335 pages and over
three weeks is quite uncharacteristic of me. It means the book didn’t appeal to
me. Yet it’s a good novel, my heart tells me again and again. So I picked it up
once more for a second reading before writing this post which is not really a
review. How can you review a book unless it made you feel something in your
heart?
My attempt to
give it a second reading floundered to a rather abrupt end when the book made
me feel sleepy every time I picked it up. Yet I can guarantee that the book is
good. A sexagenarian looks back at his life with much wistfulness and
resignation. The loss of his mother when he was only nine years old redefined
his life altogether. Later the father too abandoned him for a while.
The mother ran
away with a German when she realised that there was little in common between
her and her husband. There was no connection between the mother and the son
except some letters she wrote him initially. The mother vanishes from the boy’s
consciousness eventually but not from his subconscious mind.
Anuradha Roy
narrates the story well in an aesthetically subdued manner. The narrative moves
on like a gentle river meandering along its convoluted course. The characters
are complex enough to sustain our interest. There is a young wife who abandons
her family in order to discover her freedom. There is her son who grows up to
wonder why his mother abandoned him. The narrator’s father and grandfather are
fascinating characters too.
The narrative
style is superb too. There is elegance, there is subtlety, there is a fairly
interesting blend of history and fiction.
Yet why didn’t
I enjoy reading it? I don’t know. Maybe, the narrative is a little too clever
for me. A plot that is contrived to capture the reader’s attention? Maybe, I
can’t say. One question that left me baffled is why a real person from history,
Walter Spies, was used as a main character, the one with whom a purely
fictitious character, the narrator’s mother, elopes.
Well, maybe,
someday I’ll return to this novel yet again and try to rediscover its critically
acclaimed beauty.
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