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At the End of the Century
Multilayered, subtle, insightful short stories from the inimitable Booker Prize-winning author, with an introduction by Anita Desai
Nobody has written so powerfully of the relationship between and within India and the Western middle classes than Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. In this selection of stories, chosen by her surviving family, her ability to tenderly and humorously view the situations faced by three (sometimes interacting) cultures—European, post-Independence Indian, and American—is never more acute.
In “A Course of English Studies,” a young woman arrives at Oxford from India and struggles to adapt, not only to the sad, stoic object of her infatuation, but also to a country that seems so resistant to passion and color. In the wrenching “Expiation,” the blind, unconditional love of a cloth shop owner for his wastrel younger brother exposes the tragic beauty and foolishness of human compassion and faith. The wry and triumphant “Pagans” brings us middle-aged sisters Brigitte and Frankie in Los Angeles, who discover a youthful sexuality in the company of the languid and handsome young Indian, Shoki. This collection also includes Jhabvala’s last story, “The Judge’s Will,” which appeared in The New Yorker in 2013 after her death.
The profound inner experience of both men and women is at the center of Jhabvala’s writing: she rivals Jane Austen with her impeccable powers of observation. With an introduction by her friend, the writer Anita Desai, At the End of the Century celebrates a writer’s astonishing lifetime gift for language, and leaves us with no doubt of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s unique place in modern literature.
Nobody has written so powerfully of the relationship between and within India and the Western middle classes than Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. In this selection of stories, chosen by her surviving family, her ability to tenderly and humorously view the situations faced by three (sometimes interacting) cultures—European, post-Independence Indian, and American—is never more acute.
In “A Course of English Studies,” a young woman arrives at Oxford from India and struggles to adapt, not only to the sad, stoic object of her infatuation, but also to a country that seems so resistant to passion and color. In the wrenching “Expiation,” the blind, unconditional love of a cloth shop owner for his wastrel younger brother exposes the tragic beauty and foolishness of human compassion and faith. The wry and triumphant “Pagans” brings us middle-aged sisters Brigitte and Frankie in Los Angeles, who discover a youthful sexuality in the company of the languid and handsome young Indian, Shoki. This collection also includes Jhabvala’s last story, “The Judge’s Will,” which appeared in The New Yorker in 2013 after her death.
The profound inner experience of both men and women is at the center of Jhabvala’s writing: she rivals Jane Austen with her impeccable powers of observation. With an introduction by her friend, the writer Anita Desai, At the End of the Century celebrates a writer’s astonishing lifetime gift for language, and leaves us with no doubt of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s unique place in modern literature.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published November 9, 2017
168 people are currently reading
1818 people want to read
About the author
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
57 books186 followersRuth Prawer Jhabvala was a British and American novelist and screenwriter. She is best known for her collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, made up of film director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant.
In 1951, she married Indian architect Cyrus Jhabvala and moved to New Delhi. She began then to elaborate her experiences in India and wrote novels and tales on Indian subjects. She wrote a dozen novels, 23 screenplays, and eight collections of short stories and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Diplomatic Service and Overseas List of the 1998 New Years Honours and granted a joint fellowship by BAFTA in 2002 with Ivory and Merchant. She is the only person to have won both a Booker Prize and an Oscar.
In 1951, she married Indian architect Cyrus Jhabvala and moved to New Delhi. She began then to elaborate her experiences in India and wrote novels and tales on Indian subjects. She wrote a dozen novels, 23 screenplays, and eight collections of short stories and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Diplomatic Service and Overseas List of the 1998 New Years Honours and granted a joint fellowship by BAFTA in 2002 with Ivory and Merchant. She is the only person to have won both a Booker Prize and an Oscar.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
November 9, 2017
Anyone who has enjoyed watching Howards End, The Remains of the Day or A Room with a View may not know that it was Ruth Prawer Jhabvala wrote the screenplays for the films and won awards and was nominated for many others. In 1975 she won the Booker Prize for Heat and Dust a book a read some years later and still love to this day. In 1998 she was awarded the CBE. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala died in 2013. She also wrote some of the most incredible novels that will stand the test of time. A literary genius. A master storyteller.
I have loved short stories for many years and when I was offered the chance to review At the End of the Century ahead of publication this was an offer I could not refuse. As soon as the book arrived I sat with the book for an entire evening and was lost in the writing of a writer I can only admire. A shining light and a genius with the written word.
Throughout this wonderful collection of stories, you will find everything that life is all contained within 448 wondrous pages’ stories from India, Europe and America. There real sensitivity in the storytelling with humour and wit added throughout. There is a real passion in Ruth’s writing which I have not seen in many years. Anyone who aspires to want to write should read some of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s past novels and draw inspiration.
At the End of the Century is subtle yet she seemed to have her finger on the pulse on various cultures. There is an introduction from her friend Anita Desai. All these stories are collected from her previous collections and now some of the best are here in one quite stunning book to enjoy and to cherish for many years to come.
This is a book that will remain on my bedside cabinet for a long time and there will be nights when I will again lose myself in the fabulous writing of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. A joy and one book I HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
I have loved short stories for many years and when I was offered the chance to review At the End of the Century ahead of publication this was an offer I could not refuse. As soon as the book arrived I sat with the book for an entire evening and was lost in the writing of a writer I can only admire. A shining light and a genius with the written word.
Throughout this wonderful collection of stories, you will find everything that life is all contained within 448 wondrous pages’ stories from India, Europe and America. There real sensitivity in the storytelling with humour and wit added throughout. There is a real passion in Ruth’s writing which I have not seen in many years. Anyone who aspires to want to write should read some of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s past novels and draw inspiration.
At the End of the Century is subtle yet she seemed to have her finger on the pulse on various cultures. There is an introduction from her friend Anita Desai. All these stories are collected from her previous collections and now some of the best are here in one quite stunning book to enjoy and to cherish for many years to come.
This is a book that will remain on my bedside cabinet for a long time and there will be nights when I will again lose myself in the fabulous writing of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. A joy and one book I HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
August 18, 2019
The stories in this book were as previously noted in reviews both melancholy and some were even gloomy. Having said this, I have to tell you that the author was indeed very special to me. I ended the book feeling like I had perhaps just read the most powerful and well written book. Beautiful storytelling. Insightful. Unique. Character-driven. Let me know who agrees.
September 4, 2018
Beautiful and poignant, melancholy and haunting. Loved these stories.
September 4, 2018
Beautiful and poignant, melancholy and haunting. Loved these stories.
March 5, 2022
I enjoyed this book enormously. Other reviews here have used words like melancholic and gloomy. I found the stories vivid, varied, vibrant, brimming with life force. It felt like being invited to the fireside of a grand, well-traveled, magnificent woman of the world and have her pour out for you glass after glass of deep, dark, rich wine. Not something you might want to repeat frequently but definitely very memorable, very splendid.
January 23, 2019
I picked up this book at my local library on a lark, so glad I did. Loved the stories, they're so well written! Can't wait to read more of her works!
March 6, 2019
I wrote this book review for The Brooklyn Rail (Feb '19)... link: https://brooklynrail.org/2019/02/book...
The writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927 – 2013) lived a life that spanned numerous wars and traversed the globe. She wrote novels and screenplays; Heat and Dust, her eighth, garnered the Man Booker Prize in 1975, and her E.M. Forster-adapted screenplays, A Room with a View and Howards End, both won Oscars. This month brings her posthumous collection of stories into the world, At the End of the Century (Counterpoint Press, 2018).
Born of a Jewish family in Germany, her family fled to London in 1939. There, she came of age, earned her English degree, and married an Indian architect named Cyrus Jhabvala. They relocated to New Delhi where they raised three daughters. India was her adopted land, but she struggled profoundly with her relationship to it. “I think of myself as strapped to a wheel that goes round and round and round and sometimes I’m up and sometimes I’m down,” she wrote in her essay “Myself in India.” It’s those complex feelings and experiences that informed the bulk of her writing. “I have lived in India for most of my adult life. My husband is Indian and so are my children. I am not, and less so every year.” The cross-currents of Indian and English cultures are wound tightly throughout her stories, and she delves into their far-reaching ramifications. If postcolonialism is an academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, she was one of its most ardent scholars. Years later, she would relocate once more to the Upper East Side of New York, living in the same building as her friends and creative partners, filmmakers James Ivory and Ismail Merchant (twenty-two of Merchant Ivory’s films were penned by Jhabvala).
The collection is mammoth in scope. Jhabvala’s characters traverse India, England, New York, Los Angeles, and back again, across the span of generations. They’re flawed and compelling enough to give weight to the tides of change and fortune that they stumble into. She’s gifted at shifting her readers’ empathies mid-story. A bitter, middle-aged bride of a glowering judge ends up caring for his mistress of twenty-five years. Two sisters with a large age gap between them spend their lives as entwined as the Big and Little Edie Beale of Grey Gardens, despite family secrets that would have torn other families apart.
In their own way, each story furnishes the emotional scope of a novel and encapsulates lives in their entirety. There is an old-fashioned storytelling quality to her voice that evokes classic British and Russian novels. Her readers are given broad strokes of families before she zooms into the erotic, aberrant, and curious turns they take. Central to her stories, large swaths of time may pass with a single sentence: “As the years went by, Lilo became more and more of a home bird—not that she was particularly domestic, she never was, not at all, but that she loved being there, in her own home where she was happy with her husband and child (my mother).”
The universal themes of seduction, betrayal, and power are paramount, and each character is treated to a deep humanity: two English women struggle toward enlightenment under the guidance of a power-hungry guru, and petty competitions and disappointments ensue. An Indian student has an affair with her professor in England and becomes a crafty (if cliché) nuisance to the married man. In “The Widow,” a woman goes through the internal and external motions of grieving (terrified of her changed circumstances; shunned, traditionally, by her cultural’s mores). Her emotions shift, and she entertains an attraction to her downstairs tenant’s son. Her desire is manipulated by him for financial gain (maybe she’ll buy him that scooter he wants), but this doesn’t bother her much. “Sometimes—when she was alone at night or lay on her bed in the hot, silent afternoons, her thoughts dwelling on Krishna—she felt strange new stirrings within her which were almost like illness, with a tugging in the bowels and a melting in the thighs.”
In the way that her screenplays were controlled with a British restraint that eventually snaps (perhaps most famously in Remains of the Day, 1993, which she adapted, along with an uncredited Harold Pinter, from the Kazuo Ishiguro novel), so are her short stories.
Most of the work in this collection appeared in print, much of it in The New Yorker, which published thirty-one of her short stories across her lifetime. Her stories—as the celebrated screenwriting she did for the legendary Ismael Merchant and James Ivory partnership—cross the boundaries between generations, class, gender, politics, and country. Her stories were always deeply aware of the passing of time and circumstance, of fortune and misfortune. As a faithful reader of Jhabvala’s since I was a twelve-year-old girl first picking up Heat and Dust, the difficulty in finishing this book was knowing that she’s no longer with us to offer sorely-needed wisdom in a changing world.
The writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927 – 2013) lived a life that spanned numerous wars and traversed the globe. She wrote novels and screenplays; Heat and Dust, her eighth, garnered the Man Booker Prize in 1975, and her E.M. Forster-adapted screenplays, A Room with a View and Howards End, both won Oscars. This month brings her posthumous collection of stories into the world, At the End of the Century (Counterpoint Press, 2018).
Born of a Jewish family in Germany, her family fled to London in 1939. There, she came of age, earned her English degree, and married an Indian architect named Cyrus Jhabvala. They relocated to New Delhi where they raised three daughters. India was her adopted land, but she struggled profoundly with her relationship to it. “I think of myself as strapped to a wheel that goes round and round and round and sometimes I’m up and sometimes I’m down,” she wrote in her essay “Myself in India.” It’s those complex feelings and experiences that informed the bulk of her writing. “I have lived in India for most of my adult life. My husband is Indian and so are my children. I am not, and less so every year.” The cross-currents of Indian and English cultures are wound tightly throughout her stories, and she delves into their far-reaching ramifications. If postcolonialism is an academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, she was one of its most ardent scholars. Years later, she would relocate once more to the Upper East Side of New York, living in the same building as her friends and creative partners, filmmakers James Ivory and Ismail Merchant (twenty-two of Merchant Ivory’s films were penned by Jhabvala).
The collection is mammoth in scope. Jhabvala’s characters traverse India, England, New York, Los Angeles, and back again, across the span of generations. They’re flawed and compelling enough to give weight to the tides of change and fortune that they stumble into. She’s gifted at shifting her readers’ empathies mid-story. A bitter, middle-aged bride of a glowering judge ends up caring for his mistress of twenty-five years. Two sisters with a large age gap between them spend their lives as entwined as the Big and Little Edie Beale of Grey Gardens, despite family secrets that would have torn other families apart.
In their own way, each story furnishes the emotional scope of a novel and encapsulates lives in their entirety. There is an old-fashioned storytelling quality to her voice that evokes classic British and Russian novels. Her readers are given broad strokes of families before she zooms into the erotic, aberrant, and curious turns they take. Central to her stories, large swaths of time may pass with a single sentence: “As the years went by, Lilo became more and more of a home bird—not that she was particularly domestic, she never was, not at all, but that she loved being there, in her own home where she was happy with her husband and child (my mother).”
The universal themes of seduction, betrayal, and power are paramount, and each character is treated to a deep humanity: two English women struggle toward enlightenment under the guidance of a power-hungry guru, and petty competitions and disappointments ensue. An Indian student has an affair with her professor in England and becomes a crafty (if cliché) nuisance to the married man. In “The Widow,” a woman goes through the internal and external motions of grieving (terrified of her changed circumstances; shunned, traditionally, by her cultural’s mores). Her emotions shift, and she entertains an attraction to her downstairs tenant’s son. Her desire is manipulated by him for financial gain (maybe she’ll buy him that scooter he wants), but this doesn’t bother her much. “Sometimes—when she was alone at night or lay on her bed in the hot, silent afternoons, her thoughts dwelling on Krishna—she felt strange new stirrings within her which were almost like illness, with a tugging in the bowels and a melting in the thighs.”
In the way that her screenplays were controlled with a British restraint that eventually snaps (perhaps most famously in Remains of the Day, 1993, which she adapted, along with an uncredited Harold Pinter, from the Kazuo Ishiguro novel), so are her short stories.
Most of the work in this collection appeared in print, much of it in The New Yorker, which published thirty-one of her short stories across her lifetime. Her stories—as the celebrated screenwriting she did for the legendary Ismael Merchant and James Ivory partnership—cross the boundaries between generations, class, gender, politics, and country. Her stories were always deeply aware of the passing of time and circumstance, of fortune and misfortune. As a faithful reader of Jhabvala’s since I was a twelve-year-old girl first picking up Heat and Dust, the difficulty in finishing this book was knowing that she’s no longer with us to offer sorely-needed wisdom in a changing world.
May 10, 2021
serduszko
May 16, 2019
The writing was very good but I didn't finish this book of short stories because I was not satisfied with any of the endings of the stories I read (read about 3/4 of book.) I always felt something was lacking at the end of each story, like part of the story was missing. I was disappointed because I was engrossed in each story but it felt incomplete.
I gave it 3 stars because of the writing, I would have given it 5 stars if I was satisfied with the endings.
I gave it 3 stars because of the writing, I would have given it 5 stars if I was satisfied with the endings.
March 25, 2019
Beautifully written but the repot ion of the same themes became annoying.
In retrospect I think I should have read them piecemeal, not consecutively .
In retrospect I think I should have read them piecemeal, not consecutively .
August 13, 2024
I really liked Jhabvala's "Heat and Dust." I found this collection of short stories uneven. She's at her best when telling stories about India; her stories about her family I found less compelling.
March 30, 2021
I had never read a book by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala before, but this book of short stories makes me want to read more. Many of the stories take place in India. Some are a look at an Indian family, but others encompass the experience of outsiders coming to India for the spiritual experience. Every story was fascinating and each character so unique that I was completely enthralled.
May 26, 2019
Jhabvala is a very good writer. Almost all the stories have a whiff of the tragic about them - lonely people, naifs who must be cared for by more responsible family and friends, estranged or widowed spouses, parents trying to cling to their adult children. Several stories feel like they have similar elements to them.
I'm not sure what it is that prevents me from giving this book a higher rating, but it might just be that I found a lot of the stories a little depressing. The only story that stands out without that is "A Course of English Studies," which is about a student that goes to England for university and ends up in an affair with her professor. Although the story isn't a happy one - the professor is married and she causes great damage to the marriage - the student, Nalini, has an indefatigable personality that sweeps you along as she seduces the teacher and tries to break up the marriage, all while being sure of the rightness of her actions. Even the end of the story, where their relationship has ended and she is faced with the poor marks that have come with her neglecting her studies, she still moves forth with a joie de vivre and a self-confidence that is quite intoxicating.
But otherwise, the rest of the stories are filled with loneliness, sacrifice and resignation. Life goes on, as the song says, long after the thrill of living is gone. And as a result, the overall feeling the book left me with was sadness and mild depression.
I'm not sure what it is that prevents me from giving this book a higher rating, but it might just be that I found a lot of the stories a little depressing. The only story that stands out without that is "A Course of English Studies," which is about a student that goes to England for university and ends up in an affair with her professor. Although the story isn't a happy one - the professor is married and she causes great damage to the marriage - the student, Nalini, has an indefatigable personality that sweeps you along as she seduces the teacher and tries to break up the marriage, all while being sure of the rightness of her actions. Even the end of the story, where their relationship has ended and she is faced with the poor marks that have come with her neglecting her studies, she still moves forth with a joie de vivre and a self-confidence that is quite intoxicating.
But otherwise, the rest of the stories are filled with loneliness, sacrifice and resignation. Life goes on, as the song says, long after the thrill of living is gone. And as a result, the overall feeling the book left me with was sadness and mild depression.
March 24, 2021
Simply excellent writing. As others have noted, most of the stories are a bit melancholy, but I love the author’s creativity and penchant for exploring unexpected themes. I highly recommend this book for fans of short stories and descriptive prose and for those curious about exotic lifestyles.
February 3, 2019
This was a lovely book in the vein of many classic short story authors. Each story is beautifully rendered with enough detail to draw the reader into the setting, but not so much that the reader gets bogged down in excessive description.
The characters are lovingly rendered...good, bad, indifferent. We have wastrels, prim, wan English women, women flamboyant and assured in their sexuality, young people, aged people, Indian, Muslim, Hindu, English, American. Each one depicted with brilliant clarity.
Highly recommended for fans of literary short stories. This book has me wanting to seek out some of the authors of my college years.
The characters are lovingly rendered...good, bad, indifferent. We have wastrels, prim, wan English women, women flamboyant and assured in their sexuality, young people, aged people, Indian, Muslim, Hindu, English, American. Each one depicted with brilliant clarity.
Highly recommended for fans of literary short stories. This book has me wanting to seek out some of the authors of my college years.
March 25, 2019
I normally don't get into short stories books. I feel that by the time I get to know the characters, the story ends. But this is one of those rare exceptions. A British woman, married to an Indian, offers many glimpses into the Indian culture from her eyes. The theme of human frailty runs through the stories, one's inability to grasp that the rug is being pulled out from beneath their feet, that they are being conned, being robbed, being manipulated, and being exploited. The reader sees it, but the protagonist does not. You want to scream out: 'you will lose your shirt! Just say no!'
February 8, 2020
I picked up this book thinking it was about the end of the British Raj in India. Not quite. It is mostly post Raj, but themed on an India still influenced by that era. Some stories are entirely independent of India, and these I did not expect.
All the stories are intimate, and very personal, often melancholic. The titular tale seems quite linked to the author's experience in the United States. All said, an eclectic and captivating collection.
All the stories are intimate, and very personal, often melancholic. The titular tale seems quite linked to the author's experience in the United States. All said, an eclectic and captivating collection.
December 22, 2020
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born in Cologne, Germany. Her family later moved to England where she met her future husband, an architect from India.
Many of her stories are based in India or have some kind of reference to India. Although the book is beautifully written and has interesting character studies and observations, the stories were a mixed bag. Most stories were compelling and I could not put them down - a few were tedious and tended to drag.
Many of her stories are based in India or have some kind of reference to India. Although the book is beautifully written and has interesting character studies and observations, the stories were a mixed bag. Most stories were compelling and I could not put them down - a few were tedious and tended to drag.
February 17, 2023
Magically rich accounts of Indian society. The stories tickle the reader’s 5 senses. Much less successful to me were the ones that are set in contemporary NYC. But her command of the English language (in all its glory and complexity) is there throughout.
July 7, 2019
I understand the praise of this book is about the writing but honestly I couldn’t get into the books content. While the writing was good it wasn’t enough to keep me entertained through to boring and pointless stories.
July 21, 2019
The writing is first rate. The stories are sad, to say the least, but I enjoyed the beauty of the writing and the complex characters.
August 13, 2019
This book is beautifully written, but the stories are terribly depressing!
October 12, 2019
I enjoyed a number of these melancholy stories though so many in such a short time span leads one to realize the similarities so this c0llection is probably best consumed in smaller doses.
February 1, 2020
3.5. Small slices of “life is hard” set mostly in India. Her wry observations kept these short stories fresh and interesting even when some of the endings were less than satisfying.
March 6, 2021
Gorgeous short stories
July 7, 2021
Very enjoyable set of thought provoking short stories, some almost cautionary tales, some predictable, others with surprising twists.
September 6, 2024
It's been a while since I've wanted to throw a book across the room, but this one had me in a pitching windup on a couple of occasions. I have had this book on my shelf for a long time. I wanted to read it because A) it was a collection of short stories and B) it was written by Ruth Prawer Jjabvala, writer of - well, Best Adapted Screenplay winner of - the films "Howard's End" and "A Room with a View" and also "The Remains of the Day." Pretty great stuff. Great films about people and relationships. I wasn't thinking of the fact that she didn't actually write the plots of those films.
Her plots are chock full of women who are doormats to various "charismatic" men (or, sometimes, women) who use them, neglect them, dismiss them as if they were of no worth, take them for granted; but the women remain in thrall. And then there's a couple of plots where one man has two women in thrall to him, and they share him. Sometimes they're sisters, sometimes just the wife and the lover. One man is described as troll-like and ugly and rude, but he's an "artist", so a woman and her daughter both become his lover. I mean, one story like this, even two. Maybe. But most of her women characters' defining trait is that they enthusiastically let themselves be exploited by others. I just kept wanting to yell "Grow a spine! Kick this person to the curb and create your own life away from them!" I finished the book but can't recommend it. It was well-written as far as that goes, but I didn't end up liking or empathizing with anyone. I didn't recognize them as fully human, and I'm not sure what Ruth was trying to convey here. It took me a while to read because I was never eager to get back to it.
Her plots are chock full of women who are doormats to various "charismatic" men (or, sometimes, women) who use them, neglect them, dismiss them as if they were of no worth, take them for granted; but the women remain in thrall. And then there's a couple of plots where one man has two women in thrall to him, and they share him. Sometimes they're sisters, sometimes just the wife and the lover. One man is described as troll-like and ugly and rude, but he's an "artist", so a woman and her daughter both become his lover. I mean, one story like this, even two. Maybe. But most of her women characters' defining trait is that they enthusiastically let themselves be exploited by others. I just kept wanting to yell "Grow a spine! Kick this person to the curb and create your own life away from them!" I finished the book but can't recommend it. It was well-written as far as that goes, but I didn't end up liking or empathizing with anyone. I didn't recognize them as fully human, and I'm not sure what Ruth was trying to convey here. It took me a while to read because I was never eager to get back to it.
November 28, 2018
This short story collection comes from India, but is written in English instead of translated as Jhabvala is an immigrant to India herself. Anita Desai wrote a lovely introduction, and I don't typically read introductions, but have enjoyed some of Desai's previous work and trust her judgment. Jhabvala herself unfortunately has passed, and this book is coming to the United States.
I have historically struggled with short story collections, although recently I have found several that I love. This book, unfortunately, was not one that I loved. It wasn't a bad story, but I didn't feel any attachment to the characters or particularly moved by the stories. After about a hundred pages, I decided not to finish this book. Have you ever had the experience where you're reading something, but you're not quite sure what's going on cause you zoned out, and that happens every time you pick up a certain book? That's how reading this book felt. I'm sure it was just not good timing.
Additionally the synopsis does not give much to go by about this collection, or I would encourage you to decide for yourself whether you would like to read this book or not.
I received a copy of this book for review via the publisher through Edelweiss.
I have historically struggled with short story collections, although recently I have found several that I love. This book, unfortunately, was not one that I loved. It wasn't a bad story, but I didn't feel any attachment to the characters or particularly moved by the stories. After about a hundred pages, I decided not to finish this book. Have you ever had the experience where you're reading something, but you're not quite sure what's going on cause you zoned out, and that happens every time you pick up a certain book? That's how reading this book felt. I'm sure it was just not good timing.
Additionally the synopsis does not give much to go by about this collection, or I would encourage you to decide for yourself whether you would like to read this book or not.
I received a copy of this book for review via the publisher through Edelweiss.
January 1, 2022
At the End of the Century: The Stories of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
I really enjoyed these stories! It took me a very long time to get through them due to just general end of year life things, but that also gave me more time to sit with each of the stories. I was gifted this book by a very sweet customer from the bookstore, who upon hearing how much I love Jhumpa Lahiri, bought this book for me. Now that I’ve read it, it makes so much sense. Jhabvala is a great writer and I fully see her influence in Lahiri’s stories. The ones that stuck with me the most from the collection were the title story ‘At the End of the Century’ , ‘Great Expectations’ , and ‘Two More Under the Indian Sun’.
4/5⭐️
I really enjoyed these stories! It took me a very long time to get through them due to just general end of year life things, but that also gave me more time to sit with each of the stories. I was gifted this book by a very sweet customer from the bookstore, who upon hearing how much I love Jhumpa Lahiri, bought this book for me. Now that I’ve read it, it makes so much sense. Jhabvala is a great writer and I fully see her influence in Lahiri’s stories. The ones that stuck with me the most from the collection were the title story ‘At the End of the Century’ , ‘Great Expectations’ , and ‘Two More Under the Indian Sun’.
4/5⭐️
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March 3, 2020A disturbing collection of stories that i am not sure how to process. I read the introduction (as always) but i guess i was still unprepared. I don't understand how so many people can be suffering and live so much on the edge, and yet i know they do. What i really don't understand is the beating of your supposed loved ones. I just don't get it. What has happened to a society that lets these things go on as if they are just everyday common occurrences? So many wonderful ideas and traditions from the same place that gives us daily beating and poverty...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews