The Counting House
by David Dabydeen
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Description
Set in the middle of last century, at the height of the Empire this book follows the lives of Rohini & Vidia, growing up & getting married in a small Indian village, before being seduced by tales of the promised land & the riches they will find there.Tags
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Member Reviews
Forgive me for not knowing completely where to stand on this one. On one hand the dirty degradation of the characters, the grimy detail and the brutal unsympathetic nature of it all but then, on this other hand, it is a story about Indians being shipped to Guyana to replace the slaves on plantations. So not exactly sunshine.
I was actually expecting to come out of reading this book slightly more enlightened about that period of empire but I found it very hard to keep it up. The narrative flits around, never sticking to a subject for long enough, feeling unfulfilled. The characters where uninteresting. Nothing was keeping me reading to the end but the premise.
I was actually expecting to come out of reading this book slightly more enlightened about that period of empire but I found it very hard to keep it up. The narrative flits around, never sticking to a subject for long enough, feeling unfulfilled. The characters where uninteresting. Nothing was keeping me reading to the end but the premise.
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Author Information
25+ Works 475 Members
David Dabydeen is Professor of Literary Studies at the University of Warwick.
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1996
- Important places
- Guyana
- Dedication
- For Janet Jagan, her son Cheddi Jr ('Joey') and Anne Rutherford
- First words
- Rohini swept and re-swept the hut, rinsed and dried their two plates and cups, then searched around for more work.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Historical Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 823.914 — Literature & rhetoric English & Old English literatures English fiction 1900- 1901-1999 1945-1999
- LCC
- PR9320.9 .D33 .C68 — Language and Literature English English Literature English literature: Provincial, local, etc.
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 45
- Popularity
- 660,854
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.13)
- Languages
- English, French, Turkish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 5
