The Far Pavilionsby M. M. Kaye
(My Ruthlessly Edited Version of the) Blurb:
This sweeping epic set in 19th-century India begins in the foothills of the towering Himalayas and follows the adventures (and romance) of Ashton/Ashok/Ash. A young orphan born to English parents but raised as an Indian, he struggles to belong completely in either culture.
(Some think that) M.M. Kaye's masterwork is a vast, rich and vibrant tapestry of love and war that ranks with the greatest panoramic sagas of modern fiction.
My Reaction:
I have been slogging arduously through this "saga" for months and months (because I've lacked motivation to read, not because it's at all challenging material), only to finally decide that the time has come to throw in the towel and let this become a DNF (Did Not Finish).
The novel started off promisingly enough, and I did enjoy parts of it and was touched by aspects of it (Ash's adoptive mother, Sita, in particular), but the enjoyable moments became too few and far between, and I eventually recognized that there wasn't anything that could happen in the remaining quarter of the book to make it worth continuing to read. So I just skimmed the rest!
I found that my two main predictions proved correct...
SPOILERS FOLLOW!!
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(Wally dies; Ash and Anjuli go off in search of their peaceful valley in the Himalayas)
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...which was all I even remotely cared to know, at that point, and skipping to the end means that I probably saved myself another month or two of forcing myself to read something I no longer wanted to read. (Ah, sweet relief!) Basically, I spared myself the Second Afghan War portion of the novel, and I count myself lucky.
The Far Pavilions has 964 pages. A book that long might be okay if it's a real page-turner. This was not one of those books. Also, the novel seems to have been promoted as more of a romance than it really is, so there's an element of false advertisement. (Though to be honest, I don't think a stronger emphasis on the romance would've helped in this case, because this author's version of romance leaves me cold... It's not her strong suit, imho.)
If you're interested in the history of India as part of the British Empire, give this a look. Personally, I found it just didn't keep me interested enough, so I rarely wanted to read it, which is a very bad quality in such a long book! Part of the problem is that I'm probably just not cut out for sagas. Terribly sorry, but I get bored; I got bored, and now I'm so so so happy to put this book behind me and never look back.
I'm giving it three stars because while I just couldn't find the will to finish it, parts of it were good. I think it deserves three stars despite my difficulties with it.
