Rich Like Us - Hardcover

Sahgal, Nayantara

3.43

160 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393023095 ISBN 13: 9780393023091

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1986

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The lives of two very different New Delhi women are traced from the period following Indira Gandhi's declaration of the Emergency through to each woman's discovery that power and riches are useless substitutes for love

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About the Author:

Nayantara Sahgal is a novelist and political commentator who has published eight novels and seven works of non-fiction. She has won the Sinclair Fiction Prize, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Review:

The setting is New Delhi shortly after Indira Gandhi declares a state of emergency; its impact is viewed through the lives of sixty-three-year-old Rose and thirty-eight-year-old Sonali. Born and raised in England, Rose moved to India more than forty years ago when she married Ram. Rose was wife number two; she shared a house with Ram's first wife and son and struggled to adapt to a new country and culture. She willingly voices her opinions about the state of emergency, the current business practices in India, and her husband's son, who now controls the family's wealth. Rose and Ram were friends with Sonali's family and over the years a true friendship has developed between the two women. Sonali, a civil servant seeking to "Indianize India," feels that she and her co-workers must remain silent about the state of emergency to keep their jobs. Her dreams and ideals for her homeland evaporate with her sudden dismissal. Sorting through her deceased father's papers, learning much of her family and country's history, Sonali realizes the importance of her dreams. Through Rose and Sonali's lives we witness compassion, corruption, courage, and trust. In Rich Like Us "the present is the merest flicker between the long long time past and the things that haven't yet happened but most assuredly. --Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers

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