Holder of the World

Rating:
Summary: A virtuoso miniature
Review: Bharati Mukherjee emigrated from her Brahmin family's insular compound in India to study at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and her abiding literary yantra ever since has been inter-cultural dislocation, transplantation and rebirth -- in particular the collision of intransigent tradition with the chaotic possibilities at freedom's edge. In "The Holder of the World," she does not merely turn her personal experience on its head, but she does dizzying somersaults with full twists in midair. The context and model for her treasure-hunt mystery is one of the fascinating artistic traditions of the Indian subcontinent: Mughal miniature painting. The unexpected depiction of a fair-skinned Western woman in one of these 17th-century paintings launches the narrator on detective work she expects to lead to material treasure, but what she exhumes as virtual reality and historical truth converge is both tantalizingly less tangible and inestimably more valuable. The particular virtuosity of this slender volume is Mukherjee's determined compression of plot, narrative, character and information that makes reading something akin to aerobic exercise. Brief phrases and gestures become complex characterizations; sketches and outlines evoke transcontinental adventures; narrative whizzes by in a blur that somehow suggests rich detail; well-placed smudges and squiggles expand into vast landscapes. "The Holder of the World" is a sprawling, wide-screen historical epic, painted in miniature with a one-hair brush.

Rating:
Summary: A Luminous Gem Of A Novel
Review: Bharati Mukherjee's "The Holder of the World: A Novel," deals with transitions in geographical and cultural space - from America to England to India, and the personal transformations a young woman experiences as a result. This is also a novel which moves unobtrusively through time and space, between the 20th century and the 17th, with barely a ripple, shifting beautifully between geographical locations, history and human relationships. Ms. Mukherjee interweaves here the story of a 20th century New England researcher with that of her ancestor, a Puritan woman, who roamed from the New World to India.

Beigh Masters is a woman who "lives in three time zones simultaneously." Not Eastern, Central and Pacific Time, but "the past, the present and the future." Her Yale thesis on the Puritans led her to graduate school, and to a figure from the distant past, an ancestor, actually. At grad school she met and began her life with her lover, Venn Iyer. She also began her career as an "asset-hunter," a detective of sorts, who seeks out antiques and other priceless items for wealthy clients. Venn, born and raised in India, and a graduate of MIT, "animates information." He and his team are somehow recreating the universe by the mass ingestion of the entire world's information: newspapers, records and documents, telephone directories, satellite passes, every TV and radio show aired, political debate, airline schedule - well, just about every piece of information ever recorded. When the grid, the base, is complete, they hope to insert a person into time and space through this careful reconstruction of the past by the meticulous build-up of data.

Beigh has a client who hired her to track down the most perfect diamond in the world - "The Emperor's Tear." She has also been searching for a woman, known as Salem Bibi, who lived over 300 years ago. Beigh knows more about Hannah Easton, called Salem Bibi, than perhaps anyone who ever lived, and through her knowledge of this woman, she comes closer to finding the Emperor's Tear." Hannah, born into Puritan society in Massachusetts in 1670, orphaned at an early age because of fierce Indian attacks on her settlement, married an English trader/adventurer/pirate. She traveled with him to England, and then to Mughal India, at the time of the establishment of the British East India Company. There Hannah became the lover of a Hindu raja and took-on the name Salem Bibi. She is the last known person to have seen and held the "Emperor's Tear." She is also an ancestor of Beigh Masters.'

"The Holder of the World" is both Hannah's and Beigh's story. And they are both remarkable women. Hannah lived centuries ahead of her time. She was born into the restricted Puritan world, in a new country with few amenities and much hardship. The New World was a dangerous and alien environment where women knew their place. Hannah, however, was an inquisitive, lively, vital woman, with a knowledge of self and a sense of purpose. She perhaps inherited her spirited nature from her mother, a woman whose terrible secret Hannah kept all her life.

This is a beautifully written, complex novel of history, ideas and adventure. Bharati Mukherjee vividly creates a tale of relocation, the collision of values, transformation and the courage it takes to adapt to new cultures. And here two worlds do meet...and collide - the Puritan American and the Mughal Indian. Hannah guides Beigh, who in turn steers the reader through the centuries to solve ancient mysteries. I would have liked to have felt closer to Hannah. However, the author always seems to keep her at a distance, as a historic figure. I do recommend this novel as it is unusual and makes for excellent reading.
JANA

Rating:
Summary: This gem will hold you spellbound.
Review: If someone told me that an author could transplant a seventeenth century female Protestant from Salem, Massachusetts, to the excesses of southern India and have the character enjoy that life, I might raise an eyebrow at its improbability. If someone told me that the vividly bloody action of King Philip's (Indian) War in Massachusetts and a Muslim-Hindu holy war near the Coromandel Coast in India were connected, I might look askance in disbelief that such atrocities on opposite sides of the world, committed for totally different reasons, could possibly be related. If that someone then told me that a narrator might locate a missing three hundred year old jewel by using a virtual reality program developed by her MIT researcher/lover, I'd be picturing a bodice-ripper with Fabio on the cover. And if that someone still had the nerve to suggest that all the above could be combined seamlessly, knowledgeably, and totally successfully in one astounding novel of fewer than 300 pages, I absolutely would not believe it. I still don't. Yet that is exactly what Bharati Mukherjee has done in The Holder of the World. In doing so, she manages to create a true literary bridge between East and West, reaching so far back to the roots of our respective cultures and thinking that for the first time in the dozen or so novels I've read by Indian authors, I feel as if I'm beginning to understand how and why we and they became who we are.

Rating:
Summary: This gem will hold you spellbound.
Review: If someone told me that an author could transplant a seventeenth century female Protestant from Salem, Massachusetts, to the excesses of southern India and have the character enjoy that life, I might raise an eyebrow at its improbability. If someone told me that the vividly bloody action of King Philip's (Indian) War in Massachusetts and a Muslim-Hindu holy war near the Coromandel Coast in India were connected, I might look askance in disbelief that such atrocities on opposite sides of the world, committed for totally different reasons, could possibly be related. If that someone then told me that a narrator might locate a missing three hundred year old jewel by using a virtual reality program developed by her MIT researcher/lover, I'd be picturing a bodice-ripper with Fabio on the cover. And if that someone still had the nerve to suggest that all the above could be combined seamlessly, knowledgeably, and totally successfully in one astounding novel of fewer than 300 pages, I absolutely would not believe it. I still don't. Yet that is exactly what Bharati Mukherjee has done in The Holder of the World. In doing so, she manages to create a true literary bridge between East and West, reaching so far back to the roots of our respective cultures and thinking that for the first time in the dozen or so novels I've read by Indian authors, I feel as if I'm beginning to understand how and why we and they became who we are.

Rating:
Summary: The Holder of the World: A Different Experience
Review: The Holder of the World by Bharati Mukherjee is a novel that sets itself apart from contemporary novels. Readers are accustomed to reviewing traditional Western literature, which operates according to an often unnoticed set of assumptions. Mukherjee takes a critical step and calls attention to these assumptions that most take for granted. Whether or not readers agree with her redefined notions of history and art, it is an enlightening experience to be introduced to these other, non-traditional processes of thought. Mukherjee takes a number of popular Western texts and proceeds to raise and question the assumptions upon which they are based. Revolving around a Puritan girl who travels to India, the text as a whole is a twist on Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. For instance, Mukherjee centralizes characters such as the American-Indians who were marginalized in Hawthorne's novel and decentralizes its main characters, such as Hester. Mukherjee goes on to rewrite the Puritan alphabet, claiming "I" represents Indian lover and independence. Furthermore, while witch-like powers are condemned in Hawthorne's novel, they are presented in a new, positive light in this subversive novel; Hannah, the main character of the novel, has seemingly magical powers that are crucial to the survival of a number of the characters. Mukherjee goes on to question another text that has long-been a pillar of Western literature, Keat's "Ode to a Grecian Urn." While this poem testifies to the frozen nature of beauty and truth, Mukherjee asserts that the beauty of art depends upon the viewer and is constantly expanding. Finally, Mukherjee refers to a number of texts in passing, including Hannah's Memoirs and London Sketches by an Anonymous Colonial Daughter. What is interesting to note here is that a few of the texts she mentions do not exist at all, while others are real texts, however obscure. Her point is to encourage the reader to question how she or he determines what is real and what is not. Mukherjee also questions the manner in which her audience defines history. Contrary to popular opinion, she asserts that history is always mediated, that it is necessarily subjective. Perhaps the best illustration of this is the fact that Hannah's story is told through the eyes of Beigh, the narrator of the novel. Even when she manages to virtually participate in Hannah's time period through a computer program, she cannot participate as Hannah, but only as Hannah's friend, Bhagmati. Mukherjee further uses the mythological story of Sita to highlight the interactive nature of history. She emphasizes how the ending of Sita's story always changes to match the mood of the times. Continuing with the theme of questioning, Mukherjee disputes the way in which people usually confine identity to a single plane. Instead, she emphasizes the multiple planes of Hannah's identity, who has a "Christian-Hindu-Muslim" self and an "American-English-Indian" self. Hannah is further described as "a woman, a pregnant woman, a pregnant white woman," highlighting the limitless nature of identity

Rating:
Summary: Virtual history: being there
Review: The more I ponder this book, the more intriguing I find the story. Beigh Masters is an "asset-hunter" in search of a legendary diamond from India, The Emperor's Tear. Her research leads to a connection with a distant relative, Hannah Easton, who lived in Salem, Mass., in the 1670's. Now fascinated by her own familial ties, Beigh traces Hannah's life from New England to the Coromandel Coast and the powerful East India Trading Company. Most extraordinary, Hannah becomes the "Salem Bibi", the white lover of a Hindu Raja, carving herself a place in history.

But there is more: the novel is so brilliantly themed, the premise so unique, that this reader was guided through a journey of staggering originality. Beigh's lover/companion, Venn, is developing a computer program that would allow an individual to experience a few moments in the past, set to a specific time frame, with pertinent information entered into the program. Beigh provides the structural facts, creating the opportunity to ......? Is it really even possible? This is not "time-travel" as usually written, but Virtual participation in real time. Mukerjee actually ties the threads of history together, from one side of the world to the other, suggesting infinite permutations. Not your traditional historical novel, Mukerjee fashions an ending worthy of any mystery-adventure devotee. Experiencing this story is an adventure in itself.

Rating:
Summary: Virtual history: being there
Review: The more I ponder this book, the more intriguing I find the story. Beigh Masters is an "asset-hunter" in search of a legendary diamond from India, The Emperor's Tear. Her research leads to a connection with a distant relative, Hannah Easton, who lived in Salem, Mass., in the 1670's. Now fascinated by her own familial ties, Beigh traces Hannah's life from New England to the Coromandel Coast and the powerful East India Trading Company. Most extraordinary, Hannah becomes the "Salem Bibi", the white lover of a Hindu Raja, carving herself a place in history.

But there is more: the novel is so brilliantly themed, the premise so unique, that this reader was guided through a journey of staggering originality. Beigh's lover/companion, Venn, is developing a computer program that would allow an individual to experience a few moments in the past, set to a specific time frame, with pertinent information entered into the program. Beigh provides the structural facts, creating the opportunity to ......? Is it really even possible? This is not "time-travel" as usually written, but Virtual participation in real time. Mukerjee actually ties the threads of history together, from one side of the world to the other, suggesting infinite permutations. Not your traditional historical novel, Mukerjee fashions an ending worthy of any mystery-adventure devotee. Experiencing this story is an adventure in itself.

Rating:
Summary: A skillfully told story
Review: This novel was first described to me as a rewrite of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, so I was a little surprised when I read Mukherjee's book. It is not simply another version of Hawthorne's work, but rather a complex story that combines elements of history, romance, time-travel, mystery, and adventure. Though it was not exactly what I expected, I thoroughly enjoyed The Holder of the World. The large cast of characters and the intertwined plots were at times a bit confusing, but the central story of Hannah was fascinating. In addition to constructing an interesting narrative that takes place on three different continents in two different periods of history, Mukherjee skillfully leads the reader to question what we consider to be the canon of literature and the "Truth" of history. She achieves the latter in part by convincingly citing various primary sources, some of which do exist and others that don't. I found some of the most intriguing characters to be on the margins of Mukherjee's narrative-Hannah's mother Rebecca, Henry Hedges, and the Marquis de Mussy, to name a few. The Holder of the World also shows many connections between the New World of America and the Old World of India, something not traditionally thought of in conjunction with colonial North America. I especially appreciated the way Mukherjee associated Asian Indian influence with American Indian influence on the colonies and showed both to be much more important than we might assume. I highly recommend this book, but also offer one piece of advice: to enjoy this book, read it slowly and thoroughly. If you skim it, then the plot will only be confusing.