The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh

The Glass Palace is an historical novel spanning about a hundred years from the late 19th century. It opens with the exile of the Burmese royal family to India. Rajkumar, an Indian boy who happened to be in Mandalay when the British invaded the royal city, takes as his mentor a hindustani-speaking Chinese Christian called Saya John and eventually makes his fortune in Burma supplying teak to the British.

As the King and Queen were leaving Mandalay, Rajakumar saw Dolly, one of the maids who accompanied the royal family in exile. He always remembers her as the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. After becoming rich he goes to India in search of Dolly and manages to meet her, although the royal family is under close guard by the British.

Guarding the royal family is The Collector, an Indian civil servant by the name of Beni Prasad Dey. His wife, Uma Debi, is best friends with Dolly. It is Uma who urges Dolly to marry Rajkumar, although Dolly is at first very adamant in her refusal to leave behind the only world she knows. Soon after Dolly goes away with Rajkumar, Uma becomes a widow and goes back home, but not for long. Uma then travels the world and becomes involved in Indian politics, to free India from British rule.

The first half of the novel takes as its central characters Rajkumar and Dolly. After the union of these two, the rest of the novel revolves around their children and grandchildren, plus that of Saya John and Uma Debi’s extended family. A significant part of the latter half of the book focuses on Arjun, who becomes a British soldier. Arjun is proud to be absorbed into British army culture and is unswerving in his loyalty to the British although his compatriots begin questioning what they are doing - fighting for the British against other peoples, helping the British subjugate others just how the Indians themselves are being subjugated.

This book is about the history of tyranny and the fight for independence in India and in Burma, from the point of view of the Indian. The writing is not plain, but not ornate, either - it tells the story seamlessly just the way it is supposed to be told. There is the sense that nothing is superfluous nor lacking with the language.

I found it to be very enjoyable, with the pages turning irresistably although we know exactly how history unflolded. The Glass Palace took five years of painstaking research and from this come the minute details; it is as if the author heard and saw and experienced everything personally. With the multitude of characters and the relative simplicity of the plot it could have easily become a confused drag with a less able author at the helm. It is the fortune of the reader that Amitav Ghosh is much more than that.

16 September 2007 | Book review | Comments