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Raise the Lanterns High (Paperback)

by Lakshmi Persaud (Author) "I WAS CREEPING through the sugar-cane field parting the long sharp leaves ..." (more)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 314 pages
  • Publisher: BlackAmber Books (1 Mar 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1901969207
  • ISBN-13: 978-1901969207
  • Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.4 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 802,526 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

"Powerful and poetic" -- "Time Out"


Book Description

On the eve of her wedding, Vasti finds her arranged marriage is to the rapist she saw through a curtain of sugar cane stems twelve years ago. She either speaks out, defies convention and shames her family, or succumbs to tradition and submits to her fate silently. A parallel story runs throughout the novel. Three women are about to climb upon a burning pyre to die with their husbands to fulfil the suttee or widow burning custom practised in India for hundreds of years. This story of female emancipation is as harrowing as it is beautiful.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
I WAS CREEPING through the sugar-cane field parting the long sharp leaves. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant and moving novel by Dr. Lakshmi Persaud, 17 Jun 2004
By A Customer
Dr. Lakshmi Persaud's most recent novel, "Raise the Lanterns High," is an exhilarating and enlightening journey into the eventful life of the heroine, Vashti.

It was a sheer joy to read! The pace is fast moving, it captures the human spirit from the playful to the profound, the prose is eloquent and beautiful - so characteristic of Dr. Persaud's unique style, the plot is breathtaking, and the substance, most enlightening.

In today's new millennium, the substantive value of this novel is of noteworthy significance. This aspect is brought out through lucid discourses amongst the Indian Queens in the novel on their impending fate: Through their discourses, the author addresses in a skilful, yet respectful and delicate manner, a crucial factor, viz, ancient customs, questions their relevance to doctrine, and enlightens the reader on the criticality in the interpretation of doctrine. Weaving such pearls of wisdom into the fabric of this novel is particularly relevant and perhaps a meaningful guiding light for future resolutions.

Dr. Persaud has truly raised the lanterns high and if I may quote from her book, "only when we are able to lift our sights high, well above the narrow views, that we can see the beauty around us." Her book has certainly achieved this and more!

This most impressive work - from a truly gifted writer - is deserving of peer recognition and literary awards to follow. A "must read" it is indeed! A rare find and royal treat! Powerful!

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5.0 out of 5 stars a Caribbean Best, 4 Dec 2005
By A Customer
It crosses continents and very daring. It is highly literary and poetic. It is a fine style of writing and one of the best books to have come out of the Caribbean in recent times. It is very much in the Naipaul tradition. I am not surprised it is a Amazon best-seller. It is in the forefront of approaches to cultural change from traditional cultural practices that can be stultifying. It uses a story based on the Indian practice of sati to demonstrate the case. It is an intriguing story--good for a film. It has all the ingredients, hindu marriage ceremony, arranged marriage, princesses and clashes between past and present hindu traditions.
Excellent read and not only for the Indian diaspora.
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5.0 out of 5 stars The novel captures the intricacies of human nature., 26 April 2004
By A Customer
With her fourth novel, 'Raise the Lanterns High', Dr Lakshmi Persaudnarrates once more, in her exquisite style, the trial and
tribulationsof the long suffering, but ultimately triumphant, Indian woman. Here theheroine is Vasti whom one encounters first as a school girl in Trinidadand then twelve years later as grown woman about to be married to a manwith a dark past and finally almost as a ghostlike character watching theanguish as well as machinations of the queens following the death of theirroyal husband in 18th century India.
As usual she treats her characters' lives with both objectivity andcompassion, to bring out their heartfelt response to various events. Beinga writer of simplicity and poise, she captures the intricacies of humannature. A sympathetic storyteller, she has an eye for detail, an economyof prose and a precision of portrayal, an style which invites comparisonwith her countryman Sir Vidya Naipaul, yet has a charm all its own. Thosewho have gotten accustomed to the silken smoothness of her narrativemarked by almost effortless craftsmanship, will not be disappointed by herlatest effort.
One minor criticism of her carefully crafted novel might be that bydescribing, in such detail, the custom of an earlier time of Suttee (thepractice of widow burning) she may just be feeding into the public, morestereotypes in depicting the culture of her forebears. But in the novelthis event (and events leading to it) is used more as a metaphor forVasti's own life and feelings than as a social comment for thereprehensible practice.
Philip Gwyn Jones, publishing director of Flamingo, referring to
Indian women novelists recently stated "These writers bring a
freshness to the language that makes for some of the world's most
refreshing literature. They infuse English with new rhythms and
cadences, and generate new forms." An apt description for the author of'Raise the Lanterns High'. She easily wins my vote for the Booker prize!
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