1975: Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

It took less than a day to read this - 180 pages long and easy to read - but it's a rich and fruitful book. It comprises two stories in parallel: the tale of Olivia who abandons her British husband when she goes to India; and of her un-named relative who goes to Satipur some fifty years later to solve the mystery of what became of Olivia. She ends up becoming 'seduced' by India too.

Olivia is naive but adventurous, and she doesn't like the other British wives and their disdain for Indian religion and culture. She is bored by their vapid lifestyle, and she outrages 'society' by visiting the local Naweb, an impoverished rogue in league with the Dacoits (bandits). The Naweb seems to exert a strange magnetic influence on those around him, including Harry, Olivia's only discerning friend and the one who helps her out when things go awry.

In the process of discovering these scandals about her great-aunt , the narrator finds herself following in some of her footsteps. However, whereas during the British Raj Olivia was isolated from the 'real India' by class, caste and custom whatever her wishes may have been, in post-independence India her successor lives amongst Indians, and can make different decisions about how to live her life. Once again India is depicted as a place that attracts those interested in its 'spirituality' but the dropout Chid's distaste for life as a mendicant shows just how silly it is for affluent outsiders to hanker for a life of poverty and hardship.

The title shows that Jhabvala had no illusions about the reality of life for most Indians.

I finished reading and journalled this book on 13.10.05.

Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - 1975 winner

I opened Heat and Dust hoping that Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's  1975 Man Booker Prize winning novel would provide a fresh take on a theme explored by Paul Scott in The Jewel in the Crown (the first  book in his Raj Quartet series) and of course that classic of the cultural divide; E M Forster's A Passage to India.

In many of the tributes written about Jhabvala on her death in April 2013, she was described as a "cold-eyed observer of people and places" and a writer whose status as a non-native inhabitant meant she could view the country with unemotional detachment.

Detached and unemotional are indeed good descriptions for this tale of the cultural divide between colonisers and the natives they govern and of those who try to break free from conventions and restrictions.

The story is that of an un-named woman who travels to India in an attempt to unravel the mystery of her step grandmother Olivia during the rule of the British in the 1920s.  She deciphers the story mainly from letters Olivia wrote to her sister and by visiting places where her grandmother lived.  Gradually we learn that Olivia's story is one of disgrace and scandal Feeling smothered by the restrictions of the British way of life in India, she fell under the spell of a Nawab (an Indian prince) for whom she abandoned her husband . Fifty years later her grand-daughter, though more independent and less naive than Olivia similarly becomes seduced by India. She too crosses the divide.

The novel has none of the tension found in Scott's novel nor does it have the  subtleties of A Passage to India. It doesn't so much end as simply peters out inconclusively leaving me feeling decidedly underwhelmed. It's not what I expect of a prize-winning novel.

Ruth Schiller - An Unlikely Introduction to Bookers

I had been reading Bookers for years without even realizing it. One often picks up a book which is stamped with a golden circle and "Winner of the 19xx/20xx  So-and-so prize". I hadn't really thought about it. A good book is a good book, with or without a stamp. My first Booker was probably Golding's Rites of Passage (1980) which I read sometime in the 80s (definitely time to read it again); then The God of Small Things (1997) around the time it was published; Heat and Dust (1975); Hotel Le Luc (1984), recommended and passed to me by my sister who has overflowing bookshelves with great treasures; and Life of Pi (2002) which I gave my eldest for a birthday gift quite a few years back.

I became aware of the Man Booker prize in the spring of 2010, about a year ago. My second son, who will be turning 16 next month, was deep into chemotherapy treatments – and I needed something good to read. He had been diagnosed with cancer late in October 2009 and after two initial chemo treatments, major surgery, more chemo and simultaneous radiation, he was reduced to a 90 pound weakling (43 kilos to be exact)– albeit with a radiant smile, his usual witty and delightful disposition and a soft, lustrous and truly beautiful bald head. It was a difficult time, but we managed. I really needed something good to read.

Lucky people have good book sources. Siblings (be they sisters with good taste, or professor of literature brother-in- laws) often have capacious bookshelves.  I asked said brother-in-law to bring me something good to read, and he did. The Glass House by Simon Mawer and Summertime by J.M. Coetzee (both shortlisted in 2009). Thus started my romance with Bookers.

It is hard to feel accomplished when one spends about half of one's time in the Pediatric Hemato-Oncology ward. So I decided that I would accomplish something purely for me:  I would read really good books, my own personal Booker challenge.


Matthew's Review - Heat and Dust - 1975

I'm on a bit of a British Raj kick right now. The next book I read in this particular theme is Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, which won the Booker Prize in 1975.

A young English woman in the present day (70's) goes to India in order to retrace the steps taken by her greataunt Olivia in the Twenties. Olivia's true story is enveloped by disgrace and shame, as she left her husband, a British man, for an Indian Nawab. While the narrator goes on a literal journey through modern day India, her figurative journey seems to mirror that of her greataunt, both of them seeking the truth about India, in all its mystery and otherness.

The structural setup of Heat and Dust is familiar to almost any reader at this point. Numerous films and books have been written about this idea of twinned self-discoveries. However, Heat and Dust was written at a time when the English were looking inwards, at their concepts of colonialism and the Jewel of the Empire.

Heat and Dust mirrors that introspection in a metaphorical way. Both Olivia and the narrator of the novel are stand-ins for a British identity, similar but not the same. Notice that I didn't say "for the British identity", as both leads of the novel are distinctly female.

Concepts of motherhood, widowhood, and womanhood are absolutely central to this text. Without going into spoilers, the journeys that both women take involve the absolute differing ideas of motherhood that the British and the Indian have.

Going back to the structural familiarity of the novel, I can't say that this detracts from the book in the slightest. While I was wise to the tricks up this novel's sleeve, I was still enchanted by the descriptions of India then, and India now (or, from my perspective, then as well).

Combine this novel with The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, this could be an excellent historiography of India, across multiple generations.

While this novel does some excellent things with theme, image and structure, Jhabvala's prose is understated, plain and never really dazzled me. I felt that I had enough information from description and that was it. It's almost as if Jhabvala felt that her mastery of imagery was enough to float the novel. Unfortunately it is not. Quality of prose is paramount. No matter how clever one's metaphors are, stilted and weak prose can underwhelm a reader's experience. Such is the case.

Jhabvala's understated prose almost lends the novel a screenplay-esque feeling, foreshadowing, no doubt, her emergence as a primary screenwriter for Merchant-Ivory Productions.


Heat and Dust is a great novel, marred only by a recalcitrance for exciting prose, which no doubt the author is capable of. I very much enjoyed the architecture of the novel, even though it's a trick done to death. Any interested readers of India would be greatly pleased to read Heat and Dust.

1975 - Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

It took less than a day to read this - 180 pages long and easy to read - but it's a rich and fruitful book. It comprises two stories in parallel: the tale of Olivia who abandons her British husband when she goes to India; and of her un-named relative who goes to Satipur some fifty years later to solve the mystery of what became of Olivia. She ends up becoming 'seduced' by India too.

Olivia is naive but adventurous, and she doesn't like the other British wives and their disdain for Indian religion and culture. She is bored by their vapid lifestyle, and she outrages 'society' by visiting the local Naweb, an impoverished rogue in league with the Dacoits (bandits). The Naweb seems to exert a strange magnetic influence on those around him, including Harry, Olivia's only discerning friend and the one who helps her out when things go awry.

In the process of discovering these scandals about her great-aunt , the narrator finds herself following in some of her footsteps. However, whereas during the British Raj Olivia was isolated from the 'real India' by class, caste and custom whatever her wishes may have been, in post-independence India her successor lives amongst Indians, and can make different decisions about how to live her life. Once again India is depicted as a place that attracts those interested in its 'spirituality' but the dropout Chid's distaste for life as a mendicant shows just how silly it is for affluent outsiders to hanker for a life of poverty and hardship.

The title shows that Jhabvala had no illusions about the reality of life for most Indians.

I finished reading and journalled this book on 13.10.05.

Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers

Heat and Dust - Laura's Review

Heat and Dust
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
181 pages

First sentence: Shortly after Olivia went away with the Nawab, Beth Crawford returned from Simla.

Reflections: Winner of the Booker Prize in 1975, this novel tells the parallel stories of two young English women, living in India at different time periods. Anne visits the country in the 1970s, well after Indian independence in 1947, but long before India became the economic power it is today. Anne is there to learn more about her grandfather's first wife, Olivia, who lived there in the 1920s, during British colonial rule. Olivia ran off with the Nawab (a Muslim prince), bringing scandal down upon the family. The novel alternates between the two time periods and points of view. Anne deciphers Olivia's story from her letters, written primarily to her sister. She visits places Olivia used to live. Houses have become places of business; only the British cemeteries are left standing as a memorial to earlier times.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born in Germany to Polish parents in 1927, attending Jewish schools and moving to England in 1939. She married an Indian man in 1951, and relocated to New Delhi. There she began her literary career. Unlike many Europeans, she took instantly to India and celebrated the country through her writing. Since the mid-1970s, Jhabvala has been better known for her screenplays, having collaborated with Merchant Ivory on such wonderful films as Room with a View, Howards End, and Remains of the Day.

Heat and Dust paints a vivid picture of India; the title alone evokes a common first impression of the country. I made a brief visit there on business two years ago, and of course I was struck by the heat and dust. I also found it difficult to witness the extreme contrasts of wealth and poverty. Jhabvala doesn't shrink from these images, either. There is a scene in the novel that concerns a beggar woman dying in the street. No one will help her for fear of contracting her disease. The hospitals are too full to accommodate cases where there is no hope. Anne and another woman can only help her find a peaceful place to spend her final hours.

As the novel progresses we learn more about Olivia, a naive young woman who is bored and lonely. She is drawn into the excitement of the Nawab's palace, and one can almost understand why she would leave her rather dull husband. The novel is less clear about the character of Anne. Like Olivia she develops a romantic relationship with an Indian man, but she is far more independent and self-sufficient (perhaps reflective of the time period). The novel ends rather abruptly and inconclusively. I liked this book, but honestly was not "wowed" in the way I expect of prizewinning novels. ( )

Original review can be found here.