Lesbian Fiction

[SSgt Sue]

Just finished the book - at last - thank goodness. I'm afraid I'm with Wildsx on this one. I found the plot contrived and the love story unbelievable. I think this story was trying to be too much: a history of aparthied, commenty on Indian family life and a lesbian love story. I just found it wandered around with no thrust...boring.
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The Soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.

[Nurse Jo]

We may agree on a book one day Sue. You never know.
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She rolled her own and kept her money in her stocking.
(Describing Laura Evans, a Colorado madam)

[SSgt Sue]

[wildlx]

[HH]

Finished it last night.

I quite liked it. It's not the kind of book that I'll clutch to my heart and re-read many times (good thing, too, since our copy is borrowed) but I never wanted to throw it against the wall. If this were an Amazon review, I'd give it 4 stars, maybe 4 and a half.

The prose is easy to read, with an "invisible" rather than "literary" voice/style, other than the too-frequent italicised Afrikaans words like stoep. The lesbian aspect is slight; had Amina not been lesbian, but rather a feminist, I'd never have known the difference. It's not a romance with a HEA, so romance readers probably won't be pleased with this book.

The setting is probably what is both its strongest and weakest point -- strongest because it's well done and detailed and packs a punch in the guts for the reader, but weakest because it plays too heavily on the tear-jerker card. What reader won't be outraged by the double whammy of Bad Whites Beating Up Blacks During Apartheid plus Bad Men Controlling And Mistreating Their Women In Traditional Indian Households?

Though it's quite believable and true to life -- apartheid was horrible, and it does suck to be a woman in an arranged marriage with a misogynistic husband and culture -- the women are just a little too White Hat and their persecutors just a little too Black Hat. However, I really did like Miriam's slow but steady unfolding from unquestioning, obedient wife to woman with her own hopes and dreams.
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Amazon Rank = AMAZNO.com

[SSgt Sue]

[Renée]

I think The World Unseen is a terrific read.
I especially love the language. Very expressive and lyrical but somewhat formal, fitting for the time period and setting.

Another thing I admire about this story--maybe more than anything--is the injection of humour into almost every kind of scene, whether an awkward one like the visit from Amina's potential suitor and family, or a poignant one like the birth of Amina's baby which focuses on Omar trying to deal with the children.

That scene is also a good example of how beautifully Sarif gets into her various characters' POVs, in this case having us sympathize with an otherwise unsympathetic character.

Of course the story is much broader. It's about a particular time and place and society and the limitations these put on the characters. But I tend to concentrate on details, and Sarif give us lots of those in every scene and individual.

Now I'd like to see the film.

[Renée]

I don't get it. Why are there two World Unseen topics/discussion threads?

[dejay]

Not two discussion threads. One is for people to volunteer to participate in the challenge and then this one to discuss the actual book after reading it.
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I had some words with my wife - she had some paragraphs with me! .

Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right, and the other is a butch.

[Selkie]

Overall rather enjoyed The World Unseen.

I found that the prose was well-written and easy to read, and, as HH said, the setting was well done and detailed. Sarif's details of the life these women were leading hit me hard and affected me rather deeply as I was reading the book. I especially enjoyed Miriam's development from subservient to being her own woman.

I agree with Wildlx about the romance. I felt that the development of Miriam's feelings in regards to Amina were rushed and not very well developed, and the sudden revelation of Amina as a lesbian seemed to come out of nowhere. However because the book was not primarily a romance, and had many other things going for it, I was not terribly bothered by them.

I would have liked to have seen more development of Amina's character in the book, as well.

Overall, I thought the book was well-written and I enjoyed it, though I doubt I'll read it again.
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[Renée]

[la_gringa89]

I got the book. Hopefully do some reading this weekend...
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Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

[Baker]

OK, I've just finished reading the book. I've read through this thread to see what others thought. My feelings are somewhere around HH and Wildlx. I thought the book was well-written with serviceable and largely invisible prose. The setting was interesting. I'd give it overall. It is definitely in a different class to most lesfic, and as HH says this was not a book I ever felt the urge to hurl against a wall. Yet, like Wildlx, I found the book didn't quite deliver what it could have done. I agree with HH that the combination of apartheid and misogyny created tensions in the book that the author didn't quite balance.

Like Wildlx, I found Amina underdeveloped and felt the author relied on a 'tomboy' stereotype for too much of her characterisation. As Wild says, Amina is presented as a rebel, but she hadn't been given much in the way of opposition. Unlike the other men in the Indian community, as portrayed in the book, Amina's father was often passive. Nor was her mother cast in the same matriarchal or passive-aggressive type as most of the other Indian women--such as Amina's grandmother and Farah. So, Amina's family was an anomaly, and she could not really be seen in the same light as, say, Miriam who had been forced into marriage.

Miriam was more interesting, but then I think we spent more time with her. Speaking of spending time...I did find some of the POV changes a bit annoying though most of the transitions were well done.

As Wildlx has mentioned, some of the subplots and subsidiary action seemed fairly pointless. For me, they didn't obviously contribute to the story or theme. An exception was the Jacob and Madeline subplot, which I think was well-done. I can't remember who mentioned this earlier in this thread, but I agree that the way the climax was presented worked well.


Like Selkie, I doubt I'll read it again, but many thanks to Tanner for suggesting this book as a challenge. The range of comments and the discussion it has sparked have been just what a challenge book ought to deliver.
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Life.

[HH]

[wildlx]