Book Review: The Lilac House by Anita Nair

Genre: Literary fiction

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

Pub date: 24 April 2012

Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Synopsis

Meera’s happy life as a corporate wife  comes crashing down when her husband leaves her and her two teenaged children. Heart-broken, Meera has to find a way to not only take care of her children, but also come to terms with her husband’s betrayal and her own life. She is also responsible for taking care of her mother and grandmother and a crumbling old family home in Bangalore.

Professor J.A. Krishnamurthy (aka Jak aka Kitcha) has recently come back from Florida to Bangalore to take care of his catatonic 19-year old daughter, who was the victim of a tragic accident. But he is plagued by her condition and desperate to find out what really happened to her in a small town by the sea.

Meera and Jak live a few streets away in Bangalore and slowly their lives intertwine.

Review

A review that shows you more about the reviewer than the book is a deficient one. But in this case, you must bear with me as I gush about a book that I fell in love with and could not get enough of. And since this is a purely subjective opinion, my reasons for loving this book perhaps have less to do its literary merit and more with how close to home it is for me. It’s not so much the characters that are close to home, but the setting itself.

Not that the book falls short of literary merit. Nair has used two very interesting devices to tell this story. Meera, the corporate housewife, compares herself to the Greek goddess Hera. She describes herself as Zeus’ neglected wife as he goes on to cavort with other women. She also describes many of the people in their social circle as mythological characters.

Jak is an expert on cyclones. Jak’s chapters describe life as a cyclone in its different stages. Excerpts from Jak’s book preface some of the chapters and give readers a preview of what it about to happen. And these are the two literary devices that provide the framework for this story.

The Lilac House is not an easy read, because there is so much it tackles and much of it is below the surface. And that for me is another reason that this story resonated. Each reader can take away a whole different experience. Nair deals with the status of women in this book as she has done in eariler works (I’ve read Mistress, which is one of my favourite books). Meera, her mother and grandmother, Jak’s aunt Kala Chitti, Jak’s daughter Smriti – each of these characters has colourful stories.

And of course, the lilac house where Meera lives with her mother and grandmother also plays a big part in the story. This house that looks like old money is hiding more than cheap paint.

The Lilac House is a beautifully told story of regret, redemption, and revival. Meera and Jak and easy characters to like and I found myself hoping that they would each find the peace they needed to get on with their lives. The story does not have a neat ending, though, and it’s clear that our protagonists have a long way to go. I loved every bit of the story from the mythological tones, to the chapters on cyclones, description of life in booming Bangalore and the small seaside town. Jak’s aunt Kala Chitti is another character who got under my skin. Her quiet wisdom and support of her nephew and his daughter made me fall in love with her character.

Verdict

Highly recommended for readers of literary fiction and contemporary Indian fiction.

Rating: 5*

*See my Rating policy

Did you enjoy this post? You can subscribe to posts from Stargazerpuj’s Book Blog by mail or RSS to get updates.

© Stargazerpuj and Stargazerpuj’s Book Blog, 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Book Review: And Laughter Fell from the Sky by Jyotsna Sreenivasan

Genre: General fiction, Multicultural fiction

Publisher: Harper Collins (William Morrow)

Pub date:June 2012

Source: Publisher

Synopsis (From GoodReads)

Old family friends, Rasika and Abhay seem to have nothing in common, and yet when the two reconnect by chance, sparks immediately fly. Abhay loves Rasika, but he knows her family would never approve. Rasika knows she has feelings for Abhay, but can she turn her back on the family rules she has always tried so hard to live by? The search to find answers takes Abhay and Rasika out of their native Ohio to Oregon and India, where they find that what they have together might just be something worth fighting for.

Review

And Laughter Fell from the Sky is the story of Rasika and Abhay, young Indian-Americans who find themselves caught between two cultures. Rasika is a young professional whose parents are desperate to find her a good husband. An obedient daughter, she doesn’t want to disappoint her parents by objecting. She doesn’t seem to have an alternate plan for her life since she has accepted a long time ago that this is how it is in Indian families. But as her parents race to get her married before her twenty-sixth birthday, she hides her dalliances with men who would never be considered suitable by her family.

Abhay is an extremely intelligent young man who’s trying very hard to find himself and his place in the world. His angst-ridden search finds him living on a commune and half-heartedly working at various temporary jobs. His father is livid that Abhay isn’t able to decide on his own future and find himself a stable career. When these two people meet, they are just old childhood friends being polite to each other. They have nothing in common, but as they continue meeting and talking to each other, an attraction grows between them. As a good Indian girl who is about to get married, Rasika can’t be seen with other men lest it taint her reputation. But Abhay is convinced that Rasika is the girl for him and keeps trying to meet her.

One of the most telling points in the story is when Abhay says that Indians in the US are just there for the high-paying jobs and the things they can buy. Very few of them actually become members of the community, preferring to stay with other Indians. And many of that generation also refuse to take US citizenship, wanting to keep their link with home. They become more traditional and Indian in an attempt to hold onto their identity.

For me the part that didn’t work at all is what these two people saw in each other. For the most part, Rasika came across as rather shallow, thinking about home decor and being well-dressed. Abhay was rather different, trying hard to find freedom in everything he does and way of life that lets him do what he wants with no guilt.

What this story does well is show how much pressure young people find themselves under in Indian societies wherever they live. Especially young girls who feel the need to please their parents and understand the disappointment and humiliation they would feel if their daughters defied them. On the other hand, it seems to make them fake people, unsure of who they are and what they want from life. This is true not only of young Indian women who are living in the US or other parts of the world, increasingly it’s the same dilemma that Indian women in India also find themselves in.

And Laughter Fell from the Sky is Sreenivasan’s first novel and inspired by Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth. The saddest part is that society has hardly changed from that time. Traditional Indian parents frequently stress how much freedom they give their grown up children, never seeing the hypocrisy in it. Young women are “allowed” to have jobs, go out with friends and choose their own clothes. And once they get married, their husband “allow” them to work. But when it comes to the most important decisions of their lives, parents know best, even convincing themselves that by allowing their daughters to meet and talk to their prospective husbands, they are in a much better position than older generations where the girl often didn’t meet her husband until the wedding ceremony itself.

We follow these characters from Ohio to Oregon to India, and each of the places that they visit is lovingly described. After having a few close shaves, Rasika’s parents take her to India to meet and marry an eligible man that they’ve found for her. Weighed by guilt, she agrees and wants to do everything she can to make sure that this alliance becomes successful. Abhay also finds himself in India, on his spiritual quest, going to Auroville to see if that is a community where he fits in. It is in India that the two characters are forced to examine their lives and choices more closely.

Verdict

The ending is a little forced and rather too neat, but look beyond these two characters, and this is a powerful story of the lives that many young people lead and the pressures that they have to overcome to find happiness.

Rating: 3.5*

*See my Rating policy

Did you enjoy this post? You can subscribe to posts from Stargazerpuj’s Book Blog by mail or RSS to get updates.

© Stargazerpuj and Stargazerpuj’s Book Blog, 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Book review: A Mysterious Death at Sainik Farms by Rukmani Anandani

Genre: Detective fiction

Publisher: Rupa

Pub date: 2012

Source: Author

Synopsis

Ugrasen is a successful businessman and a domineering patriarch living at Sainik farms with his large extended family. When he drops dead, rather suddenly, it looks like it was death by natural cause. By his 14-year-old niece Anjali believes there is more to it than a sudden heart attack.

She engages the services of a private detective Ganapathy Iyer (GP), who takes on the case with the help of his friend Vinayak Verma and the support of ACP Bijon Dasgupta. What follows is essentially a closed house murder mystery where the protagonist tries to establish motive, means, opportunity and alibis.

Review

Ugrasen is a successful man and demands that his children meet his ideals of success. He is also domineering and rather stubborn, believing that he knows what is best for his adult children and is constantly pressuring them to do as he demands. This sets up the mystery rather nicely since he has ruffled quite a few feathers and caused his family to be frustrated with his high-handedness. Despite this, he is a sympathetic character, so when he does get murdered we care enough about him to want to know who could have killed him.

With a large family and all the politics that comes with it, there are quite a few red herrings – almost everyone in the house had a motive to carry a grudge, so GP has to eliminate them on the basis of other criteria.

We of course have to have the police as part of this investigation, and the bumbling ACP, under pressure to wrap up the case provides a good balance for the calm and steady GP. The ACP does go off on the most obvious clues, while GP knows to look under the surface.

While most the detective fiction set in India has relied rather heavily on interviews and a great deal of luck as a means of elimination of suspects, (like A Nice Quiet Holiday or Monochrome Madonna) Sainik Farms has a combination of forensic work and interviews, which makes it a little more realistic and closer to what we’ve come to expect (from fiction not real life) from watching shows like CSI.

The detective GP and his friend and partner Vinayak Verma get down to actually talking to the people in the house and collecting clues – fingerprints, letters, documents and anything else that could tell them what happened. GP is a ‘typical’ South Indian (you can see my South Indianess bristle at this concept) with a Tamil film hero mustache and a love for the Tirukkural. He is smart and intuitive and a modern day detective, depending on fingerprinting, and other forensic measures to help him along the way.

Vinayak Verma is not a typical Watson, so he also contributes to the collections of clues. But I can’t really tell these two characters apart in what they contribute to the solving of the case. As it stands these two characters are almost interchangeable in my mind and that is not a good position for the protagonist.

Verdict

All told, this was an easy fun mystery, good for a lazy afternoon or on holiday.

Rating: 3.5*

*See my Rating policy

Did you enjoy this post? You can subscribe to posts from Stargazerpuj’s Book Blog by mail or RSS to get updates.

© Stargazerpuj and Stargazerpuj’s Book Blog, 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Book Review: Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai

Genre: Mystery, Social commentary

Publisher: Harper Collins

Pub date: 15 April 2010

Source: Personal copy

Synopsis
Thirteen members of a family are found brutally murdered in Jullundar, a small town in Punjab. 14-year-old Durga is the only survivor, found tied to her bed with obvious signs of abuse. She is held in police custody as the only suspect in this terrible murder.

Simran Singh is a social worker who has been asked to look into the case and try and get Durga to talk to the police and tell them what really happened that night.

Review

Partly based on some real events, Witness the Night is a mystery that deals with the plight of women in traditional India – in particular in Punjabi wealthy families.

Like in many cultures (really, most of them) a woman’s worth is measured by her ability to provide heirs. The pressure is likely more when there is a large inheritance involved since girls cannot be considered heirs. They are schooled and groomed to become acceptable wives and daughters-in-law in respectable homes.

Desai weaves the plight of women, female infanticide/feticide and the collusion between the police and these rich families into this dark tale of mass murder and subterfuge.

The story is told via three different narrative threads: the social worker Simran’s narrative, where she tries to understand what happened; from Durga’s diary entries during the time that she was in police custody; and the emails that Durga’s aunt Binny’s sends to Simran.

There is some degree of artifice in this kind of structure. Binny didn’t need to give little dribbles of information once she had established that Simran could be trusted. Durga’s diary entries also don’t smack of realism considering the state of confusion and numbness she was in. But they all serve rather well to let us get to know each of these characters and advance the story.

The author also tends to stuff facts into the story which derail the narrative somewhat. The facts are relevant to the story but their journalistic voice takes away from the characters and their story.

Despite these structural problems, this is a story that works. One reason is simply Simran. A woman who has fought against her traditional role, a social worker who drinks and smokes and has escaped from her small town roots is someone to be admired in that social setup. Her obvious sincerity comes through and her story is a good read.

Another reason that the story works is that is deals with some very complex issues that hit close to home. The issues stem from the idea in most traditional homes that women should be controlled and the Neanderthal notion that boys are simply better than girls.

As Simran uncovers more about the family, what she learns shocks her and the reader. The suspense comes not so much from finding out who the murderer is (as it is quite clear even at the beginning of the book) but in resolving Durga’s plight. The reader is never in any doubt that she deserves a chance at a normal life, to leave behind the trauma she has suffered and try and find some semblance of happiness and normalcy.

Verdict

Definitely recommended for readers interested in women’s issues especially in India. Those who are looking purely for a mystery might be disappointed.

Rating: 4*

*See my Rating policy

Did you enjoy this post? You can subscribe to posts from Stargazerpuj’s Book Blog by mail or RSS to get updates.