Books Read: 17

I have finished The Space Between Us by Thrity Imrigar. It is set in India and looks at the lives of two women and how even though they are of a different social class how their lives are the same. Bhima is a servantL illiterate and uneducated. She is taking care of her granddaughter since her daughter and son-in-law died of AIDS. She is trying to get her educated so that she can have a better life, but she becomes pregnant, which is one of the major controversies of the story. Her husband has left her and took her son with him after an accident at his job in a factory. The other woman is Sera, a wealthy housewife who Bhima works for. She has been widowed after several years of being physically abused by her husband. Her pregnant daughter and son-in-law live with her. She has been helping Bhima educate her granddaughter and throughout her lifetime. The books goes through their past lives to show how they ended up in this situation and the present day.

I liked this book only because it was interesting to see the cultural aspects of India. I felt that there wasn't really a point to the story and there was no easy way to end it. I definitely did not like the ending. There was no final resolve nor was there any sort of choice for the reader to decide how they wanted it to end. I felt like it just ended after the climax. I didn't mind the back and forth between present and past because I felt the transitions worked in the story. Overall, a good book to read if you are interested in learning a bit about the culture of India, but definitely not a good one for plot.