Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Secrets Between Us
Thrity Umrigar
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Secrets Between Us
Thrity Umrigar
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Secrets Between Us, by Thrity Umrigar, is about the rich people of India and the poor, slum-living women who cook and clean for them. Bhima has worked for the Dubash family for years, but is fired over a misunderstanding. Her son and daughter–in-law have died from AIDS and her husband, Gopal, has left with her son Amit. She now works for a wealthy woman journalist, Sunita, and a new young woman, Chitra, who has modern ideas of equality. She shocks Bhima by pouring a glass of water for her. Chitra was born and raised in New Delhi, but has lived in Australia for years. Bhima chops onions in the kitchen with Chitra, and works hard so that her grand-daughter Maya can go to college and have a better life. Author Umrigar writes with compassion and moves our hearts.
Bhima asks another poor woman, Parvati, if she can rent space from her at the market to sell a neighbor’s custard apples which the neighbor’s husband had bought the day before he was killed. Bhima wants to do a good deed for her neighbor. Parvati is a skinny old woman with a growth on her neck and a new one on her back which she is always rubbing. She sells cauliflower heads. Author Umrigar describes the old Mumbai which is fast becoming a modern city with high-rise office buildings and fast stepping, well-dressed office workers, lawyers, and restaurant owners. Yet still the slums exist without pavement, electricity, or running water.
Everyone has a secret: Bhima’s missing husband and son, Chitra and Sunita are lovers whom a neighbor criticizes. Parvati was a highly paid prostitute in a brothel and beautiful as a young woman. Her father sold her to the Madam. Because Parvati was smart, she learned mathematics and did the books for the brothel. When the monsoons come, she negotiates with a shop owner to rent Bhima a covered space for a small percentage. Parvati is a wheeler-dealer. Bhima is impressed.
Luck shines on them for a while. Their market business does well. Maya applies to college, and Chitra and Sunita help her with her studies. Will this luck continue? Will Parvati survive the growths on her back? Will Bhima find her missing husband and son one day? Find this beautiful book on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
Bhima asks another poor woman, Parvati, if she can rent space from her at the market to sell a neighbor’s custard apples which the neighbor’s husband had bought the day before he was killed. Bhima wants to do a good deed for her neighbor. Parvati is a skinny old woman with a growth on her neck and a new one on her back which she is always rubbing. She sells cauliflower heads. Author Umrigar describes the old Mumbai which is fast becoming a modern city with high-rise office buildings and fast stepping, well-dressed office workers, lawyers, and restaurant owners. Yet still the slums exist without pavement, electricity, or running water.
Everyone has a secret: Bhima’s missing husband and son, Chitra and Sunita are lovers whom a neighbor criticizes. Parvati was a highly paid prostitute in a brothel and beautiful as a young woman. Her father sold her to the Madam. Because Parvati was smart, she learned mathematics and did the books for the brothel. When the monsoons come, she negotiates with a shop owner to rent Bhima a covered space for a small percentage. Parvati is a wheeler-dealer. Bhima is impressed.
Luck shines on them for a while. Their market business does well. Maya applies to college, and Chitra and Sunita help her with her studies. Will this luck continue? Will Parvati survive the growths on her back? Will Bhima find her missing husband and son one day? Find this beautiful book on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.