Read Women discussion

Our December fiction read is Attia Hosain’s Sunlight on a Broken Column originally published in 1961, re-issued as one of the original, Virago Modern Classics. And republished by Virago again, earlier this year. It’s a semi-autobiographical, coming of age story. It follows a young girl growing up in India, then part of the British Empire, in the time leading up to 1947, partition, and the brutal division of India.

If anyone can't track a copy down there's a free, digital version online, it's a community copy so don't even need to set up an account, just go to:

https://archive.org/details/sunlight-...

Then go to the list of download options on the right-hand side and select PDF.

An extract from Kamila Shamsie’s introduction to the new Virago edition, published earlier this year - Hosain was Shamsie's great-aunt:

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ar...

An article on the author Attia Hosain:

https://www.wasafiri.org/article/cele...

A link to an intro to the novel, and sample chapters for any undecideds:

https://sadaa.co.uk/archive/literatur...

Thanks, Alwynne, for these links. I am really excited to hear everyone’s thoughts on this book.

This is great. I was just coming here to post about not being able to find this book in any of the libraries or second hand shops. Thanks for the links.

Just really glad it was useful, I haven't checked it through but I've read novels from that site a few times now and they've all been complete/legible. But probably worth downloading soon, if you haven't yet, never sure if these links will disappear!

Yay, I was able to get a copy through ILL. Not sure when it will arrive though so until then I'll read via the link you provided, Alwynne. And thanks for the reminder to download it now.

Great, I'm starting on this now, like Carol, look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts.

Alwynne wrote: "Great, I'm starting on this now, like Carol, look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts."

It's a wonderful story in its own right, but this is the novel that spurred me to research (on my phone, no real work/effort involved) Partition and understand more about its impact in the moment as well as why Pakistan Pakistans.

That's brilliant Carol, I don't know if people know Deepa Mehta's Element trilogy, Fire, Earth and Water, a series of films about women in India at various times, different contexts? But Earth is set during Partition. In the UK it’s on Youtube here, and the recreation's very powerful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgwa4...

For anyone in the UK there’s the radio documentary Partition Voices and the book based on it, Partition Voices: Untold British Stories by Kavita Puri, links to the BBC radio programme are at the end of the article.

https://creativeaccess.org.uk/blog/pa...

Alwynne wrote: "That's brilliant Carol, I don't know if people know Deepa Mehta's Element trilogy, Fire, Earth and Water, a series of films about women in India at various times, different contexts? But Earth is s..."

I will look for Partition Voices. Thanks also for these wonderful links. Such fab resources, all.

Thanks for the link to the movie and Partition Voices Alwynne. I've bookmarked both. This time period is of interest to me as my father was born in what was then India and is now Pakistan. He left before partition but it's always held some interest for me, the fact that his birth was in one country and then that country was divided and renamed and become a whole separate country.

I'm looking forward to reading this too. Thanks for the links everyone, I've read Train to Pakistan, which I believe is widely read, it's often a challenge to find the perspective of women during significant events like the Partition, I'm looking forward to this exploration.

wild~rose wrote: "Thanks for the link to the movie and Partition Voices Alwynne. I've bookmarked both. This time period is of interest to me as my father was born in what was then India and is now Pakistan. He left ..."

From people I know whose family went through that, it seems to be something quite devastating, like having your past erased and part of you with it. I hope you find the book interesting.

Claire wrote: "I'm looking forward to reading this too. Thanks for the links everyone, I've read Train to Pakistan, which I believe is widely read, it's often a challenge to find the perspective of women during s..."

Great you're joining in Claire.

I got this from my library, in German translation, so already started it. Thanks for the links Alwynne - will have a look.

Good, Michaela, look forward to your thoughts.

I hope to start it this weekend, thanks to the download link Alwynne provided.

That's brill, Story!

I'm a couple of chapters in now, taking me a while to get used to the different characters and the complexity of the family structure. My old Virago edition has an introduction by Anita Desai which was very useful in explaining the background to Laila's life. She talks about the way in which the guiding concepts for aristocratic (taluqdar) Muslim families were Izzat/honour versus Sharam/dishonour, and that this also affected the 'peasant' equivalent in this feudal-style society.

I was fascinated too by the ways that Laila's caught between an Indian-Muslim perspective and a more Western one - focused on reading and independence, dreaming about college while still sleeping in the zenana/women's quarters. Even taking the title of the novel from T. S. Eliot's 'The Hollow Men' seems to reflect that split.

Apparently women in families like Laila's (and Hosain's) lived a life of similar compromises, no veil but silk curtains on the car windows when they went out. Lucknow which was then the capital of Oudh, now Uttar Pradesh, had strong links to the Indian Independence movement so expecting more on the political situation. I hadn't realised but it was also a major artistic and cultural centre, where Desai explains Muslims and Hindus often observed each other's festivals and shared shrines/places of worship. It reminded me of reading about places like Salonica which used to have communities of Jews, Muslims and Christians who all managed to live together and intermingle.

I've read to the end of part one. I love Hosain's poetic language but am confused as to who is who so am just letting most of the names and relationships come to me in an impressionistic way. (My e-copy does have a cast of characters but it's too annoying to continue to try to flip back and forth on an e-reader.)

Thank you for summarizing Desai's introduction, Alwynne. I've studied all this but it was long ago and it's good to have a refresher.

I finished it today and also found it a bit complicated with all the characters. At least judging from the blurb I expected something else, a description of her development and the relationship with the man she loves. I will also look up more of the Indian - Pakistani history as well as about the religions. As it doesn´t show, 3 stars from me.

I also finished today and admit to being underwhelmed. There was a good, moving story struggling to get out of this, but the 'tell, don't show' narrative style, the vast number of characters and the endless party scenes just didn't work for me. 2.5 stars? Maybe 3?

I'm open to being persuaded that I missed something as I see many, many people including Carol have rated this as a 5 star book for them.

I read it in tangible form, and the character list— which is more helpful than many such lists — is upfront. I suspect that reading this as an ebook without that resource is one source of a different experience than I had. I’ll poke through my copy and see if anything else relevant comes to mind, too.

I’m sorry if my enthusiasm led you down a mediocre path 😞

Carol wrote: I’m sorry if my enthusiasm led you down a mediocre path 😞 ."

Not at all, Carol! I didn't even see your rating till I finished today. And I'm sure reading it on paper would have helped me a lot.

Thanks, Story : )

The aspects of Sunlight that impressed me. 1. its focus on the impact of Partition on home life vs. public life. 2. I really liked the language, although when I read her short story collection, it felt flat, so I think this is a case of the author that has one, and only one, great story to tell.

Maybe I also was persuaded by her point of view as an exile then-living in England. Maybe I was absorbed by her depiction of how the servant class lived and the main character/her experience of privilege as a member of a landowning family.

I'm not generally a fan of autofiction. One of my great reading fails of the last couple of years is In the Eye of the Sun by Ahdaf Soueif and I even read that as a buddy read with a close and thoughtful friend. Sunlight is the anti-In-the-Eye-of-the-Sun for me: not bloated and not an mc who is a dithering, naval gazing soul. But being positive by being negative about another work isn't really a win and it's very personal.

One random fact that intrigues my inner English major. There's a small but mighty volume of journal articles contrasting some aspect of Sunlight with an appropriate aspect of Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie).

On a different note, if anyone's interested in bookmarking the below link, there's a group compiling a database of books and other resources about Partition.

https://www.1947partitionarchive.org/...

Thanks Carol, I'm actually liking this so far, I watched the BBC adaptation of 'A Suitable Boy' recently which was filmed in Lucknow, set later than this, so it helped me visualise the world she inhabits. I set it aside briefly to finish another read, and some arcs but back with it now.

Carol wrote: "Thanks, Story : )

The aspects of Sunlight that impressed me. 1. its focus on the impact of Partition on home life vs. public life. 2. I really liked the language, although when I read her short st..."

Thank you Carol for sharing this. I can see how these aspects of the novel would appeal to you and in a different time of my life, it might have appealed to me in the same way. I'm a very impatient reader these days and as you say autofiction can be hard to pull off in an engaging way.

I felt this story might have worked better with a third person narrator, perhaps helping the author create more rounded, nuanced characters.

Story wrote: "Carol wrote: "Thanks, Story : )

The aspects of Sunlight that impressed me. 1. its focus on the impact of Partition on home life vs. public life. 2. I really liked the language, although when I rea..."

Great points. I had exactly that feeling about another autofiction novel I read a couple of years ago - as if the author was simply too close to the subject matter and a little distance might have improved the whole.

I was hoping to get on with this over the weekend, but having a few side-effects from my booster on Friday - although really relieved to have had it. So a bit too washed out to focus on reading. But will be back to things soon.

I’m about half-way through this now, I found the opening chapters a bit disorientating simply because of the array of characters but once I’d worked out who everyone was things settled down. Although I thought the story was slow to take off. I don’t know what has/hasn’t stood out for everyone else so I’m just going to highlight the things that I’ve found striking so far. I was fascinated by the way that the two cousins Laila and Zahra work as examples of two very different versions of girlhood. Zahra who takes the line of least resistance and follows the route expected of her versus Laila who questions her role, and is more interested in issues around politics, social inequality and in the possibility of having a life that’s different from the other women in her family. I also thought that Hosain was very effective in portraying the way in which relative isolation could also be liberating for women, and allowed the formation of a very special form of bond/community.

I also loved all the details of how time was organised both in the original household before the grandfather’s death, and in the wider society through different forms of family and religious ritual. And found the contrast between the liberal, but traditional, and more westernised branches of the family really interesting too, the ways in which following in the footsteps of the English occupiers could appear to be liberating but was also stifling, breaking down the bonds established earlier in the book. And substituting one set of cultural codes for another that was equally difficult to negotiate. I thought that Hosain’s portrayal of the ways in which the society operated, the complex forms of hierarchy and status was an effective, illuminating one. And I’m now impatient to find out what Laila will do, and how she will work out the conflicts between her education, the ideas her friends like Nita are exposing her to, and her family’s expectations.

I am into this, just through part 1. I really appreciate all the comments so far. I tend to really enjoy autobiographical fiction, but to some degree I am having trouble connecting with this one. I think it's because there are so many characters, some of whom seem minor so far.
That being said, it is an interesting look at how a huge historical event (Partition), impacted a family. I am sorry I don't have anything original or "new" to say at this point, but the writing is good and the introduction by Kamila Shamsie really piqued my interest so I am invested enough to see the story through.

I have finished the book, and it really got me thinking. I have mixed feelings about it, but I learned a lot and I am very glad I read it.
There were many things I liked about this book: Hosain's writing style in Laila's voice is thought provoking and unflinchingly political. It was also interesting to look at Indian Partition from a primarily Muslim perspective, and I am not sure if I have read one before. Also, the feminist message of this book must have been unique for its time. Although I had to do more research than usual while reading, I also liked that Hosain thrust the reader right into the setting of her book without many explanations for readers unfamiliar with Indian/Pakistani culture. This was very effective and made me feel as if I were in India with the characters.
What I did not like as much was the plot and the dialogue. I have no problem with politics being a major part of a novel (in fact, I usually enjoy it), but I felt that the characters in this book too often fell into political diatribes that felt unrealistic and honestly sometimes a bit boring. I tend to like more plot in a book, but I really appreciate what Hosain was trying to do in conveying the political and ideological tensions.
All in all, this was a very good read. Thank you Alwynne for choosing this book and bringing so much great information on the themes and subject of the book to our attention

Thanks Kate, I think my reactions were similar, there was a lot I really appreciated but there were some dry passages and sometimes, as in the final sections keeping up with the cast of characters and what happened to them was quite hard, there were so many, and the action was so compressed but I'm glad to have read this all the same.

I just need to finish writing a review!

Alwynne wrote: "I just need to finish writing a review!"

You’re impeccably disciplined with review postings, so I’m looking forward to reading it. It’s also one of those novels that has insufficient reviews for its significance, as per my rosy lens.