Reviews

Read Harder 2016 Challenge: Read a Book That is By an Author from Southeast Asia.

Ahhhh I have such mixed feelings about this one. This is a compulsively readable family saga that spans some 80 years. Rani Manicka has a writing style that's quite atmospheric and evocative. She makes chopping onions into a truly fascinating affair. When she turns her attention to showing all the ways in which a family unit can be dysfunctional in the face of trauma, my heart was in my throat. Somehow, even when nothing was happening, this book was exciting at all times. This is the first book in a while in which I remember being truly excited to just sink into the book's world ever time I opened my kindle. Sure, it was a frequently depressing, unhappy world, but it was terribly engaging.

And yet... There are unsettling fault lines all throughout this book. First, rape is a big part of this book. Marital and war time rape in particular, often to underage girls. This is not something that makes me write off a work of fiction. Far from it; fiction can be a compelling avenue for exploring the effects of sexual assault. However, in this book, descriptions of it often took on a lurid tone. Often, it was literally voyeuristic; most of the time we don't truly get to see inside the victim's head. Instead, we hear how the victim told the chapter's narrator about it, and then the narrator relates it back to us. Often times the victim is underaged and the narrative lingers over this. I have a strong stomach when reading, but something about the narrative made me feel a bit ill in these moments. And it wasn't because Manicka successfully conveyed the horror of it.

The book also often conflates likelihood of rape with physical beauty. Which brings me to the books second major fault. Namely, there is a constant obsession with physical beauty in this book. With many of the evil characters it lingers over the fact they're overweight. Characters are lauded or written off due to the color of their skin. This is probably period appropriate, but... literally every dark-skinned character is either rapacious, intellectually disabled in some vague way, or both. The obsessing over this lessens in the latter chapters. But the narrative also completely loses interest in

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dark-skinned Lalita,

too, and you end up with the impression that Lakshmi's predictions that

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she was somehow correct to predict that Lalita would have a dead-end future because of her dark skin.

I have a feeling this was meant to be a flaw of Lakshmi's, but the narrative often upholds her prejudices

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for example, she hates Rani on sight because she's dark. And what do you know! Rani turns out to be one of the most evil characters in the book! This kind of thing happens over and over, and the small moment when Anna does'maybe ama was unfair to Lalita' is too little to diminish it.

So it makes for a strange reading experience.

The narrative barely characterizes

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Mohini

, meanwhile, which is a huge problem because her loss shapes so many things after her. But who cares when she's so beautiful, apparently? When she is alive we get a sense of her liking minerals and being bravely compassionate. After she's gone the narrative beats us over the head with 'her loss is sad because she was so beautiful, and pale, and did we mention she had GREEN EYES.' Now this might be a device to highlight the characters' flaws. After all, this family does let the loss of this character derail the rest of their lives so much it echoes into their childrens' lives. But the fact remains that when she dies, 99% of the time the characters are wistfully remembering her looks and nothing else. It leaves an impression on the reader. Or, at least, it left an impression on this reader.

So, yes. Mixed feelings on this book. It's somehow incredibly emotional evocative and incredibly shallow all at once.

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