A review by littoral
Pyre by Perumal Murugan
3.0
Perumal Murugan’s Pyre is often described as a love story between two young Indian lovers, Kumaresan and Saroja, whose inter-caste marriage inspires caste-induced hatred towards the two. Much of the plot portrays intolerant abuse after intolerant abuse being piled onto the young couple, which rends the heart as we see Kumaresan’s repeated attempts to provide for the couple and Saroja’s increasing unhappiness and loneliness in an unfamiliar community. The stakes are high and we feel a sense of increasing foreboding until the culminating scene of the novel.
Despite the progress of the plot, there is little development of Kumaresan and Saroja’s story together. We are told that they met in Tholur, where Saroja lived, but their initial love is young and naive; we fail to get a sense of the source of their attachment other than physical attraction. Of less have more successful marriages been wrought - but Kumareson never outgrows his youthful optimism that love will overcome caste, and the two are never seen to form a more mature attachment throughout the rest of the book - which weakens the book’s argument about the injustices of caste-based hatred.
There is some exploration of themes about women’s role in Indian society in particular - Marayi, Kumaresan’s mother and Saroja’s mother-in-law, is one of the more developed characters in light of her varied roles as daughter, wife, mother, and mother-in-law being highlighted by various other characters. Through these different lenses, we see how her vitriol towards Saroja, though clearly unjustified, is shaped by the hardness of her life, and the role that society thrust upon her as a young widow raising a son on her own in a patriarchal society. And the book’s depiction of difference in caste is interestingly done, since it is only one source of difference between the couple that is highlighted (semi-urban vs rural, fair-skinned vs dark-skinned). The explicit difference in caste is never named as a way of casting the insignificance of these other potentially significant differences in relief.
If anyone has recommendations for other literature that explores similar themes, I’d love to hear them.
Despite the progress of the plot, there is little development of Kumaresan and Saroja’s story together. We are told that they met in Tholur, where Saroja lived, but their initial love is young and naive; we fail to get a sense of the source of their attachment other than physical attraction. Of less have more successful marriages been wrought - but Kumareson never outgrows his youthful optimism that love will overcome caste, and the two are never seen to form a more mature attachment throughout the rest of the book - which weakens the book’s argument about the injustices of caste-based hatred.
There is some exploration of themes about women’s role in Indian society in particular - Marayi, Kumaresan’s mother and Saroja’s mother-in-law, is one of the more developed characters in light of her varied roles as daughter, wife, mother, and mother-in-law being highlighted by various other characters. Through these different lenses, we see how her vitriol towards Saroja, though clearly unjustified, is shaped by the hardness of her life, and the role that society thrust upon her as a young widow raising a son on her own in a patriarchal society. And the book’s depiction of difference in caste is interestingly done, since it is only one source of difference between the couple that is highlighted (semi-urban vs rural, fair-skinned vs dark-skinned). The explicit difference in caste is never named as a way of casting the insignificance of these other potentially significant differences in relief.
If anyone has recommendations for other literature that explores similar themes, I’d love to hear them.