novel is a winner of a prestigious literary award in Canada for a first novel. The story is alive with wit and tragedy, ripe with sensuousness as it deals with the migration of a woman from Canada to Southern India. This is a story of a women who is divided between family loyalties and her need for self-expression. And when you defy ancient mores of a culture it can lead to tragedy.
----mom's travel fiction list
August 31, 2010
This was kind of a fun read for me. On impulse I decided I wanted to read a novel--between class reading. I picked this one up from my book shelf. Bought when I met the author at a conference 13 years ago but had never read it. It's a decent story, set in India and does a good job capturing the complexities of that culture and the ambivalence surrounding the commitment required by marriage.
July 21, 2012
Read this book about 30 years ago on a recommendation of a complete stranger. Reading The Newlyweds reminded me of books I've read that deals with adapting to a foreign culture and "The Ivory Swing" popped into my mind. It seems since then Ms. Hosptial, a canadian, has written many books. However, I cann't remember ever seeing any of them reviewed. Has anyone read some of her later works?
August 10, 2011
Much darker than I had expected this is really beautifully written, and terribly sad - the suffering is great, and the imagery is beautiful. You can taste the indian atmosphere.
September 10, 2012
I read this about 20 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Very realistic and evocative descriptions of Indian village life from an ex-Pat's perspective. Great read
January 17, 2016
I can't believe this book hasn't been made into a movie yet (or has it?)
No longer available in print, but the audio book is wonderfully narrated which well have made it even more enjoyable for me.
No longer available in print, but the audio book is wonderfully narrated which well have made it even more enjoyable for me.
August 22, 2023
top 5 1988
January 22, 2016
wonderful evocative people and places
January 29, 2017
Taut, vivid, interesting and well-written.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews