Set in a village in the south-western Indian province of Kerala, the novel opens with the arrival of Rahel to her home at Ayenemen to meet Esthappen. It centres about the life of the fraternal twins, Rahel and her brother Esthappen, their mother Ammu and other members of the family.
The work is lyrical and poetic, uses unusual imagery and metaphors and appeals equally to the intellect as well as the sentiments of the reader. We find some of the singular figurative expressions as in the line : The old house on the hill wore its steep, gabed roof pulled over its ears like a low hat. Or when the river's decription is given as Once it had the power to evoke fear. To change lives. But now its teeth were drawn, its spirit spent. It was just a slow sludging green ribbon lawn that furried fetid garbage to the sea.
It is an intricate writing that explores the depths of human nature, their passions, yearnings, quarrels with fate and the acceptance of inevitability.
"We're Prisoners of War", Chacko said, "Our dreams have been doctored. We belong nowhere. We sail unanchored on troubled seas. We may never be allowed ashore. Our sorrows will nver be sad enough. Our joys never happy enough. Our dreams nver big enough. Our lives never important enough. To matter."
The story is told in third person from the perspective of the little girl Rahel while she moves into spells childhood and adulthood. Reference to the childhood and youth of older generation have also been given to explain the behaviour of certain characters. The language is used as a tool and is manipulated at various parts to indicate the viewpoint of a child as in: The singing stopped for a 'Whatisit? Whathappened?' and furrywhirring and sariflapping. or the use of 'stoppiting' instead of 'stopping it'. Short sentences have been used in various parts to increase the impact and gravity of the situations. The author narrates the story as spells of memory, shifting between three generations smoothly. However this makes the initial chapters confusing and difficult to comprehend. But once the separate narations intertwine, it grips the reader till the end. Reference to events that are unveiled in the latter chapters have been made in the initial chapters so that even if it was not understood initially, when the main story unfolds, the reader can identify them with the events mentioned later.
The main plot of the story deals with the arrival of the half-English cousin of the twins, Sophie Mol, her accidental death and the events that followed which led to a shattered family, devastated childhood, end of an illicit love story and the complete transformation of many lives. The story deals with various aspects prevailing in that place during that time and their effects on the social, political, ethical as well as individual lives. The effect of Marxism that swept the province, casteism that prevailed not just among the Hindus but also among the Syrian Christians, the attitude towards a divorcee from an inter-caste love marriage, the love between 'paravan' and high class girl, the struggle of a child's mind against the prejudice of adult and even paedophilia has been dealt with.
In a country that shecame from, pised forever between terror of war and horror of peace, Worse Things kept happening. So small God... climbed into people's eyes and become exasperating expression.
The revelation of the clandestine meetings of Ammu and Velutha was followed by the ruthless killing of humanity and innocence and the fragmentation of aclutched family. The separation of the two twins when in those early amorphous years when memory had just begun, when life was full of Begginings and no Ends and Everything was For Ever, Esthappen and Rahel thought of themselves together as ME and Separately as We or Us resulted in the quiteness in one and the emptiness in another, both beyond the comprehension of common man. At the end of 23 years from when the events took place, the twins meet again not to share happiness but a hideous grief.
The revelation of the clandestine meetings of Ammu and Velutha was followed by the ruthless killing of humanity and innocence and the fragmentation of aclutched family. The separation of the two twins when in those early amorphous years when memory had just begun, when life was full of Begginings and no Ends and Everything was For Ever, Esthappen and Rahel thought of themselves together as ME and Separately as We or Us resulted in the quiteness in one and the emptiness in another, both beyond the comprehension of common man. At the end of 23 years from when the events took place, the twins meet again not to share happiness but a hideous grief.
The story deals with sensitive issues in an unusual but impressive way. However there still remain flaws. Some of the characters are weak and are unable to make any impression; there is iterative and overuse of language manipulationand towards the end the reader longs for more simple and straight forward approach; and the end although poignant and touchy does not fall into pieces with the story and is unable to leave much impacton the reader's mind. However as a whole, the novel makes a good reading, explores the dimensions of language and pressurizes the reader to think on the fallout and importance of certain aspects of our society.
[Book Review by Ankita Mukherjee]
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