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Loading... Climbing the Stairsby Padma Venkatraman
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I enjoyed this book because the storyteller is a young Indian girl growing up in London during WWII dealing with family and political issues of the time, and discovering solace and strength in reading and literature in a secret library "Climbing the Stairs".  dramler | Aug 28, 2009 |  MsPibel | Jun 16, 2009 | (#64 in the 2008 Book Challenge) Sweet. This takes place during the Quit India movement at the start of WWII. After her father is gravely injured in a protest, a teenage girl and her mother and brother move in with her extremely conservative brahmin grandfather and extended family. There's plenty of great daily life scenes, and all sorts of interactions between various family members present different view points about what it means to be a modern person, a moral person, an Indian national and all sorts of other ways people can view themselves and their roles within a family and in society. Grade: A Recommended: This would be great for 12 and up readers who are reading a little ahead of grade level. (  ) delphica | Jun 10, 2009 | Vidya, 15, dreams of going to college. But WW II is in full swing, and her father, a pacifist, is injured at a demostration, forcing Vidya and her family to love with their extended family. Blaming herself, Vidya is forced to live with her cousin, who hates her, and her aunt, who feels the same. Her only solace is in being able to read in her grandfatther's library. Here she meets Raman and strikes up a friendship. Will it lead to something more? And when her brother decides to go off to help the Allies fight the war, can Vidya reconcile that with her pacivism? (  ) ShellyPYA | Mar 16, 2009 | This story centers around a teenage girl growing up in India during WWII. It's a beautifully written tale with an eccentric, strong-willed character that does not fit our usual vision of a young Indian girl at the time. Her father promises she will be able to attend college after her schooling, instead of having to be married off right away. But then a terrible accident leaves her father an idiot, forcing her and her family to move in with his family, which is more traditionally minded. It looks to her as though her dreams have all just been squashed and she blames herself for her father's accident and the fate she thinks will become her. ( ) knielsen83 | Mar 5, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0399247467, Hardcover)A remarkable debut novel set in India that shows one girl’s struggle for independence.During World War II and the last days of British occupation in India, fifteen-year-old Vidya dreams of attending college. But when her forward-thinking father is beaten senseless by the British police, she is forced to live with her grandfather’s large traditional family, where the women live apart from the men and are meant to be married off as soon as possible. Vidya’s only refuge becomes her grandfather’s upstairs library, which is forbidden to women. There she meets Raman, a young man also living in the house who relishes her intellectual curiosity. But when Vidya’s brother decides to fight with the hated British against the Nazis, and when Raman proposes marriage too soon, Vidya must question all she has believed in. Padma Venkatraman’s debut novel poignantly shows a girl struggling to find her place in a mixedup world. Climbing the Stairs is a powerful story about love and loss set against a fascinating historical backdrop. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:23 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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