Background
Sidhwa was born to Parsi Zoroastrian parents Peshotan and Tehmina Bhandara in Karachi and later moved with her family to Lahore.
( At the dawn of the 20th century in Pakistan, Freddy Jun...)
At the dawn of the 20th century in Pakistan, Freddy Junglewalla moves his family — pregnant wife, baby daughter, and Jerbanoo, his rotund mother-in-law — from their ancestral forest home to cosmopolitan Lahore. He opens a store, and as his fortunes grow, so does the animosity between Freddy and his mother-in-law. While Freddy prospers under British rule, life with the domineering Jerbanoo is another matter entirely. This exuberant novel, full of rollicking humor, paints a vivid picture of life in the Parsee community.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1571310509/?tag=2022091-20
( Feroza Ginwalla, a pampered, protected 16-year-old Paki...)
Feroza Ginwalla, a pampered, protected 16-year-old Pakistani girl, is sent to America by her parents, who are alarmed by the fundamentalism overtaking Pakistan and their daughter. Hoping that a few months with her uncle, an MIT grad student, will soften the girl’s rigid thinking, they get more than they bargained for: Feroza, enthralled by American culture and her new freedom, insists on staying. A bargain is struck, allowing Feroza to attend college with the understanding that she will return home and marry well. As a student in a small western town, Feroza’s perceptions of America, her homeland, and herself begin to alter. When she falls in love with and wants to marry a Jewish American, her family is aghast. Feroza realizes just how far she has come and wonders how much further she can go. This delightful coming-of-age novel is both remarkably funny and a remarkably acute portrayal of America as seen through the eyes of a perceptive young immigrant.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1571310053/?tag=2022091-20
(Previously published as: Ice-candy-man. From Publishers W...)
Previously published as: Ice-candy-man. From Publishers Weekly The narrator of Sidwha's (The Bride) timely novel about the violent 1947 partition of India is the extremely observant Lenny Sethi, whose family belongs to the Parsee community in Lahore. As a child, a polio victim and a member of a minority, she is the perfect witness (though somewhat precocious) to the historic upheaval. Sidwha tempers Lenny's hyper-awareness, however, by capturing the whole range of her fears and joys as her innocence becomes another casualty of the violence among Moslems, Sikhs and Hindus. At one point Lenny declares: "Lying doesn't become me. I can't get away with the littlest thing." Persuasive, this statement reinforces earlier comments she lets slip about herself which display this artless candor: "the manipulative power of my limp"; "I place a hypocritical arm protectively round her shoulders." Lenny's honesty is compelling, and the reader, like many in the story, cannot help but trust her. She is alternately thrilled and frightened by the events she dutifully records, and so, in the end, is the reader. c1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Written in the 1st person by a sparsely educated Parsee girl in Lahore named Lenny, who grows from four to eight as she narrates, this novel is incongruously overloaded with erudite diction. Thus, unlike Huck Finn's tale, this child's story becomes unbelievable. Despite the title, it focuses on the everyday lives of Lenny, her family, and their associates, often interesting but frequently trivial. Throughout the book, Lenny includes verbatim transcriptions of extended conversations/situations about racial relations, sex, politics, religion, and selected aspects of the 1947 Partition. Sadly, the promise of the novel (semi-autobiographical?) is inadequately fulfilled and seems to falter from its conception. -- Glenn O. Carey, Eastern Kentucky Univ., Richmond c1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000IXQXTG/?tag=2022091-20
(Bapsi Sidhwa???s brilliant fourth novel chronicles the ad...)
Bapsi Sidhwa???s brilliant fourth novel chronicles the adventures of a young Pakistani girl in America with an enormously satisfying story and characters??? The extended family of Feroza Ginwalla, a lively and temperamental girl, agonizes over the decision to send her to America for a three-month holiday. This act of apparent audacity arises from concern over Feroza???s conservative attitudes, which stem from Pakistan???s rising tide of fundamentalism. Feroza???s chaperone in America, an uncle only six years her senior, is her guide, friend, and the bane of her existence. Her relationship and adventures shape her alternatively hilarious and terrifying perceptions of the US. Feroza???s family in Pakistan, meanwhile, is in delicious turmoil over the possibility that American ways will ruin her???
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140243712/?tag=2022091-20
( The 1947 Partition of India is the backdrop for this po...)
The 1947 Partition of India is the backdrop for this powerful novel, narrated by a precocious child who describes the brutal transition with chilling veracity. Young Lenny Sethi is kept out of school because she suffers from polio. She spends her days with Ayah, her beautiful nanny, visiting with the large group of admirers that Ayah draws. It is in the company of these working class characters that Lenny learns about religious differences, religious intolerance, and the blossoming genocidal strife on the eve of Partition. As she matures, Lenny begins to identify the differences between the Hindus, Moslems, and Sikhs engaging in political arguments all around her. Lenny enjoys a happy, privileged life in Lahore, but the kidnapping of her beloved Ayah signals a dramatic change. Soon Lenny’s world erupts in religious, ethnic, and racial violence. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, the domestic drama serves as a microcosm for a profound political upheaval.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1571310487/?tag=2022091-20
Sidhwa was born to Parsi Zoroastrian parents Peshotan and Tehmina Bhandara in Karachi and later moved with her family to Lahore.
She is best known for her collaborative work with Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta: Sidhwa wrote both the 1991 novel Ice Candy Manitoba which served as the basis for Mehta"s 1998 film Earth as well as the 2006 novel Water: A Novel which is based upon Mehta"s 2005 film Water. She was two when she contracted polio (which has affected her throughout her life) and nine in 1947 at the time of Partition (facts which would shape the character Lenny in her novel Ice Candy Manitoba as well as the background for her novel). She received her Bachelor from Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore in 1957.
She had three children in Pakistan before beginning her career as an author
She currently resides in Houston, United States. She describes herself as a "Punjabi-Parsi-Pakistani". She has previously taught at the University of Houston, Rice University, Columbia University, Mount Holyoke College, and Brandeis University.
(Bapsi Sidhwa???s brilliant fourth novel chronicles the ad...)
( At the dawn of the 20th century in Pakistan, Freddy Jun...)
( Feroza Ginwalla, a pampered, protected 16-year-old Paki...)
( The 1947 Partition of India is the backdrop for this po...)
(Previously published as: Ice-candy-man. From Publishers W...)