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Ian's Reviews > Ice-Candy Man
Ice-Candy Man
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A hard-hitting novel about the Partition of India, as seen through the eyes of a young girl.
The story covers, roughly, the years 1943 to 1948. (As the story is told from a child’s perspective, we aren’t given dates. These have to be inferred from mention of world events). The central character, Lenny, is about four years old when the novel opens, growing up in Lahore in a prosperous family from the tiny Parsi (Zoroastrian) religious minority, but with her physical development affected by polio. In all of these things she is a close match for the real life author. I don’t know how much else in the novel is autobiographical. It develops with Lenny observing the world largely through the life of her ayah, a young woman with a veritable legion of male admirers, as well as through the lives of her relatives, her neighbours and the other household servants. Slowly all these relationships are pulled apart by the rising ethnic tension. As a reader, I felt that that the author built the atmosphere gradually, using conversations between the characters as ominous signs of what was to come, but from Lenny’s point of view:
“It is sudden. One day everybody is themselves – and the next day they are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian. People shrink, dwindling into symbols.”
Unlike one-sided persecutions like the Holocaust or the Armenian Genocide, the Partition was an event in which large numbers of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs both killed and were killed. This is reflected in the novel where the author does not show partisanship between the ethnic groups. It seemed to me though that she did want to make the point that whilst both men and women were victims of the violence, women were almost entirely absent from the perpetrators, and in particular she uses the novel to attack the pernicious idea that women who are the victims of kidnapping and rape are somehow “shamed” or “fallen”.
There were several scenes, set amongst the Parsi community or Lenny’s family, where the author seemed to be trying to introduce an element of comedy. If so these scenes didn’t really work for me. The character of Lenny could also at times be an odd mix of childhood naivete and sharp intelligence, but overall I thought this was a very high quality novel, and an uncomfortable warning as to how quickly it can all fall apart.
The story covers, roughly, the years 1943 to 1948. (As the story is told from a child’s perspective, we aren’t given dates. These have to be inferred from mention of world events). The central character, Lenny, is about four years old when the novel opens, growing up in Lahore in a prosperous family from the tiny Parsi (Zoroastrian) religious minority, but with her physical development affected by polio. In all of these things she is a close match for the real life author. I don’t know how much else in the novel is autobiographical. It develops with Lenny observing the world largely through the life of her ayah, a young woman with a veritable legion of male admirers, as well as through the lives of her relatives, her neighbours and the other household servants. Slowly all these relationships are pulled apart by the rising ethnic tension. As a reader, I felt that that the author built the atmosphere gradually, using conversations between the characters as ominous signs of what was to come, but from Lenny’s point of view:
“It is sudden. One day everybody is themselves – and the next day they are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian. People shrink, dwindling into symbols.”
Unlike one-sided persecutions like the Holocaust or the Armenian Genocide, the Partition was an event in which large numbers of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs both killed and were killed. This is reflected in the novel where the author does not show partisanship between the ethnic groups. It seemed to me though that she did want to make the point that whilst both men and women were victims of the violence, women were almost entirely absent from the perpetrators, and in particular she uses the novel to attack the pernicious idea that women who are the victims of kidnapping and rape are somehow “shamed” or “fallen”.
There were several scenes, set amongst the Parsi community or Lenny’s family, where the author seemed to be trying to introduce an element of comedy. If so these scenes didn’t really work for me. The character of Lenny could also at times be an odd mix of childhood naivete and sharp intelligence, but overall I thought this was a very high quality novel, and an uncomfortable warning as to how quickly it can all fall apart.
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Reading Progress
February 16, 2016
– Shelved as:
to-read
February 16, 2016
– Shelved
December 23, 2016
–
0.0%
"I bought a second hand copy of this and it turns out there are about 50 pages missing from the book. I'll have to put this aside. A shame really as it was looking promising - I must get another copy sometime."
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December 23, 2016
– Shelved as:
to-read
April 1, 2017
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Started Reading
April 14, 2017
– Shelved as:
4-star-lit-fiction
April 14, 2017
– Shelved as:
fiction
April 14, 2017
– Shelved as:
india
April 14, 2017
–
Finished Reading
July 8, 2025
– Shelved as:
20th-century-fiction
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Patricia
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rated it 3 stars
Dec 26, 2016 02:04PM
Sounds good to me too.
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Interesting review, Ian (I couldn't find a review by the other goodreads reader I mentioned - I think she just marked it as "to read"). I've become too squeamish these days to read anything with what people call "challenge". maybe I shouldn't have thrown out those 27 volumes of "The Forsyte Saga" in the loft! The issue of female culpability in rape cases is, justifiably, a prominent one, and any novel debunking this idea is going to be well read and well reviewed. The question of the absence of females as perpretators of violence seems to receive, sadly, less prominence and I think I would it find it more interesting.
I wouldn't describe the violence in this novel as gratuitous, but the subject matter is such that there is plenty that is unpleasant. Despite the assertions of Guardian columnists, I don't think there is any evidence that females in positions of power are any less ruthless than males in the same position - you only have to consider the actions of female rulers in history, from Cleopatra to Catherine the Great and through to Maggie Thatcher. However, historically the type of horrific mob violence described in this novel does seem to have been almost exclusively carried out by males. As you say, interesting to speculate on the extent to which this is determined by either biology or culture.
Yes, the type of violence is an important factor, as is the degree of male domination in the society. One of the things I find interesting in Philippa Gregory, whom my daughters recommended, is that she explores the role of women in history in manipulating the male front-line figures. Violence one step removed.
J.C. wrote: "Yes, the type of violence is an important factor, as is the degree of male domination in the society. One of the things I find interesting in Philippa Gregory, whom my daughters recommended, is tha..."Yes I remember that being a major theme of "Burnt Njal's Saga", which was based on real events. The men in the tale were often reluctant to get involved in blood feud but were easily manipulated by their womenfolk, who simply had to bring up the accusation of "coward" to shame their men into action. I suppose that carried on down to the 20th century with the White Feather campaign of WWI - it was almost exclusively women who handed out white feathers. Compton Mackenzie thought it was little more than a device by which women could get rid of boyfriends and husbands that they had tired of!
I had a look at the GR page of Philippa Gregory. She comes over well in her Q and A section.
Yes, i was slightly surprised when I first discovered that Philippa Gregory is an extremely well qualified historian. One might say she fills in the gaps - since the doings of most women are not recorded in official sources. Compton Mackenzie rates about zero with me after his behaviour in Barra! And as for getting rid of boyfriends . . . there were better ways, such as our mother demonstrated!
Powerful review, Ian. The quote you picked says it all, reminding me of Manto's observations on Partition. On some of the pernicious ideas on rape - blaming the victim (provocation, clothes, alcohol) - I recently read an interview with a philosopher who specialises in evolutionary biology and who finds it necessary to point out it is nonsense to think of rape as a act of violence rather than of lust, which made me wonder on which planet she is living, thinking of the many testimonies of the use of rape as a weapon in war.
Ilse wrote: "Powerful review, Ian. The quote you picked says it all, reminding me of Manto's observations on Partition. On some of the pernicious ideas on rape - blaming the victim (provocation, clothes, alcoho..."Thank you very much Ilse.
Whilst there are no graphic descriptions of rape in this book (that I can recall) there are references to such, and these are in the category of rape as an exercise of power amongst ethnic groups, rather than of lust. As you say Ilse, there are multiple examples of this in war.
A fantastic and fair-minded review, Ian. This novel was made into a well-received movie called Earth by Deepa Mehta (an Indo-Canadian director) in the late 90's. GR is not allowing me to add the link here.
Vishakha wrote: "A fantastic and fair-minded review, Ian. This novel was made into a well-received movie called Earth by Deepa Mehta (an Indo-Canadian director) in the late 90's. GR is not allowing me to add the li..."Thank you very much Vishakha. I will look out that film.
