Two Lives

Someone recommended this to me ages ago and can't remember how it ended up on my piles of 'must reads". At the beginning I found it quite hard-going but it's one of those books which rewards you if you persevere - I soon got into the pace of it and it is an absolutely fascinating insight into the story of the author but, much more, the disparate early lives of his Aunty Henny and Shanti Uncle. Much of his material comes from letters of his Aunt's which he found after she had died. He was ambivalent about reproducing them (and I felt a bit uncomfortable reading them but... ever the voyeur...) and they really opened my eyes to pre and during-war Germany and the terrible things that happened to people (people I felt we had got to know in some small way). However, Vikram Seth added his considered thoughts, emotions and judgements to various events which make for interesting, multi-dimensional narrative. Not at all predictable. Overall, I found the book needed quite a bit of concentration but was well worth it. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is not after a 'light read'. I don't think this review has done it justice.... what can I say... really recommended reading and I couldn't put it down.

*****  2010-01-25 Sue Peters

I am sorry to say I did not enjoy this nearly as much as the other reviewers.The story is about Seth's Indian uncle meeting a German Jewish woman in Germany before the war. They both make their separate ways to the UK whereupon they eventually marry.Unsurprisingly Seth's German aunt's family does not escape unscathed from the Holocaust but knock on most doors in Hendon and you can find the same ,if not worse situations in peoples family history .I thought there was far too much unecessary detail that did not seem to be particularily relevent or indeed that interesting and made the book far too long for the story.

*****  2009-08-23 Simone

Two lives is partly biography and partly memoir. It's the story of two ordinary people from very different backgrounds (Indian, German/Jewish) caught up in extraordinary events - namely the second world war. Seth writes with great affection for his subjects (they were his Great Uncle and Aunt) and many sections are fascinating, (particularly the personal letters). Unfortunately his attempts to capture every detail often make the book drag. It is overlong and really could have been edited a little more tightly... (However, I have to say it's weight did allow me to squash a large cockcroach with ease!)

*****  2009-08-09 E. Lander

Note that the book is abridged. I didn't know when I ordered it and I was quite disappointed, as I wanted to re-read and listen to it at the same time (always trying to improve my English). Vikram Seth, though, is the best reader I could ever imagine for this book, which I enjoyed very much the first time I read it, even though I am not too much of a biography reader. I rather like fiction, usually, but this book is not usual in any sense.

*****  2009-04-15 Magdalena Costa Valles

This book shows how extraordinary two 'ordinary' people can be. Even if it doesn't set out to, it highlights the vacuousness of being famous just for being famous. These two lives were the opposite: not famous, but fascinating, real and well lived. They have so much to tell about being human, India, World War Two, suburban Britain, suffering, hope, love and the interdependence of situations, times and places. How many people, like Shanti and Henny, have life stories just waiting to be told, but they don't tell because it's just their life; it's their business. Who would be interested, perhaps they think...

Of course, it helps here that their stories are told by a great writer who loved them both and knew them so well. But should the stories have been told? Should Vikram Seth have revealed so much about two people, now deceased, including private correspondence? That's a hard one to answer but, as a reader, I'm pleased he did.

*****  2008-01-02 U Budgerigar