Umrigar is a perceptive and often piercing writer.” — New York Times Book Review
“Powerful. . . . Twisty, brimming with dark humor and keen moral insight, THE WEIGHT OF HEAVEN packs a wallop on both a literary and emotional level. . . . Umrigar is a master of delineating the ethical lines Frank and Ellie cross, with, at least at first, the best of intentions. . . . Umrigar, a journalist for the Boston Globe, is a descriptive master.” — Christian Science Monitor
“Umrigar carries a burden as heavy as the title by using a tale of personal tragedy to depict the balance of power in global economics. . . . Her observations are dispassionate and astute enough to deliver at both levels. This is a morality tale tuned to our times.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Rich prose and vibrant descriptions of India. . . . THE WEIGHT OF HEAVEN is a bold, beautifully rendered tale of cultures that clash and coalesce.” — Booklist (starred review)
“The landscape and culture . . . [are] evocatively depicted. . . . And such drama! . . . We’re pulled along by the intensity of this sweepingly cinematic story.” — Elle
“Umrigar beautifully illuminates how human relationships are complicated by cultural, geographical, and class divides.” — More Magazine
“Well paced. . . . An unflinching portrait of parental bereavement.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Umrigar . . . finely plumbs the depths of the human heart, from the heights of joy and passion to the very deepest despair. Recommended for all fiction collections.” — Library Journal
“Umrigar renders a collection of compelling and complex characters, from kind, conflicted Sera to fiercely devoted Bhima. Sadness suffuses this eloquent tale, whose heart-stopping plot twists reveal the ferocity of fate.” — Booklist (starred review)
Rich prose and vibrant descriptions of India. . . . THE WEIGHT OF HEAVEN is a bold, beautifully rendered tale of cultures that clash and coalesce.
Booklist (starred review)
Powerful. . . . Twisty, brimming with dark humor and keen moral insight, THE WEIGHT OF HEAVEN packs a wallop on both a literary and emotional level. . . . Umrigar is a master of delineating the ethical lines Frank and Ellie cross, with, at least at first, the best of intentions. . . . Umrigar, a journalist for the Boston Globe, is a descriptive master.
Christian Science Monitor
Umrigar is a perceptive and often piercing writer.
New York Times Book Review
Umrigar carries a burden as heavy as the title by using a tale of personal tragedy to depict the balance of power in global economics. . . . Her observations are dispassionate and astute enough to deliver at both levels. This is a morality tale tuned to our times.
The landscape and culture . . . [are] evocatively depicted. . . . And such drama! . . . We’re pulled along by the intensity of this sweepingly cinematic story.
Umrigar beautifully illuminates how human relationships are complicated by cultural, geographical, and class divides.
Umrigar (The Space Between Us ) continues her exploration of cultural divides in this beautifully written and incisive novel about an American couple's experience in India. Frank and Ellie Benton, grappling with the death of their seven-year-old son, move from Ann Arbor, Mich., to Girbaug, India, where Frank takes a job running a factory. While he tackles the barriers faced by an educated, wealthy American in charge of a Third World work force, Ellie, a psychologist, makes inroads with the impoverished locals at a health clinic. Frank has a difficult time adjusting at work, and at home he takes an interest in their housekeepers' son, Ramesh, and begins tutoring him. While Frank buries his grief by helping Ramesh, he ends up in competition with the boy's bitter father, Prakash, and further damaging his already troubled marriage. Umrigar digs into the effects of grief on a relationship and the many facets of culture clash-especially American capitalism's impact on a poor country-but it is the tale of how Frank's interest in Ramesh veers into obsession and comes to a devastating end that provides the gripping through line. Umrigar establishes herself as a singularly gifted storyteller. (Apr.)
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Frank and Ellie are two attractive people who have basically led charmed lives. Frank's absent father notwithstanding, they each grew up in fairly secure surroundings and attended college and professional school, meeting and marrying and living in bliss. Suddenly, the world spins out of control when their seven-year-old son dies from meningitis. Soon afterward, they have an opportunity to make a work-related move to a seaside town in India, providing the panacea that will help them heal from their loss. As educated, liberal, progressive Americans, they cannot anticipate how they will react as they become part of the class struggle within Indian society; nor can they know how attached they will become to the son of their servants. Although it may be risky to latch on to bright young Ramesh, they convince themselves that they are helping the boy by providing him with things that his parents could never afford. Self-deception runs rampant, and Frank is eventually overcome by emotional turmoil, which leads him to make a fatal error in judgment. Umrigar (First Darling of the Morning ) finely plumbs the depths of the human heart, from the heights of joy and passion to the very deepest despair. Recommended for all fiction collections.
Sorrow turns to obsession when Ellie and Frank Benton move from Ann Arbor, Mich., to India shortly after the death of their seven-year-old son. Frank's employer, HerbalSolutions, harvests and manufactures a diabetes remedy in the village of Girbaug, and Frank, at Ellie's urging, is to run the plant. They are escaping from the empty bedroom their son once occupied, from the empty weekends they fill with long aimless drives, from the thousand memories they have of their happy boy, killed quickly by meningococcal fever. In India, Ellie and Frank find a reprieve from their heartache, but escape is hardly a cure. After a year and a half, Ellie loves India, has found a best friend in former journalist Nandita and a sense of purpose in working to improve the lives of the villagers. For Frank, though, India offers no simple salve. As the symbol of corporate America using up its natural resources, he deals with labor disputes, bribery and even the death of a union activist who was trying to improve conditions at HerbalSolutions. The only bright spot for Frank is Ramesh, young son of the Bentons' maid and cook. As Frank becomes increasingly attached to the boy, his father Prakash becomes jealous, irritated by the rich Westerner who can lure his son with expensive gifts, free time and promises of an American education. It is obvious to Ellie that Ramesh is a replacement for their dead son, but what she can't fathom is Frank's vitriolic attitude toward Prakash, and increasingly, all India. Umrigar's portrait of Frank's descent into obsessive madness is well paced, as are her descriptions of the couple's loneliness together, but the novel stumbles with two long flashbacks-one describing Frank andEllie's courtship and the other Benny's death-that add little. By the end, Frank's preoccupation turns to wickedness and violence. Not as unified as Umrigar's previous novels (If Today Be Sweet, 2007, etc.), but an unflinching portrait of parental bereavement.
