Bhowani Junction

I read this about 60 years ago I suppose, and enjoyed it very much - It gave one a vivid picture of India and of the troubles around Partition, was exciting and I liked the idea of telling the story through the eyes of four different people. Sadly however the narrators are either European or Anglo Indian. I won't re-read the book as I fear I would find it very dated in its attitude the people of India, but I'll keep it in my library, unlike other India novels by the same author

The plot of Bhowani Junction is told from three separate points of view with the narrative voices of Victoria Jones (the product of a mixed marriage of English and Indian parents); her one-time lover, Patrick Taylor, also from a mixed family and the main character, Rodney Savage, a colonel in the British Army in India. Their individual narratives involve the situation in India during the twilight of the Raj and the anticipation of the eventual turn-over of power from the British to the indiginous population. Also involved is the love story of first Victoria and Patrick, then Victoria and her Sikh co-worker, and finally Victoria and Savage.
Strong points to Masters for his spot-on description of the racial and social divides of India, the show more plight of the racially mixed Anglo-Indians and the ever-present challenges of the Indian climate. A side plot involves an Indian terrorist and a plot to blow up a railway tunnel but most of the novel centers on Victoria and her attempts to come to terms with herself, her sexuality and her racial identity. show less

Early novel about Indian independence and the partition of the sub-continent into two nations, India and Pakistan. Novel describes the horror of the accompanying massacres between Hindu and Muslim, and the withdrawal of the British from India.

I couldn't finish it, I was bored stiff