Review Summaries

• Readers value the delicate portrayal of a marriage and the melancholy of an empire in decline, though some find the narrative deliberately slow-moving.

Reviews

• 今年これまで読んだ中で一番感動しました

  何でこれほどすばらしい本が日本には紹介されなかったのでしょうか？この作品はpaul scottのraj quartetの続編です。raj quartetの主人公たちのその後も、この作品の重要な背景になっています。単独で読めるようには構成されていますが、この世界の理解には、やはりraj quartetの4部作を前もって読んでいなければ、難しいと思われます。この作品は、インド独立後も、インドにとどまることを選択したイギリス人の夫婦（lower middle)の1972年時点での数ヶ月間の生活を凝縮したものです。それは”失敗”の物語です。ただし、失敗のもつ様々な意味が凝縮された形で、さまざまな登場人物の1972年での生き様を通して探られることとなります。イギリスがインドに残した遺産、その遺産のうちインドの近代化により消え去り行くもの、その遺産が様々な背景を持つ個人に対して持つ”思い出”、イギリスの階級制度が個人に与えた拘束、そして夫婦の絆の危うさと相互理解の難しさ、などの大きな問題が、この小さなインドの町の日常風景を通して、呈示されることになります。構成上は、結末自体は、最初に明らかにされていますが、結末の持つ象徴的な意味合いは、徐々に語られていくことになります。ユーモラスな筆致にもかかわらず、悲しい作品です。私自身のデリー滞在中（60年代後半）の英語の家庭教師も、この作品の主人公のように、独立後インドにとどまることを選択したイギリス人たちでした。彼女たちが、いつもかもし出す不思議なそして非同時代的な”雰囲気”は、子供の私にはいつも理解不能でしたが、その複雑さの一端に今触れたことができたような気がします。

• This was unexpected. This is a book with no particular story, only a handful of characters, one location.....and yet it was fascinating. The subtlety and insight of the author's depiction of the relationship between Tusker and his Margaret-Meldrew of a wife, Luce, was masterful. I have seen marriages like this. It is a marriage of times gone by. It is, quite frankly, a marriage that today would not have lasted. Scott's in-depth knowledge of the era and the culture of raj and post-raj India shone through in his remarkable ability to get inside the mind and emotion of this elderly woman. The death of Tusker, instead of being a merciful release from domination and boorishness was, for his memsahib, a tragedy. How interesting that she preferred the familiarity of the bullying and self-centredness of her complex husband to the unknown reality of life without him. I would love to have seen a sequel to this novel. What sort of a life would Luce have had in her remaining years? My hope is that she would have found contentment with her faithful servant and would have had long enough to forge a good way of life, freed from the shackles of her controlling husband. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to be stretched to think about a different way of life, a different philosophy of life, a different view of the marriage relationship,...... Paul Scott, an author with remarkable imagination, will touch you with the ghost of a bygone age that will stay with you for a long time.

• Great book, a real pleasure to read. It would have been very funny if it was not that sad. Life as it is. Well written.

• Paul Scott writes a saga less about India and more about the racism and colonialism not just of the English for the Indians, but also by one Brit for another. It's the end of the British Raj and the end of a way of life for many of the Brits who have been in India for decades, are financially dependent on living as a colonial, and have often lost family, financial and social ties in England. Suddenly, that which made them empowered, in control and allowed mean spirited condescension is gone. They are over-night irrelevant; the tables have turned. Scott creates real three dimensional characters who we have all known and creates moral dilemmas that show them for what they are. This series should be required reading for American State Department and the Military as Imperial America presumes the Americanization of the world. A pivotal document about colonial politics, racism, petty people with power who often have insufficient insight to see them selves in others and what happens when a culture sends the people who can't quite make it at home out to the colonies. I found myself cutting my life short to get back to the reading. This is my second and richer reading; A+.

• Excellent read. Great insight into how time overtakes us

• Bella storia su un coppia anziana inglese che rimane in India dopo l'indipendenza - ha non pochi problemi. Per un pubblico di una certa età.

Purchase links