'Memories of Rain' is a dense novel about the end of the marriage between Moni, a young woman from Calcutta, and, Anthony, the Englishman who married her and took her to London ten years earlier. Anthony had entered Moni’s life at the height of a rain storm and flood when her brother had brought him into their home.

“Memories of rain” is about the passion which they had once shared and traces the thoughts and emotions of Moni and Anthony through three days. Moni has decided to return to India, taking their daughter with her, on the day of the girl’s birthday party, and intends their departure to be a cruel surprise for Anthony. Flashbacks highlight the changes in the couple’s relationship.

The book alternates the point of view of Moni and Anthony. Moni feels the pull of her own culture as well as the emotional dependence which her husband has cultivated in her. Anthony sees himself something akin to the old empire builders and sees her in terms of his own needs rather than as a person with her own.

'he had come to this land, like his forefathers had done, with the conviction that all he wanted would be his, he had come not with greed, only a desire for knowledge, for experience'

Hardly the basis for a sustainable marriage but this story isn't simply one of an immigrant bride who has been drawn into the obit of her husband.

Gupta employs long stream of thought sentences that go on for pages at a time similar to the writing of Virginia Woolf. There is little actual action and this isn't my favourite kind of writing. I felt that I just had to work too hard to get anything out of it and whilst I can admire Gupta's writing this novel just didn't really grip me. ( )

a fluid, novel that interweaves events over a few days with the narrator's thoughts, feelings, and memories, including bits of poetry by Tagore. Although short and beautifully written, it takes a fair amount of focus to follow. ( )

So very glad I decided to read Sunetra Gupta's challenging and wonderful book "Memories of Rain." The novel is the story of Moni and Anthony, who fell in love in India during a torrential rainstorm. Ten years later, after a move to England and the birth of their daughter, their love has gently receded like flood water and Moni is in almost constant contact with Anthony's lover. She plans to leave him and return to India on their daughter's sixth birthday, a cruel surprise designed to say everything that she has been unable to speak.

Gupta's prose is often challenging -- some of her sentences are page long-- but it is also beautiful and evocative of water. Not so much the rain, but the sea as everything ebbs and flows together. She gives Moni, who is largely silent and mysterious a poet's voice. The blurb on the back of the book calls Gupta an heir to Virginia Wolf, and I can understand the comparison as the tone of the book reminded me of Wolf's "The Waves." Very present in the story is the division between two cultures as well.

Gupta weaves a rather simple story of love and loss, often told in flashbacks, into a unique an interesting novel. A stunning and great read. ( )

Memories of Rain is a dense, internal novel about the ending of the marriage between Moni, a young woman from Calcutta, and, Anthony, the Englishman who married her and took her to London ten years before. Anthony had entered Moni’s life at the height of a rain storm and flood when her brother had brought him into their home. “Memories of rain” is about the passion which they had once shared.

The novel traces the thoughts and emotions of Moni and Anthony through three days leading up to the sixth birthday of their daughter. Moni has decided to return to India, taking their daughter with her, on the day of the girl’s birthday party, and intends their departure to be a cruel surprise for Anthony. Flashbacks highlight the changes in the couple’s relationship and Anthony’s on-going affair with Ana. He claims he feels a gentle tenderness toward Moni while pursing his passion for Ana and bringing her into almost constant contact with his wife.

The book alternates the point of view of Moni and Anthony through the emotionally charged days, leading up to their daughter’s birthday and Moni’s planned departure. Gupta’s portrayal of Moni gives us insight into her reluctance to leave and her inability to speak directly to Anthony about her pain. She feels the pull of her own culture as well as the emotional dependence which her husband has cultivated in her.

Anthony is the Colonizer, seeing in Moni what is lacking in himself. He has loved his image of her, not the real woman. According to Gupta, he thinks about how

…he had come to this land, like his forefathers had done, with the conviction that all he wanted would be his, he had come not with greed, only a desire for knowledge, for experience…(40)

Later he returns to this theme,

…he had penetrated the very spirit of the city, the very essence of the culture had been revealed to him in the few dense hours he had gazed upon the rain-swollen curve of her lips, this was what he had come to discover, to feel, the inebriation of tropical rain upon his skin, the sensual exchange of poetry on a thunderous evening, oh, if he could only draw his lips through the velvet valley of her hair, his experience of the tropics would be complete…(124)

Such an attitude on his part was hardly the basis for a sustainable marriage, but he never lost his ability to see Moni in terms of his own needs rather than as a person with needs of her own.

And yet, Anthony and Moni’s story is not simply that of the immigrant bride who has been drawn into the obit of her husband. Their relationship is all too common in marriages without the geographical specifics of this story. Maybe the metaphor of colonizer and colonized is an apt one for the problems facing a wide range of couples.

Gupta compels the reader through long sentences and paragraphs that cover pages. She probes into her characters, playing with their contradictions. The pace is tense, and in spite of little actual action, I felt rushed. This is not my favorite style of writing, and at times I got frustrated with the sheer weight of the story. The author demanded more of me as a reader than I wanted to give. I did not want to get sucked into the intense writing about yet another failed relationship, especially when I could see no possibility of a decent resolution of the issues raised. But Gupta surprised me, pulling me back into the story with her sharp descriptive phrases and ending the book on a note of hope.

Throughout the book, Moni sings the words of poetry by Tagore, for her the Poet. She sings them in Bengali, a language Anthony never understands, and the words are an apt, ambivalent comment on their story. I completed this book ready to search out and read more of Tagore’s poetry.

I recommend Memories of Rain for those who are more comfortable than I am with this style of writing. I liked the book more in retrospect than I did as I read it.