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A review by thekohanacritique
The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh
5.0
The very first novel that was mesmerized me so much that I have so many questions, thoughts and understandings brimming inside me, it's hard to elaborate and explain in such a short review I am planning to write. I ca write an essay, but that won't be a review.
The story as an oversimplified overview would be the story of two families and their life through their memories, their 'history' as they see it, as they contextualize their experiences in those historical events and periods recorded in history books, printed in paper, that the people have learned and categorize as an "important period/event in History". The various times in the familes' lives are highlighted by the play with the concept of time as 'linear' and how memory creates a contradiction to that concept.
More than anything, it's a simple story, but the complexity arises with how the author played with 'time" and memory. and the many underlying concepts that are so controversial in the most subtlest sense, which I have to say, I was blown by; the last few chapters were just beyond beautiful for me, and the way the novel ended, it left me thinking about the entire book as a whole:
What does one mean by "borders" and "boundaries" that are drawn and built to "separate" one country from another? What significance does this division hold when in comes to Nationality? What is Nation? Why is history so different from one place to another? What significance does this provide the people with? The photogenic memory that makes a home out of people that have lost their homes. Nostalgia. "Home" - as no longer a place or a room with four walls and a roof. Print as the retelling of events and making them significant points of the past, then with time, making them "histories".... I could go on.
The story as an oversimplified overview would be the story of two families and their life through their memories, their 'history' as they see it, as they contextualize their experiences in those historical events and periods recorded in history books, printed in paper, that the people have learned and categorize as an "important period/event in History". The various times in the familes' lives are highlighted by the play with the concept of time as 'linear' and how memory creates a contradiction to that concept.
More than anything, it's a simple story, but the complexity arises with how the author played with 'time" and memory. and the many underlying concepts that are so controversial in the most subtlest sense, which I have to say, I was blown by; the last few chapters were just beyond beautiful for me, and the way the novel ended, it left me thinking about the entire book as a whole:
What does one mean by "borders" and "boundaries" that are drawn and built to "separate" one country from another? What significance does this division hold when in comes to Nationality? What is Nation? Why is history so different from one place to another? What significance does this provide the people with? The photogenic memory that makes a home out of people that have lost their homes. Nostalgia. "Home" - as no longer a place or a room with four walls and a roof. Print as the retelling of events and making them significant points of the past, then with time, making them "histories".... I could go on.