A History Of Burning: A Review

This book is an eye-opener.

Through generations of a family, this book carries all kinds of emotions. Through Oza's writing, you are sure to be engaged in this beautiful story.

More than anything, I appreciate how real the writing seems. The situations these characters encounter feel so genuine that you want to keep on reading. Although not a thriller or page-turner, this book made me flip the pages very often to know what happens next.

Here, I do want to mention that there were a lot of words used in other languages like Gujarati and Swahili. While I did have a tiny bit of difficulty, it is still possible to love this book if you don’t know any of the words.

A little bit about the actual story now:

Part 1 didn't excite me much. It felt quite passive and seemed as if history was just being told and I was reading it. Things were happening and I was reading them. But it was unlike anything I had read before so I kept on reading. Part 1 was an entry to a different kind of life.

Part 2 had more stuff in it. It had more liveliness in it because of the children and their adventures. There was more history in it. Also, Arun's arrival made the plot go further than the normal life it was showing.

The ending of this part was probably the most important section in the whole book. Many regrets were expressed over it, and many 'could have beens' as well. This part will force you to think about what would have happened if that event could have been avoided.

Part 3 was the part that held the most suspense. It was a new life, much like Part 1 with Pirbhai, but this time, it was more comparable to the life lived before. All I could think of while reading this part was how relatable it was. How true it seemed. Everyone experienced changes in their lives and it was amazing to see how they met the changes with full force. I was incredibly satisfied with the ending of this book, the epilogue especially.

All in all, this book should be read by everyone. It holds a lot of important lessons that we all need to be remembered of, most of all, life is finite.

While reading this, I realized that I loved reading books that spanned decades, and generations. Like Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, which I read recently.

Happy Reading!

See you next Wednesday!