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In The Furies, Parker is hired on two separate cases by women trying to save their daughters from evil men. This story takes place in the days leading up to quarantine. The two stories are not linked, but the setting of Portland, Maine, and the characters tie the two together. While trying to choose a recent book on the history of the India-Pakistan partition these two came up frequently (along with Yasmin Khan's Great Partition written in 2007). It was difficult for me to determine the differences between them, so I decided to read and review both. I haven't had an opportunity to read the Khan book yet, which looks like a more scholarly alternative. Similarly, Indian historian Ramachandra Guha has written about "India after Gandhi". He is quoted extensively by Keay, and I wonder: why not just read Guha? I am unable to answer that at this time, and will have to find out later. Nehru is praised for his later performance as Prime Minister, while Jinnah's successors' after 1948 are criticized as weak leaders Furies is a short story collection pulled together to celebrate 50 years of Virago as a feminist publishing house. It draws together a collection of feminist writers who offer varied stories that are all themed around words (often negative words) used to describe women:
If I have to tell you to speak up again, I’ll hit you a slap across this altar and there’s not a soul in the church that would blame me for it. Responsibility for events is placed on both Nehru and Jinnah for ineptitude, arrogance, prejudice and personal animosity The end of the British Empire in India is a truly remarkable historical moment. When the hour hand reached twelve on August 15, 1947, two-hundred years of British rule ended, and two new countries – India and Pakistan – came into being. Shortly before this birth, India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, stood before parliament and famously spoke of a “tryst with destiny,” an awakening “to life and freedom.” It all seemed so hopeful: the peaceful overthrow of a longstanding colonial power.
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If India wants her bloodbath, she shall have it!" Mahatma Gandhi to Archibald Wavell, 27th Aug, 1946 If you go seeking ways to bring down hurt upon yourself, life will oblige you, because it has hurt in store for you anyway, but will happily welcome any assistance you're in the mood to offer. Better, then, not to oblige it any more than necessary. I'd like to have said that this was a lesson hard-learned, but it would suggest my education was in the past, whereas it was still ongoing. Naturally, what Ayesha Jalal once called as "the central historical event in 20th century South Asia" has spawned a rich body of literature which range from academic histories (An example is "Independence and Partition" by Sucheta Mahajan) to biographies ( "The Sole Spokesman" ,a biography of Mohammed Jinnah by Ayesha Jalal) to memoirs ("An American witness to India's partition" by Phillips Talbot) to short stories (Works of Saadat Hasan Manto including the brilliant "Toba Tek Singh") to novels ("Train to Pakistan" by Khushwant Singh) to oral histories ("The other side of silence" by Urvashi Bhutalia).
Martines is to be commended for deliberately breaking with the tradition of focusing on everything but the hardships and horrible impact of war and military machines. This is the first book I have ever read that focuses exclusively on the ills of armed conflict, both on the civilizations they ravage, and on the military members themselves. Covers the Great Calcutta Killings, the riots in Bengal, and events in the Punjab, Kashmir and Hyderabad The tone is a little more chaotic, with more of Parker’s dark humor shining through. I enjoyed the way this story ended.
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The author's biggest strength is his journalistic style of story-telling. Though Hajari does not exactly cover or break new ground in unearthing fresh material related to partition, he adds minor flourishes to the descriptions of the events thus providing much needed colour and flavour to the layman reader new to history. For instance, he ironically notes that when Muslim League was busy cultivating the higher echelons of British power in the post-Quit India movement political vacuum, Jawaharlal Nehru was writing banalities in his diary inside the prison of Ahmednagar : "The cat tragedy ! Poor Chando hit inadvertently over head by cook. Hovering between life and death". When inferno was engulfing India elsewhere ,Nehru was morose over the death of a cat.
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