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itsthelittlethings's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
Deceptively simple prose, but raises fundamental questions around our existence. The meaning of life and the yearning for permanence and all the everyday struggles that it brings.
anusha_reads's review
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
FIRE BIRD, PERUMAL MURUGAN, WINNER OF @THEJCBPRIZE 2023
Many years ago my father had asked me to read Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck and I loved it. Fire Bird somewhat reads like Good Earth. The protagonist, Wang Lung in Good Earth and Muthu in Fire Bird, both toil in the soil, dig in the earth and find endless happiness in the land they own. Fire Bird has similar settings but in villages of Tamil Nadu. Fire Bird, written by Perumal Murugan in Tamil has been excellently translated into English by Janani Kannan.
Land causes problems, and rifts in the family, and Muthu is ostracised from his own family, land, and village. The story is a journey undertaken by Muthu and his right-hand -man Kuppan. The author has beautifully captured the fear, apprehensions, and doubts a person has when he leaves his place of birth and moves to an unknown land in search of better prospects. It’s a poignant tale which talks about love, hatred, family ties, friendship, patriarchy, misogyny and the wonders of the good earth.
What causes rifts in families?
Is it better to have a joint family or a nuclear family?
Do people do well when they migrate?
Do people who stay put in their village for generations succeed in life?
The titular Fire Bird or Aalanthaapatchi is what Muthu's mother called her daughter-in-law or Muthu's wife Peruma. The firebird or mythical Phoenix is capable of reemerging/being reborn from its ashes. So the author is talking about getting a new life?
I could sense the strangeness felt by Muthu when he steps into a village which is not his where the people speak in a different dialect. An example from the book is, that in the new village, people call the coconut shell Kottaankuchi whereas in Muthu's village, they call it Tengai thotti. I'm sure that while reading it in English we are missing out on all the dialogues spoken in different dialects of Tamil. I think it would be fantastic to read it in Tamil (I wish I knew how to read or write). I was enamoured by the rustic setting, the liberal use of Tamil words like Nattamai, Veshti, Kothu, Manvetti, Kadaparai...
India is rich in so many languages and all languages have dialects. People can identify each other just by their dialect. The same goes for cuisines too.
In this simple and brilliant read, the author captures the rural settings so beautifully, that one can picturise it while reading it!
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