THE BOOK FAIR

Review:

Sera and Bhima, two very different women, are bound by gender but separated by class.  Sera Dubash, Persian, lives in a comfortable middleclass home which is cleaned and tended by Bhima, her Indian servant, of many years.

Bhima lives in the stank squalor of the slums.  She makes the trip each day to Sera’s home and cleans her house, furniture, utensils and toilet without thought, revulsion, or question.

Yet, after the many years of Bhima’s service, Sera cannot bear Bhima to eat from her utensils or relax on her furniture.  Sera is disgusted by the way Bhima sits back on her haunches instead of using a chair, and is further repulsed by her chewing and spitting of tobacco.

Sera, a widow since the death of her husband Feroz, is devoted to her daughter, Dinaz, and son in law, Viraf, but also takes responsibility for Bhima’s granddaughter, Maya.  She believes Maya, a smart girl who should have an education.

In spite of their different stations in life, Sera and Bhima each understand the needs of the other, and share moments that bind their lives.  It was the two of them who spoke in hushed voices not to arouse the temper of Feroz.  It was Bhima who comforted Sera after she suffered her husband’s beatings.  And it is Sera who paid Maya’s schooling.  When Bhima discloses her shame of Maya’s pregnancy, it is Sera who offers Maya a way out.  Sera and Bhima both want to know who the father is, but Maya refuses to say.

 

 “The Space Between Us,” a stunning work of literary art expresses sensitive, meaningful, relationships between women.  The author describes class differences with amazing descriptive imagery, and depicts the misery of slum dwellers in realistic clarity.  Beautifully written.  Recommended.