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![Estuary by பெருமாள் முருகன் [Perumal Murugan]](https://cdn.thestorygraph.com/hjvq46cv7htajo6yipxejng0ufpv)
3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
A foreword that promises chaos has always had my attention. In Estuary, Perumal Murugan has 'abandoned the compactness and intensity and nuance', ignored all the basic ethics he follows as a writer and given himself certain creative freedom.
Kumarasurar, with his wife Mangasuri, live in their urban home in Asurapur. They dote on their only son Meghas, spoiling him to the extent that he has turned into an adamant teenager who makes his own choices about live, weighing pros and cons in a rash, selfish and disinterested manner. Kumarasurar has no 'additional income' and his days are spent planning his finances in hopes that Meghas will get into a good college and finally land a prestigious job.
'Estuary' is about the anxiety parents go through, in a world where young minds are corrupted by porn, smartphones, alcohol and drugs(to name a few). This might be a fictional setting but we are in a world where institutions churn out robots, flaunting their success rate and backing it up by cruel methods that will either make or break a person.
A caustic world, spewing truth is what 'Estuary' is all about. The writer simply narrates a story, more observation than preaching. And even then, as readers, we are engrossed, trying to grasp a POV that we as teenagers were unaware of, and Meghas' mind that reverberates a lot with our past self. The parents spend their days losing sleep and appetite over their only son's wellbeing while the son tries to cope up with the modern world, it's promises of temporary glory and the constant desire to be better than one's peers.
There's also a witty side to a story we have heard time and again, and that makes Murugan stand out. He laughs at his characters and their quirks, points out their nuances meticulously, and also gives you thoughts to chew upon.
Kumarasurar, with his wife Mangasuri, live in their urban home in Asurapur. They dote on their only son Meghas, spoiling him to the extent that he has turned into an adamant teenager who makes his own choices about live, weighing pros and cons in a rash, selfish and disinterested manner. Kumarasurar has no 'additional income' and his days are spent planning his finances in hopes that Meghas will get into a good college and finally land a prestigious job.
'Estuary' is about the anxiety parents go through, in a world where young minds are corrupted by porn, smartphones, alcohol and drugs(to name a few). This might be a fictional setting but we are in a world where institutions churn out robots, flaunting their success rate and backing it up by cruel methods that will either make or break a person.
A caustic world, spewing truth is what 'Estuary' is all about. The writer simply narrates a story, more observation than preaching. And even then, as readers, we are engrossed, trying to grasp a POV that we as teenagers were unaware of, and Meghas' mind that reverberates a lot with our past self. The parents spend their days losing sleep and appetite over their only son's wellbeing while the son tries to cope up with the modern world, it's promises of temporary glory and the constant desire to be better than one's peers.
There's also a witty side to a story we have heard time and again, and that makes Murugan stand out. He laughs at his characters and their quirks, points out their nuances meticulously, and also gives you thoughts to chew upon.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
I picked up Estuary without much expectation. The blurb doesn’t say much, so I went in without knowing anything. It turned out to be a really good read.
The book moves at its own pace. Nothing feels rushed or forced. What I loved most was how real the characters felt. Every one of them is written with such subtlety and depth that you end up walking beside them, feeling their emotions and dilemmas. The climax is my favourite part. It’s calm, and beautifully described.
The book moves at its own pace. Nothing feels rushed or forced. What I loved most was how real the characters felt. Every one of them is written with such subtlety and depth that you end up walking beside them, feeling their emotions and dilemmas. The climax is my favourite part. It’s calm, and beautifully described.
Perumal Murugan has a style of structuring his novels that just feels very Indian. The stories are always rambling in the best possible way. It's never very directed, instead we just revel in the story and the characters. Anecdotes build up little by little and give us a very composite, lived-in feeling. By the time you reach the middle of the novel, you feel like you know these characters personally.
These same factors are at work in this novel too. The middle-parts of it felt a little dragged out though. There's this thing that sometimes artists do where they make us feel the character's feeling. I felt like that's sort of what Perumal Murugan was going for here. Like the overthinking, insomniac father, the novel was also going in circles and repeating its point and I felt frustrated, perhaps like the character also did. I can't decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing. But at least if this what Perumal Murugan was setting out to achieve, he did it very well.
The last few chapters are a beautiful redemption for anything that came before though. The ease with which Perumal Murugan slips into this sort of magical realism was just wonderful. It truly made me feel appreciative of the little things around me. The transformation that the prose and the character go through are so fluid and evocative that they leave you feeling transformed. I think this feeling was heightened by the frustration that the preceding chapters caused which makes me excuse their tepidity more. The final interaction was the cherry on top and left me feeling very happy to have read one more of this great writer's work and excited for the many more I still have left.
Great read overall and I expect nothing less from this modern Tamil wizard!
These same factors are at work in this novel too. The middle-parts of it felt a little dragged out though. There's this thing that sometimes artists do where they make us feel the character's feeling. I felt like that's sort of what Perumal Murugan was going for here. Like the overthinking, insomniac father, the novel was also going in circles and repeating its point and I felt frustrated, perhaps like the character also did. I can't decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing. But at least if this what Perumal Murugan was setting out to achieve, he did it very well.
The last few chapters are a beautiful redemption for anything that came before though. The ease with which Perumal Murugan slips into this sort of magical realism was just wonderful. It truly made me feel appreciative of the little things around me. The transformation that the prose and the character go through are so fluid and evocative that they leave you feeling transformed. I think this feeling was heightened by the frustration that the preceding chapters caused which makes me excuse their tepidity more. The final interaction was the cherry on top and left me feeling very happy to have read one more of this great writer's work and excited for the many more I still have left.
Great read overall and I expect nothing less from this modern Tamil wizard!
Perumal Murugan tells us that Estuary is pure fiction but it’s very much our truth. The generation gap, exam results of children, the rat race of good colleges, engineering vs Medicine and all those things that plague us Indians or as Mr. Murugan tells us, plagues the inhabitants of Asuralokam (demon land), plague us too.
.
Kumarasurar is a govt employee who works in the statistics department which unlike the revenue and other lucrative departments doesn’t have any avenues for ‘extra income’, it’s a small forgotten department running in a highly incompetent government setup.
.
Our protagonist has a son whom he loves very much and is in college, one day his son asks for a new phone and so unravels our narrator’s whole life. Why must his son need a new phone? Where will he get the money from? Will his son ever have a ‘settled life’ ? Through this turmoil we see Kumar’s beginnings, the time he got a govt. job and became a hot commodity in the marriage market. Birth of a son four years later and the jealousy that came with it and the urge to protect his son Meghas from it all. A wife who dotes on the child and seems to live and breathe for him one, his small income that doesn’t stretch. Add to it his lost dreams of becoming a poet, his mundane life... a life that came to a standstill when Meghas asked for a new phone.
.
In the book you find a father’s worried and well meaning insides clashing with his gruff exterior, his anxiety for his only child in a world of Internet pornography, deaths due to selfies, suicides and such. Murugan’s world is essentially like ours even though the writer swears that it is fiction; Asurlokam with its threadbare government machinery, son preference, entrance exams, mental health issues, technology advent and misuse is very much ours and this is what makes Kumarasurar feel very much like a neighborhood uncle with a small govt job who lies awake at night thinking of his children.
.
Estuary is hilarious and meditative at the same time! My only issue is that it took me a while getting accustomed to the writing and characters at first, if this happens to you too; stick to the book.
.
Kumarasurar is a govt employee who works in the statistics department which unlike the revenue and other lucrative departments doesn’t have any avenues for ‘extra income’, it’s a small forgotten department running in a highly incompetent government setup.
.
Our protagonist has a son whom he loves very much and is in college, one day his son asks for a new phone and so unravels our narrator’s whole life. Why must his son need a new phone? Where will he get the money from? Will his son ever have a ‘settled life’ ? Through this turmoil we see Kumar’s beginnings, the time he got a govt. job and became a hot commodity in the marriage market. Birth of a son four years later and the jealousy that came with it and the urge to protect his son Meghas from it all. A wife who dotes on the child and seems to live and breathe for him one, his small income that doesn’t stretch. Add to it his lost dreams of becoming a poet, his mundane life... a life that came to a standstill when Meghas asked for a new phone.
.
In the book you find a father’s worried and well meaning insides clashing with his gruff exterior, his anxiety for his only child in a world of Internet pornography, deaths due to selfies, suicides and such. Murugan’s world is essentially like ours even though the writer swears that it is fiction; Asurlokam with its threadbare government machinery, son preference, entrance exams, mental health issues, technology advent and misuse is very much ours and this is what makes Kumarasurar feel very much like a neighborhood uncle with a small govt job who lies awake at night thinking of his children.
.
Estuary is hilarious and meditative at the same time! My only issue is that it took me a while getting accustomed to the writing and characters at first, if this happens to you too; stick to the book.
Estuary by Perumal Murugan
Name: Estuary
Author: Perumal Murugan
Genre: Life, Drama, Fiction
Rating: 3.8/5
Review:
Set in an urban area of of Tamil Nadu, the author, Perumal Murugan gives us a glimpse in the life of a simple man whose life falls into a chaos by a simple demand by his son.
The story is about the monotony of one's life, strained relationship between a father and his teenage son and struggles of middle class parents in fulfilling their children's demand.
Everything about this book was unfamiliar to me, I'm not used to reading this type of book. I think it's the the first book told from the perspective of a middle age man, which I have read. Most of the things, the characters, the names, the settings were unfamiliar to me, the only thing I could actually relate to was a character and his life. I think the lives of a middle-class family is same in every part of India.
This book gives me a new perspective, showing me the life of a 40 year old middle class man, trying to provide the best to his family, trying to connect with his teenage son and living his monotonous life.
Even though, the story was something I did not expect, the writing kept me going. The writing style was amazing and I felt I could relate to his life.
How the protagonist's life fell into a dilemma by a simple demand from his son made me realise how my parents felt every time I made a demand from them.
The writing is fluid, sarcastic and conquers myriad of emotions throughout the story.
I am giving this 3.8 because I believe this book didn't get to me now. I think this book will get to me when I am a little older, because I this book deserves 4.5 for its amazing portrayal of character, fluid writing style and insight of the author.
I hope when I read this book again later in my life, I will do more justice to it.
Name: Estuary
Author: Perumal Murugan
Genre: Life, Drama, Fiction
Rating: 3.8/5
Review:
Set in an urban area of of Tamil Nadu, the author, Perumal Murugan gives us a glimpse in the life of a simple man whose life falls into a chaos by a simple demand by his son.
The story is about the monotony of one's life, strained relationship between a father and his teenage son and struggles of middle class parents in fulfilling their children's demand.
Everything about this book was unfamiliar to me, I'm not used to reading this type of book. I think it's the the first book told from the perspective of a middle age man, which I have read. Most of the things, the characters, the names, the settings were unfamiliar to me, the only thing I could actually relate to was a character and his life. I think the lives of a middle-class family is same in every part of India.
This book gives me a new perspective, showing me the life of a 40 year old middle class man, trying to provide the best to his family, trying to connect with his teenage son and living his monotonous life.
Even though, the story was something I did not expect, the writing kept me going. The writing style was amazing and I felt I could relate to his life.
How the protagonist's life fell into a dilemma by a simple demand from his son made me realise how my parents felt every time I made a demand from them.
The writing is fluid, sarcastic and conquers myriad of emotions throughout the story.
I am giving this 3.8 because I believe this book didn't get to me now. I think this book will get to me when I am a little older, because I this book deserves 4.5 for its amazing portrayal of character, fluid writing style and insight of the author.
I hope when I read this book again later in my life, I will do more justice to it.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not something what you expect from a Perumal Murugan novel.
This. Book. Took me 9 days short of an entire year to read. Mostly because it was jinxed. When I read, I flew threw 50 pages at once, but I perhaps carried it around like a blankie, expecting to read it even when I should not have. Perumal Murugan has been the greatest discovery of 2021 for me, so excited to read more of his work. He says in the introduction to this book that he uses embellishments and ramblings in this book which isn't his style, but he just felt like it. I'll say that rambling is what makes this book, and if it wasn't there, these asuras wouldn't be real to me.
The main annoying part of the book for me were the names. Because they were so long, I didn't say them in my head, and when you don't say the names, it's hard to differentiate Kanakasurar from Kumarasurar. And at no point do we switch to endearments except for the end of the book when Adhigasurar becomes Adhi for a bit, and it feels like a breath of fresh air. Otherwise, full names are used throughout which was unsettling for me.
I picked this book up largely because of the gorgeous cover art, and because I'd just read Poonachi which I loved. I mean, I don't think I knew what an Estuary was, or probably forgot my high school geography, and I had to look it up. But everything ultimately works. The setting of the book in "asuraloka", with all people being demons or asuras. And ofcourse the Estuary being a metaphor for the melding of the new and old, and the journeys one needs to take to get comfortable with change and the new normal - physical and mental.
This book isn't even a murder mystery or thriller, and I've gotten admonished multiple times for trying to get in a few more pages, uncovering a bit more of Asuraloka with the torch-light of my phone. It's that immersive. Highly recommended read.
The main annoying part of the book for me were the names. Because they were so long, I didn't say them in my head, and when you don't say the names, it's hard to differentiate Kanakasurar from Kumarasurar. And at no point do we switch to endearments except for the end of the book when Adhigasurar becomes Adhi for a bit, and it feels like a breath of fresh air. Otherwise, full names are used throughout which was unsettling for me.
I picked this book up largely because of the gorgeous cover art, and because I'd just read Poonachi which I loved. I mean, I don't think I knew what an Estuary was, or probably forgot my high school geography, and I had to look it up. But everything ultimately works. The setting of the book in "asuraloka", with all people being demons or asuras. And ofcourse the Estuary being a metaphor for the melding of the new and old, and the journeys one needs to take to get comfortable with change and the new normal - physical and mental.
This book isn't even a murder mystery or thriller, and I've gotten admonished multiple times for trying to get in a few more pages, uncovering a bit more of Asuraloka with the torch-light of my phone. It's that immersive. Highly recommended read.
medium-paced