The Shadow Lines Summary

The Shadow Lines (1988) is captures outlook of time and events, of lines that bring people together and hold them apart lines that are clearly visible from one perspective and nonexistent from another; lines that exist in the memory of one, and therefore in another's imagination. A narrative built out of an intricate, constantly crisscrossing web of memories of many people, it never pretends to tell a story. Instead, it invites the reader to invent one, out of the memories of those involved, memories that hold mirrors of differing shades to the same experience. The novel is set against the backdrop of historical events like the Shadeshi movement, Second World War, Partition of India and Communal riots of 1963-64 in Dhaka and Calcutta. The

The relationship between these two families spans three generations and involves several passage to and from India on both sides. As A. N. Kaul explains in his essay. “A Reading of The Shadow Lines” that, “Towards the end the story also crosses the newly created frontier between India East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), engaging or acknowledging along the way the proximate presence of other foreign countries and continents through the Indian diplomatic and the UN posting of the Datta – Chowdhuris”. (p.300) The narrative begins in the year 1939. This is an important year in the history of mankind and particularly in the West as it was the year, in which the Second World War commenced. The novel ends essentially in 1964 with the eruption of a cycle of violence in both India and Pakistan. Explanining the importance of these dates, A. N. Kaul says, “In 1939 Tridib, the narrator’s father’s reet mob near his mother’er in Dhaka constitute the ned points of the novel’s essential narrative”.