Nayana Currimbhoy

I cannot praise this book highly enough.
I randomly selected it from the shelf at the library. I'll admit it, the cover grabbed my attention, I loved the blurb, and from the moment I read the first page, I was hooked.
Absolutely refreshing to read something not set in America or England. Clearly I need to vary my reading a lot more, as I hadn't realised I'd fallen into such patterns.
The main character has faults, she isn't perfect, both externally and internally. She copes with a show more disfigurement, which is a defining feature of her. But it doesn't rule her life. Her life does not follow the pathway her family, her caste, her colleagues expect, and I think that is the greatest surprise of all.
If you don't like reading about drug use, or lesbianism, then this book isn't for you.
If you love mystery, complex characters, and chapters written from different viewpoints, and beautiful prose, then this book is for you.
Every character, minor or otherwise, comes to life between these pages. I wanted to finish it, but I didn't want it to end.
I've never been to boarding school, but it had shades of Enid Blyton tangled through some of the scenes. And as an avid childhood fan of the Famous Five, and all the other series written by Enid Blyton, I loved it even more for that aspect.
I loved it. That is all. show less

Currimbhoy needs to work on her pacing and the subtlety of her plotting a little, but for a debut novel this was really surprisingly good. She has a talent for character sketches and for creating a strong narrative voice. I found the world she created—an isolated girls' boarding school in western India during the 1970s, a lingering outpost of British colonialism where the students learn Scottish dancing and are required to wear elasticated bloomers—engrossing and would have loved to see show more even more of it than was shown here. The ending is perhaps telegraphed a little soon (at the heart of Currimbhoy's examination of gender and colonialism, families and sexuality, is a murder mystery) but I still found it well worth the read. Recommended. show less

Miss Timmins' School for Girls is quite misleading. I was expecting an interesting coming-of-age story that just happens to take place in India. Instead, I found a complex novel of which a personal journey of discovery is only one small part of the overall plot. There is murder, love, intrigue, family secrets, and the ties that bind it all together. Combined with the always-fascinating backdrop of India, the result is an intriguing and seductive novel about the damage secrets can do to show more others and to oneself.

Charu Apte is not your typical heroine. She has big dreams but has been hampered by her birthmark, a prominent blot on her face. As a coping mechanism, she has always turned inward and stamped out any initiative in an effort to remain anonymous and invisible. She has always found it far easier to suffer in silence than to draw attention to herself. The reader gets a glimpse that things are changing for Charu with her initial position as a teacher at the British-run Miss Timmins' School For Girls. As a teacher, she can no longer hide in the shadows but rather is forced to take a stand in order to maintain control of her classroom. This is only one of many changes for Charu as she discovers love, her purpose, and her voice.

Love is a huge theme in Miss Timmins' School for Girls. Romantic love, platonic love, familial love, self-love - they drive the characters' actions and cause them to make choices that may seem surprising or unusual. Charu is the biggest recipient of these various forces as she is compelled to delineate between the various kinds of love, compartmentalize them and face the consequences of her actions, yet everyone is driven by this key factor. The main actions in the novel are a direct result of choosing one type of love over another and puts these forces into perspective for the reader.

One cannot discuss this novel without highlighting the prominent influence the setting plays in the novel. When it comes to directing the characters' actions, the setting becomes a character unto itself, as characters feel forced to act a certain way because of caste, societal influences, or even due to geography. Set in the 1970s, the prominence of drugs also plays a factor as it prevents Charu from immediate action but allows her to push aside key decisions for momentary distractions and peace. While the prevalence of drugs could have been overdone, quickly becoming cliched, Ms. Chirrumbhoy uses the drug scene to highlight the changing culture and growing awareness and deliberate ignorance of the restrictions of the caste system.

In Miss Timmins' School for Girls, Nayana Chirrumbhoy presents a fascinating study of culture in flux. British influence clashes with the caste system, which clashes with the emerging hippie/beatnik culture. At the same time, the cast of characters must maneuver their way through this evolving culture and changing social mores; Charu is just the main character to traverse this slippery trail. Ms. Chirrumbhoy wisely allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions about certain plot points, thereby enhancing the reader's involvement and engagement in the story. Not to be read slowly, Miss Timmins' School for Girls rewards patient and careful readers with a complex snapshot in time of a young woman coming of age ad experiencing the conflicting pulls of the different types of love in a wildly evolving society

Thank you to NetGalley for my e-galley! show less

I read this on my Nook with no idea what it was about. I didn't even read a description or look at the author's name- the title itself had an air of mystery that made me want to read it. As a debut author, I believe we can definitely expect more from her.

The book is the story of a small all-girls school in Panchgani. Charu is a newcomer, forever marked by a blot on her face, who gets caught up in a story that has already been unraveling when she arrives. She has been cast out her entire show more life because of the blot on her face, and so she fits right in with the group of outcasts already settled in Timmins. When a murder occurs, Charu and her group are determined to not only clear their own names, but to solve the murder once and for all- for everyone's sanity.

The story itself took a while to get started. I actually forgot it was a mystery because the murder occurs about halfway through the story. The writing is lyrical, describing the land I know nothing about, but I still felt I could picture it due to her descriptions. I felt badly for Charu from the very beginning- her culture treated her so harshly that I almost felt she had no chance at all. As the murder unfolds and the story is told from multiple views, it gets increasingly complex. The writing seems to go on for a bit too long, and I actually got a little antsy for the story to move quicker- and this is rare for me since I've read 100 Years of Solitude three times and have never felt it dragged on- however I was glad I stuck it out for the 10-20 pages it went on too long. In the end, the reader is left feeling confused and a little upset at how none of the characters seemed to get what they really wanted. I realize now that this is how the characters themselves felt, so it makes perfect sense.

I'm excited to hear more from this author. I think this being a debut novel she had thrown in multiple story lines in multiple genres, covering multiple political issues. I could distinctly pick out at least three I would have liked to be their own story (a "disfigured" woman in Indian culture, a woman teacher in an all-girls school, and the murder itself). I think (and hope!) her next novel will be as complex and intriguing, with maybe just a bit more focus. show less