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15th out of 29 books
—
39 voters
Bombay Time
At the wedding of a young man from a middle-class apartment building in Bombay, the men and women of this unique community gather together and look back on their youthful, idealistic selves and consider the changes the years have wrought. The lives of the Parsi men and women who grew up together in Wadi Baug are revealed in all their complicated humanity: Adi Patel's disin...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
July 5th 2002
by Picador
(first published 1990)
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I have come to truly love and appreciate Thrity Umrigar's novels. With an unparalelled ability to create well-drawn characters who seem to come to life on the page, and story lines that speak the truth about life and living as a Parsi in India, Umrigar is a rare talent that everyone should read.
In "Bombay Time" we are introduced to the Parsi residents of an apartment house in Bombay. Rusi Bilimoria is one of the residents who made some unfortunate choices early in his life and he must now live w...more
In "Bombay Time" we are introduced to the Parsi residents of an apartment house in Bombay. Rusi Bilimoria is one of the residents who made some unfortunate choices early in his life and he must now live w...more
Thrity Umrigar continues to be one of my favorite Indian authors! This story takes place in Bombay. A group of "young" Parsi friends gather as "old" friends at the wedding of a son of one friend. Each friend at the wedding has a story that he/she relives at the wedding. The father of the groom left for England as a young man, to be educated, only to come back to Bombay as a lawyer, to become a big fish in a small sea, feeling comfortable being Indian only in India. This same friend lived his dre...more
This novel follows a different style of story-telling. It tells the stories of the different occupants of Wadia Baug, an apartment complex in Bombay, housing a well-knit Parsi community. In the throes of their late middle-age, the members of the community nostalgically look back at their lives and wonder at the early dreams, hopes and happiness their lives held, and the detours and disappoints that fate threw their way to break their wings of hope. Despite the uneven bittersweet journey they tra...more
This is the third book I've read by Thrity Umrigar. I didn't like "The Weight og Heaven," and I LOVED "The Space Between Us." This book, for me, was very good, but not quite as great as "The Space Between Us." This book reads a bit like a book of short stories, and to be honest, I hate books of short stories. But this book is saved by the fact that all of the stories relate to each other and the charcaters all go in and out of the related stories. The book is a bunch of chapters, or stories, of...more
This is Ms. Umrigar's first book and so I was curious if it would live up to her later book,The Space Between Us, which I adored. Obviously Ms. Umrigar has been a talented author from the beginning. SHe has once again created a world of characters I care about; ones whose lives are complicated by social stratification in India. In Bombay Time we are thrown into the world of several families who live in Wadia Baug, an apartment complex. Each couple is looking back at their youth when they first m...more
I really liked Thrity Umrigar's writing style. It is simple and well narrated.
The storyline is about the Parsi community lived in Wadia baug in Bombay. Author drew a very realistic picture of the members of Parsi community & their culture.
The novel unfolds with each chapter introducing the life of each member. It tells us about the lives & times of people and how their lives interlaced with each other. The book has too many characters but at the same time all have very interesting stori...more
The storyline is about the Parsi community lived in Wadia baug in Bombay. Author drew a very realistic picture of the members of Parsi community & their culture.
The novel unfolds with each chapter introducing the life of each member. It tells us about the lives & times of people and how their lives interlaced with each other. The book has too many characters but at the same time all have very interesting stori...more
Bombay Time is like an old group photograph, in which each face can be zoomed to tell its own story. In this case, its a wedding where each character starts reminiscing about their lives so far, each life intertwined with others, and creating patterns, each story teaching its own lessons.
While its set in Wadia Baug and among Parsis, the stories are more human than community specific and applies to any large group of people that grows up together and grows old together. Its a warm read that shows...more
While its set in Wadia Baug and among Parsis, the stories are more human than community specific and applies to any large group of people that grows up together and grows old together. Its a warm read that shows...more
Umrigar's gift for storytelling is quite rare, and reading this book was purely engaging. . . not to mention highly recommended. In addition to broaching the topics of a changing India (and an increasingly commercialized world), Umrigar deftly incorporates the intriguing tales of a number of people. After meeting the protagonists on the pages of this book, you feel as if they are old friends, folks you should call to make sure they are doing all right. Exceptionally memorable characters, creativ...more
i absolutely love the books by this author! She brings you into the various lives of Parsi people who live near Bombay and how their lives change with time and circumstances. Then toward the end, many realize the changes in their lives and how they use to be before and therefore strive to return somewhat to the people they really want to be once again. It made me reflect on myself and how life can change or distract me from who i really am and the dreams I once strived for...and to realize it re...more
This book is really not like reading a novel, it is like reading a selection of short stories. All the characters live in an apartment building in India, and they are all connected, but if you read it like a novel it can seem disjointed. The author takes us through the lives of these people who are very emotional and filled with passion, envy, love, etc. If you like Thrity Umrigar, you may like this, but it is not at all like her novels "A Space Between Us" and "The Weight Of Heaven" and doesn't...more
Thrity Umrigar is one of my favorite authors. This is her first novel and not as good as later books she has written. However, I still liked this one a lot. A fine character study of the people living in Wadia Baug, an apartment building in Bombay. Lets us in on the lives of the various inhabitants and climaxes at the wedding of the son of one of the apartment owners. As in some of her other work, Umrigar sheds light on the great divide between the haves and the have nots in India.
The character studies were excellent. I enjoyed the way each chapter followed one person's life while weaving it into the lives of the other people in the book. I appreciated the way the stories resolved into an ending with a positive future. Unlike "A Fine Balance" where everything got worse and worse this book showed us the light at the end of the tunnel. It was well thought out and well written. It was also interesting to read about the Parsi culture in India.
Thrity Umrigar's debut novel about a Parsi neighborhood in Bombay at a wedding. Everyone looks back at the people they were, the discrimination, trials and tribulations of being neighbors over the years in Wadia Baug. Among the neighbors are: The history of the reclusive widow with bad breath, Jimmy, success story who misses the neighborhood so much he moves back, Rusi, who never realized his dreams. All are recognizable.
For some reason it seemed like this took me forever to read. Or it seemed so. I thought the structure good for this multi-person narrative. I liked the community of people who had been a part of each others lives for so long. I liked the characterization. Maybe too much prose and not enough dialogue. Too much telling and not enough showing.
Based in an upper-middle class Bombay apartment complex, this story is told from the perspective of individual residents. Some of the personal stories are tragic, some are ridiculous and all of them are universal: love, loss, betrayal, etc. Umrigar is a great writer- all of her books are just great stories.
I'm not certain I liked this book. Most of the men were weaklings. Only one couple appeared to be happily married and one couple didn't have a chance to be happily married. In the latter the husband died after 3 years of marriage and his widow spent 50 or so years mourning him.
reading this book reminded me to appreciate the city I live in and the comfort of being able to call New Jersey my home. I couldn't live anywhere else but Jersey :) The author's writing style had a good flow to the story telling and filled with tales which reminds one of their own neighborhood.
"I give up," [Soli:] whispered to [Miriam's:] receding form. Then again: "I give you up." (pg 160)
"A man who dives for fish catches fish. One who aims for the stars catches a star. Nobody can share what they don't possess." (pg 249)
"A man who dives for fish catches fish. One who aims for the stars catches a star. Nobody can share what they don't possess." (pg 249)
This was my first time reading Thrity, and I really liked her story. She builds her characters very well, this book definitely worth to be read.
Her first novel. A series of stories, portraits of a group of people attending a wedding. Their lives, their histories, their interconnectedness.
Umrigar focuses on a small neighbourhood community of Parsi Indians. All the characters are well developed and believable.
A very good read!
A very good read!
I think my expectations were perhaps unrealistically high after reading "The Space Between Us" and wanting to go out and read every book Thrity Umrigar ever wrote. The book is still a good one but it did seem all done before after having read "The Space between Us". I can most liken it to reading Joy Luck Club after reading The Kitchen God's Wife, with Bombay Time being Joy Luck Club. It isn't as deep as The Space Between Us and the many characters and story lines makes it as diffuse as Joy Luck...more
What a slice of life in Bombay. I loved the separate - but intertwined - stories of the lives and loves of a group of people from the same housing complex. It was like a collection of short stories. Each could have stood on its own. But they came together in a beautiful way.
It was deep and personal and a great read for lovers of literature about India.
It was deep and personal and a great read for lovers of literature about India.
Written so well. I love her style of writing. She plays with emotions so well! Truly enrapturing.
Enjoyed very much. Interesting characters, sad story. I am so glad I discovered this author.
hard book to get through- but has some real hard truths. super bollywood dramatic.
My least favorite of her books. Beautiful style but the story just seemed to go on and on.
Nov 13, 2010
Aurora
added it
Un'India senza malattia, senza Madre Teresa, senza piaghe e lebbra.
Un'India parsi, benestante, diversa, forte, ma non meno umana.
Proprio così, non meno umana.
Un'India parsi, benestante, diversa, forte, ma non meno umana.
Proprio così, non meno umana.
Adi aprì la bocca per protestare, ma Philomena si era già alzata dalla sedia e troneggiava su di lui come una montagna: fiera, imperiale, incollerita. "Pensavo davvero che tu fossi diverso dagli altri uomini" gli disse, la bocca in una piega amara. "Ma hai dimostrato di essere un bambino, proprio come tutti gli altri".
da bc.com: http://auro
...more
I enjoyed this book. Realistic characters, an education in culture.
The book spans decades although it takes place on a single day - during a wedding. All the main characters attending the wedding grew up together, played with each other and confided in each other. But as years went by, they became different people. During the wedding, the POV shifts from one person to another to review the complex lives and emotions behind each person.
Read this book a few years ago and I'm enjoying it just as much as the first time. A different view of Indian family lives. Kind...more
Read this book a few years ago and I'm enjoying it just as much as the first time. A different view of Indian family lives. Kind...more
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A journalist for seventeen years, Thrity Umrigar has written for the Washington Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and other national newspapers, and contributes regularly to the Boston Globe's book pages. She teaches creative writing and literature at Case Western Reserve University. The author of The Space Between Us, Bombay Time, and the memoir First Darling of the Morning: Selected Memories of...more
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May 07, 2012 04:52pm