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A God in Every Stone 9781408847206 Books

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A God in Every Stone 9781408847206 Books

This book is incredibly intelligent because Shamsie understands people and she understands history. She knows how history and common beliefs can squash people, but also how we can learn to question and to change ourselves. The book blurb announces "betrayals": usually unintended by individuals, but enough the result of obliviousness that people will feel guilty. Yet they can then take different actions that help others.
The ending of the book uses a real event when a large Muslim group joined Ghandi's non-violent campaign for independence and were massacred by the British. Our main characters--the older colonized brother who fought in WWI, a younger brother who learned archeology from an English woman, that woman on a return visit, and (new to us) a much younger Muslim girl used to seclusion--all learn, give, and interact in the chaotic streets: a masterful tying together of all our characters. A really brilliant and affecting book.


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A God in Every Stone 9781408847206 Books Reviews

This book had several plots, all under the main theme of India developing it's drive for independence from the English Empire. The period is from 1915 to 1930. Events are written from the perspectives of the main characters, so nothing is apparent until all perspectives are read. A great read.
I heard about this novel on NPR. I could not put it down. A Passage to India, A Suitable Boy, Heat and Dust, The English Patient, White Tiger; if you have enjoyed any of these, you will want to read this book.
This is a rich and keenly observed novel which operates on many levels as a tale of World War I; of the fading Ottoman Empire; of early struggles for Indian independence; of the search for a more global account of classical antiquity; of the dependence of the British on the soldiers of their Empire; of comparative gender struggles eight decades ago -- and much more. I read this book along with 36 of my students across two sections of an International-Studies-through-literature class, and the many papers I received on this novel unveiled even greater depths. What's more, the novel clearly appealed to a very wide range of literary tastes.
So if you are looking to richly explore the complex globalizations of the early 20th century, with some love and rebellion and gender politics and anticolonialism in the mix, then this is your book.
The narrative was disjointed. The author used one of my least favorite methods of alternating persons performing the narration and repeating different views of the same time period to tell the story. Unfortunately, this caused confusion about the timing of events and who was present because the narrators did not always know each other. Although I liked the time period of the book and felt that the characters were interesting, the narration was a distraction and ultimately left me not able to strongly recommend the book.
I bought this book after reading Home Fire of the same author but I was rather disappointed. Maybe because I am not interested in ancient history I found the archeological reasearch a rather artificial excuse to talk about the British Empire, conflicting loyalties and different points of view on women's rights. I liked very much the Gul brothers, much less the female character. Her love story with, and involuntary betrayal of, the Turk, is not credible. I was tempted to drop the book half way but I was happy to have continued because the best part of it is the final chapter, which is almost a self standing stories with the beautiful sisters' characters.
I loved the book and am a great admirer of Kamila Shamsie but ...
the second half of the book was not as good as the first half.
Shamsie has succeeded in both the first part of this book and in Home Fires to write a modern tragedy — an incredibly difficult thing to do. By adding the second part of the book, which takes place many years later she diffuses the tragic effect she achieved earlier.
I hardly left ten minutes between finishing Kamila Shamsie’s A God in Every Stone (Bloomsbury, 2014)and sitting down to write about it, so anxious was I to share the good news. After spewing out an exhilarated first draft of this review I’ve given it a 24 hour cooling off period, but I have to admit to still being more than a little in love with this book. I read as slowly as I could, savouring the poignancy of the small moments captured on the page and pausing often to reflect on the work, but by the end I could hold out no more and devoured the last third at once, reading with my heart in my throat. At the end the air left my lungs as if I had been punched in the stomach and there were – in fact there often were over the course of the book – tears pricking the backs of my eyes.

If you didn’t gather from that, I’m a fan. This has been on my TBR pile since March but I resisted starting it, both because I was being drawn into the new (to me) world of translated fiction and because when I hear that a book is a colonial-era tale about an English woman and a ‘native’ man, my expectations are that I’ve heard that story before. Which just goes to show how foolish it is to judge a book by our pre-conceived assumptions. We’ve heard every story before. What sets ‘A God in Every Stone’ apart is the depth of its characters and the nuances it brings to their loyalties and values. Plus, while it might be about a woman and a man, it isn’t a romance.

The book spans the time between July 1914, just before the outbreak of WWII, and April 1930, and tells the story of an English woman, Vivian Rose Spencer, an archeologist who travels to Peshawar in search of ancient Persian circlet which holds a special meaning for her; Qayyam Gul, a Pashtun soldier in the British army who returns home uncertain about his loyalties; and his younger brother, Najeeb, who is entranced by Vivian Rose’s stories of the Pashtun’s past.

Politically this is the time when India’s independence movement is on the rise, and change is on the horizon, both in England and in Peshawar, with the struggles, heartache and loss which inevitable accompany political upheaval. The strength of the characters in the book comes from their divided loyalties. Vivian Rose is a modern woman with a passion for archeology and an independent bent, but she is opposed to the suffragettes’ cause. Although she doesn’t share the worst of the colonial attitudes towards the Pashtun locals, she isn’t pro-independence, instead believing that the rule of Empire is necessary to modernize and ‘civilise’.

“The rage she felt on behalf of the women of the Peshawar Valley as she sweltered beneath the voluminous burqa dispelled any ambivalence she might have started to feel about Indian demands for self-rule. All these Indians talking about political change when really what this country desperately needed was social change. Why should they be allowed independence when they only wanted it for half of the population?”

Vivian Rose is the most vividly drawn character, but Qayyam and Najeeb have their own internal struggles, and the directions the two brothers take – one towards peaceful resistance, the other drawn to archeology, work well to highlight the difficulties of both sides. Qayyam cannot trust the motives of the English, while Najeeb is enthralled by the glories of the past, and neither can fully understand the other’s positon.

“Of all the fantastic tales you’ve ever told, none is more fantastic than that of the kindly English who dig up our treasures because they want you to know your own history. Your museums are all part of their Civilising Mission, their White Man’s burden, their moral justification for what they have done here.”

At the heart of the story is the Peshawar valley, the beauty of the city and the mountains (‘oh everywhere, the mountains! Dark green, almost black, mountains; blue mountains; rose-coloured mountains; and away in the distance, snow-topped mountains’), and the culture of its people. Nothing is idolized or glorified, and we are left to make our own decisions. Oh, there are holes you can pick in places, but there are always holes you can pick in places. After a few months of reading which has been largely focused on style, it was a refreshing reminder than excellence can also come from great characters and a good plot. For myself, I can’t wait to read another Shamsie.
This book is incredibly intelligent because Shamsie understands people and she understands history. She knows how history and common beliefs can squash people, but also how we can learn to question and to change ourselves. The book blurb announces "betrayals" usually unintended by individuals, but enough the result of obliviousness that people will feel guilty. Yet they can then take different actions that help others.
The ending of the book uses a real event when a large Muslim group joined Ghandi's non-violent campaign for independence and were massacred by the British. Our main characters--the older colonized brother who fought in WWI, a younger brother who learned archeology from an English woman, that woman on a return visit, and (new to us) a much younger Muslim girl used to seclusion--all learn, give, and interact in the chaotic streets a masterful tying together of all our characters. A really brilliant and affecting book.