A slow-moving but worthwhile exploration of common marriage in Rakcham, India.
In Dey’s debut novel, an Indian woman, newly wed, learns that she will be shared in marriage with her husband’s brother.
In Rakcham, near the Tibetan border, 22-year-old Pravin lives with his wife, Nisha; his younger brother, Diwakar; their father, Shevak; their mother, Parvati; and his kid sister, Ria. Pravin’s thoughts are primarily of Nisha, whom he loves. A beauty, Nisha is from Ribba and studied literature at college, where she met Pravin. Nisha is in love with Pravin and fantasizes about their future together, even though her lot will be farming, cooking, bearing children and ensuring the happiness of others. To support the family, Pravin, an electrician, works in the city, which limits the time he spends at home. In his absence, Diwakar and Nisha grow closer, though she thinks of him as a brother. A few weeks later, home on a brief work leave, Pravin proposes a common marriage—he and Diwakar will share Nisha as their wife. The plan makes sense economically and culturally for the family unit, but it troubles Nisha, who has no choice or say in the matter. Author Dey calls attention to the primitive tradition of common marriage, still practiced in some remote communities in India. Although the brothers share one wife, as characters, they are diverse. Pravin is traditional, pragmatic, quick to anger and capable of managing city life, while Diwakar is loyal, affectionate and dreamily sensitive, not just with Nisha, but in his appreciation of the pastoral life in the Himalayan foothills. Although well told, the narrative’s pacing sometimes lags, and the book’s raison d’être—the common marriage—is not openly discussed until the final third. One interesting, ironic twist about women’s sexuality in the novel: Although one female character suffers in an arranged marriage and satisfies her husband’s libido, it’s nonetheless acceptable for her to seek sexual satisfaction from her husband’s live-in friend—with no knowledge or consent of her husband. A subplot involving kid sister Ria, aggressively infatuated with boyfriend Jeet, offers hope that her future will be more expansive, loosening the traditional boundaries of outmoded practices. Since Nisha is powerless to reject or affect Pravin’s decision to share her with his brother, her options are few. The outcome is hardly a surprise and, if anything, seems to support tradition. Still, the tale is quietly strong in its portrayal of an Indian family and their lives of ritual, devotion and sacrifice.
A slow-moving but worthwhile exploration of common marriage in Rakcham, India.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2012
ISBN: 978-0988170001
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Salfas
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.
A novel tells the story of two spirited girls who set out to save a lame foal in 1952.
Mary, age 12, lacks muscle control of her legs and must use a wheelchair. Her life is constantly interrupted by trips with her widower father to assorted doctors, all of whom have failed to help her. Mary tolerates the treatments, hoping to one day walk unassisted, but her true passion involves horses. Possessing a library filled with horse books, she loves watching and drawing the animals at a neighboring farm. She longs to own one herself. But her father, overprotective due to her disability and his own lingering grief over Mary’s dead mother, makes her keep her distance. Mary befriends Laura, the emotionally neglected daughter of the wealthy neighboring farm owners, and the two share secret buggy rides. Both girls are attracted to Illusion, a beautiful red bay filly on the farm. Mary learns that Illusion is to be put down by a veterinarian because of a lame leg. Horrified, she decides to talk to the barn manager about the horse (“Isn’t it okay for her to live even if she’s not perfect? I think she deserves a chance”). Soon, Mary and Laura attempt to raise money to save Illusion. At the same time, Mary begins to gain control of her legs thanks to water therapy and secret therapeutic riding with Laura. There is indeed a great deal of poignancy in a story of a girl with a disability fighting to defend the intrinsic value of a lame animal. But this book, the first installment of the Dream Horse Adventure Series, would be twice as touching if Mary interacted with Illusion more. In the tale’s opening, she watches the foal from afar, but she actually spends very little time with the filly she tries so hard to protect. This turns out to be a strange development given the degree to which the narrative relies on her devotion. Count (Selah’s Sweet Dream, 2015) draws Mary and Laura in broad but believable strokes, defined mainly by their unrelenting pluckiness in the face of adversity. While the work tackles disability, death, and grief, Mary’s and Laura’s environments are so idyllic and their optimism and perseverance so remarkable that the story retains an aura of uncomplicated gentleness throughout.
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Hastings Creations Group
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.
The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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