Hunter Books

Many of the characters from the earlier books converge in DIVISION, and the book introduces a new character, Guy Perron, who is a Chillingborough-Cambridge educated historian whose "period" and place are mid-19th Century India. Guy's character is used to tie up all the loose ends.

After arriving in India as a British army sergeant (he has elected not become an officer although his education and class clearly warrent it), Guy has the misfortune to be "chosen" by the recently-promoted-to-LtCol. and very wicked Ronald Merrick as his aide-de-camp. Merrick is still riddled with class envy, and sees in Guy an excellent opportunity to abuse someone he despises. Fortunately, Guy is able to escape from Merrick through the graces of his Aunt Charlotte who pulls strings to have him released from the army.

Fortunately for Guy, he doesn't escape Merrick before he meets Sarah Layton. Their story is told in this fourth volume and certain elements of the tale bring to mind the earlier story of Hari Kumar and Daphne Manners. In fact, it is through Guy's meeting of Merrick, Sarah, and another Chillingburrian, Nigel Rowan (who interviewed Hari Kumar in prison) that he becomes interested in the events at Mayapore in 1942 and the subsequent consequences for all involved.

As with other great classics, in DIVISION things do not always evolve as the reader would have wished. This book is very realistic -- sorrow and joy are mixed. In JEWEL IN THE CROWN, the first book in the series, Lady Chatterjee says she does not want to go to a heaven that excludes joy and sorrow because being human requires one to feel joy and sorrow.

Perhaps it is because humans can experience sorrow they are capable of experiencing joy. In the end, the reader discovers Hari Kumar's fate and the identity of Philoctetes as well as the difference between Dharma and Karma. This is a powerful series and a fabulous ending to the tale.

Please do not let the length of this series dissuade you from reading it! The books are all very compelling and well-written. If you like historical fiction, they are very much worth your time. I would recommend you watch the mini-series (I rented it from Netflix), read the 4 books, and then watch the mini again. You'll get quite a bit out of it that way.

Enjoy!

The first book focused on the British occupation of India during WWII and introduced us to the "Manners" case - the only interesting bit in a book that had long waffly passages describing India. Who needs to read a history book? This book would have done it... The 2nd book focused more on the "Layton's" and was much more readable as it was the changing India as seen through the eyes of a few key characters. The 3rd book was a boring repetition of the 2nd book and this last book, about the end of the British occupation and WWII was just brilliant!

Like his much more enjoyable 2nd book, this one is told almost exclusively through the eyes of key characters we met in previous books - and it introduces us to the rakish charm of Guy Perron. I always remember Charles Dance's interpretation of Guy Perron in the BBC series making a strong impression on me, but I found the character in the book even more engaging.

This last book in the series was absolutely stunning and made persevering through the whole series somewhat worth it. I say somewhat, because it has been a real trial getting through the denser parts of Books I and III and I wouldn't push this series on anyone, even though the last book is a literary accomplishment.

I try to think if this book is readable without having read the previous books, and although I suspect it is (Scott continues to go back over vast chunks of history from someone else's point of view), it would be a shallow interpretation without the reader gaining all the knowledge from the first 3 books.

Book 4 is the tour-de-force of the series, the longest and the one that covers the greatest distance, emotionally and chronologically. Into the Laytons' social set come Nigel Rowan, an officer in the political branch whom we have met before in Book 2 interrogating Hari Kumar some years after his imprisonment, and Guy Perron, a sergeant in the intelligence service who is "chosen" against his will by Ronald Merrick to serve in his unit. Merrick seems deliberately to surround himself with people who dislike him: Guy Perron, Sarah Layton, and before them Daphne Manners and Hari Kumar. Rowan and Perron, incidentally, are former schoolmates of Kumar's at the posh Chillingborough Academy in England. And they're not the only ones: The British in India seem constantly reminded that Kumar symbolizes the insoluble problem of India's Britishness. He's too British for the Indians and too Indian for the British. Perron is an excellent guide through the final days of the Raj, stolid and proper yet inwardly seething with intellectual outrage. An explosive yet sombre climax in 1947 details the very end of the British presence in India, the beginnings of the Hindu-Muslim riots throughout the country, and gives an expansive sense of just how far one has come from the small town of Mayapore and the darkly deserted Bibighar Gardens.