✔ Set in Kerala, south India ✔ Childhood memories and struggle of a broken family ✔ Tradition and expectations, class struggle and love affairs
🔽 Review summary 🔽
★★★★★ Knowing you are loved less, jealously, love, taboo, nothingness, coldness, honesty - through these feelings and environment the life slowly falls apart. Haunting, emotional and beautiful.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
A friend of mine recommended this book, so I started reading it without knowing anything about it - what a glorious and emotional surprise.
It is difficult to read. First of all because it's not chronological, chapters and plot jump around and second of all, if you don't know much about Indian culture, ideas and terms, you feel left behind. So, I ended up googling a lot while reading, but it was definitely worth it.
You don't really understand what happened in earlier chapters until the end. It reminds us of the way our minds work, when you are traumatised you first feel the strong sense of fear of the moment, and slowly you establish the surroundings, it's never like, A happened thus B happened, followed by C.
The meaning and significance of the fact that it was written by an Indian woman living in India. The emotions, perspective, way of descriptions that she has as an Indian or Asian woman cannot shine through fully if she was brought up in the West. Physically living a life where you have the Caste, as a mother, as a woman, as an obstacle. The acknowledgement that you are loved less as a child, jealously, love, taboo, nothingness, coldness, honesty - through these feelings and environment the life slowly falls apart.
The best part of reading this book is to try to follow these small things. Of course it won Booker Award.
Also after reading the book I really wanted to see Kathakali, and yes I managed it, I did go to Kerala and saw it.
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