Rating: 
Summary: pleasant, though a bit too lightweight for my tastes
Review: The cover of this book is a little deceptive. The cover artist has painted a colorful picture of an Indian market place, complete with lots of nice green grass. This is definitely a romanticized and wishful picture of India while the real picture of India lies in the name of the book: HEAT AND DUST. If you're planning a trip to India, expect heat and dust.Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has written this book with the most beautiful prose. She doesn't just tell a story; she becomes a part of her story and brings the reader along with her. This short novel takes place mainly in British imperialist India. Olivia is an English wife which is wooed and seduced by a very charasmatic Indian prince during the boring heat of the day while her husband is away at work. The Indian prince, Nawab, seems to cast a spell on everyone around him. People shirk their responsibilities and forsake the ones they love in order to bask in his adoration. When Olivia's step-granddaughter learns of Olivia's romantic adventures in India through old letters, she is determined to go to India and find out all she can about Prince Nawab and the whirlwind affair he had with Olivia. The novel is written from the viewpoint of the step- granddaughter during her time in modern India. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala tempts when she writes. She sets the reader up with a hint of sensual suspense that drives the novel to the end. The reader finishes the novel, satisfied.
Rating: 
Summary: THE HEAT OF THE ROMANCE...THE DUST OF ITS ASHES...
Review: This is a well written book that explores Anglo-Indian relations through the power of romance. Set in two distinct eras, colonial India of the nineteen twenties, during the time of the Raj, and the independent, freewheeling India of the seventies, during the time when India was a mecca for disenfranchised youth, it tells the story of two women. One story is that of Olivia, the wife of a minor district official in colonial India, who in 1923 caused great scandal by running off with the Nawab, a local Indian prince. Divorced by her husband, Douglas, for this scandalous transgression, Olivia remains in India, while Douglas remarries. The second story is that of the narrator, a descendant of Douglas and his second wife. During the nineteen seventies, fascinated by the story of the now deceased Olivia, she goes to India, visiting those locations where Olivia had lived and those which would have been a part of her existence at the time. As did Olivia, she falls under India's spell. As did Olivia, she, too, has an Anglo-Indian love affair, and picks up where Olivia left off, giving the reader a powerful sense of de-ja vu. The book is a beguiling story of two women from two different generations who come under the spell of India. The book is evocative of British colonial India, as well as of India of the nineteen seventies. During both eras, Anglo-Indian relations are pivotal to the budding romances. The book is evocative of the rythyms of Indian life in all its richness and tumultuousness, as well as its lingering poverty and superstitions. It is redolent of a time gone by and hopeful of what is to come. It is also an interesting dichotomy of the good and bad in both cultures, Anglo and Indian, and the influence that both cultures have on these two women, who are so different, yet so alike. This is a book that whets the appetite, leaving the reader wanting more than the author is prepared to give. It is, nonetheless, a book well worth reading. The book was also made into a Merchant Ivory film starring Julie Christie and Greta Scacchi.
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