Read more on Amitav Ghosh
The Glass Palace
Amitav Ghosh
Book Type: Novel
ISBN No: 0375758771
Publisher's Name: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Published On: February 12, 2002
The Glass Palace is a masterful novel of love, war and family and presents us with a band of memorable characters, spread across Burma, Malaya and India, and across three generations — before the door to Burma closes behind them, and the glittering light of that civilisation seems extinguished.
Starting in Mandalay at the time of the exile of King Thebaw and Queen Supayalat, THE GLASS PALACE is compelling historical fiction that tells the story of three families during a time of transition for India and its people. Politics, business, love, and war intertwine with unforgettable characters to immerse you in the story of a land and its people.
Rajkumar is a poor orphan boy stranded in Mandalay while the sampan on which he's working gets repaired. While working for a food vendor, he meets Saya John and his son, Matthew, who is a few years younger than he.
The locals loot the palace during the unsettled days of the King and Queen's disposition. While there, Rajkumar sees the most beautiful girl he's ever seen, the youngest of the Queen's maids. Rajkumar only has time to learn her name before the approaching soldiers force the looters to leave. He sees Dolly once more when the Royal Family is being led to the boat that will bring them to their home in exile. Years later, he'll go in search of the gi rl he cannot forget.
After the King and Queen are forced to leave, Mandalay is like a ghost town. The food vendors can no longer afford to stay open, leaving Rajkumar without a job. Rajkumar again goes to Saya John to find employment.
The Royal Family is exiled to Ratnagiri where they become the responsibility of the District Collector, a member of the Indian Civil Service, who ruled Britain's Indian possessions. In 1905, an Indian District Collector is appointed who brings with him his wife Uma. She becomes a lifelong friend of Dolly's and a voice for India's independence.
Ties between the orphan Rajkumar, Dolly, Saya John's family, and Uma's family span generations; their story is woven into the history of Burma, India, and Malaya. One generation works within the British-ruled system to build their dynasty, harvesting teak and rubber using slave labor. The next generation confronts a rising consciousness of Indian independence, which is intensified during World War II. Indians in the British Indian Army confront racism within their army as well as in the Indian National Army fighting for India's freedom.
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Ghosh's epic novel of Burma and Malaya over a span of 115 years is the kind of "sweep of history" that readers can appreciateDeven loveDdespite its demands. There is almost too much here for one book, as over the years the lives and deaths of principal characters go flying by. Yet Ghosh (The Calcutta Chromosome; Shadow Lines) is a beguiling and endlessly resourceful storyteller, and he boasts one of the most arresting openings in recent fiction: in the marketplace of Mandalay, only the 11-year-old Indian boy Rajkumar recognizes the booming sounds beyond the curve of the river as English cannon fire. The year is 1885, and the British have used a trade dispute to justify the invasion and seizure of Burma's capital. As a crowd of looters pours into the fabled Glass Palace, the dazzling throne room of the nine-roofed golden spire that was the great hti of Burma's kings, Rajkumar catches sight of Dolly, then only 10, nursemaid to the Second Princess. Rajkumar carries the memory of their brief meeting through the years to come, while he rises to fame and riches in the teak trade and Dolly travels into exile to India with King Thebaw, Burma's last king; Queen Supayalat; and their three daughters. The story of the exiled king and his family in Ratnagiri, a sleepy port town south of Bombay, is worth a novel in itself, and the first two of the story's seven parts, which relate that history and Rajkumar's rise to wealth in Burma's teak forests, are marvelously told. Inspired by tales handed down to him by his father and uncle, Ghosh vividly brings to life the history of Burma and Malaya over a century of momentous change in this teeming, multigenerational saga. (Feb. 6) Forecast: Novels by Indian authors continue to surge in popularity here, and this title not only ranks among the best but differs from the pack for its setting of Burma rather than India
From Library Journal
In an industry not known for risk-taking, the publisher is to be congratulated for offering Ghosh (The Calcutta Chromosome) a contract on his as-yet-unwritten novel. Set primarily in Burma, Malaya, and India, this work spans from 1885, when the British sent the King of Burma into exile, to the present. While it does offer brief glimpses into the history of the region, it is more the tale of a family and how historical events influenced real lives. As a young boy, Rajkumar, an Indian temporarily stranded in Mandalay, finds himself caught up in the British invasion that led to the exile of Burma's last king. In the chaos, he spies Dolly, a household maid in the royal palace, for whom he develops a consuming passion and whom years later he tracks down in India and marries. As their family grows and their lives intersect with others, the tangled web of local and international politics is brought to bear, changing lives as well as nations. Ghosh ranges from the condescension of the British colonialists to the repression of the current Myanmar (Burmese) regime in a style that suggests E.M. Forster as well as James Michener.
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• Christian Science Monitor
• London Review of Books
• The Times
• Die Zeit
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• New York Times Review
• The Complete Review
