Book Review Title: The Covenant of Water Author: Abraham Verghese Publisher: Grove Press UK, 2023 Pages: 724 “What defines a family isn’t blood but the secrets they share.” This massive book explores the intricacies of human relationships with a plot that spans almost a century. The story begins in 1900 with 12-year-old Mariamma being wedded to a 40-year-old widower in whose family runs a curse: death by drowning. The story ends in 1977 with another Mariamma, the granddaughter of Mariamma the First who becomes Big Ammachi [grandmother]. A lot of things happen in the 700+ pages of the novel which has everything that one may expect from a popular novel: suspense, mystery, love, passion, power, vulnerability, and also some social and religious issues. The only setback, if it can be called that at all, is that too many people die in this novel. But then, when death by drowning is a curse in the family, we have to be prepared for many a burial. The Kerala of the pre-Independ...
[ Laughs ] That is an interesting way of looking at it!
ReplyDeleteThe post was an interior monologue, Renard. I put it up here on an impulse.
Delete:) Cool.....still laughing...
ReplyDeleteGlad I could make you laugh, Prasad. But our pollsters must be making you laugh more.
Delete:D
ReplyDeleteGlad for you, Anil.
DeleteMake it look like promising the paradise.....amazing way of looking at it. Statistics,media and politics go hand in hand. What is revealed to us is the adulterated version of the actual statistics and then we have to put up with debates about those statistics and then also how great a leader Mr. Rahul Gandhi is.
ReplyDeleteMost statistics are manipulated in one way or another, it seems, Athena. Each pollster must be supporting one party or another, and make convenient predictions.
Delete:-D :-D..
ReplyDeleteHappy to have entertained you, Maniparna. In fact, much of Indian politics is a good entertainer.
DeleteNow that's an interesting way to look at it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I second your perception. :)
We can console ourselves when we learn to see the funny side, isn't it, Nikhil?
DeleteTrue that Sir!
DeleteThat's the best we can do at times.
Good to know you have a raunchy side as well! :)
ReplyDelete... kept under control, Sid. :)
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ReplyDeleteThat's interesting and funny...And yes as you mentioned...Indian Politics is quite an entertainer...
ReplyDeleteAren't we lucky to have such free entertainment? :)
Deleteha ha :-))
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing my joy.
DeleteI love the Naya Chanakya's take - promising paradise :D
ReplyDelete... false paradises, Sangeeta.
DeleteWell the way we use statistics is like a drunken man using a lamp post, for support rather than illumination. With so many opinion polls sprouting up, with unknown backers, I guess it is a case of politicians using these statistics for support. Hence the wild variation.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Sabyasachi
Loved your comparison to the lamp post and drunkard.
DeleteBrilliant Naya Chanakya..hehe
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bushra
Delete