The HouseholderRuth Prawer Jhabvala
1960
5/5 stars
Prem, recently married, is finding life hard as a husband and working man, and longs for the days when he was a still a student living with his parents. In this coming-of-age tale, the reader watches as Prem slowly moves away from child mentality to that of an adult householder, falls in love with his wife, and begins to find his place in the world.
Jhabvala's exquisite prose balances between witty and poignant. The voice of Prem is so beautifully written that the reader feels invested in his life. The Householder is perceptive and insightful, and flows easily from one incident to the next, giving the reader a glimpse of life in India in the late 1950s, and a complete view into the mind of a boy becoming a man. I highly recommend this comic, yet serious, novel.
