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paintedverse 's review for:
The Gift of a Cow: A Translation from the Hindi Novel
by Munshi Premchand
There is an ever-widening hollowness that life entails at birth. The clutches of society writhes the neck of its community. In the name of reputation, callousness grips the lives of people, particularly of the poor. Godaan (The Gift of a Cow) is as realistic a portrayal as it could possibly be. The surreptitiousness of a grim and mundane life is so realistically presented that the image that has been created concerning prosperity and happiness leaps over the fence of anonymity and passes out in seclusion.
Hori was an easy prey of the stalwarts of greed. His simple-mindedness and saintliness led to his exploitation by the moneylenders and landlords. Gobar, his antithesis in terms of adherence to the societal norms, could have been his savior had he really paid heed to him, but the weight of years of compliance seemed much lucrative [using words can be such an irony] to him than the freedom he could have had [irony, again, but hope outlives soul].
The novel alternates between the lives of both the poor and the rich. Both are on their own battlefields and both are being clutched very brutally. This novel gives a sharp Sisyphean pain - the pain seems unendurable, but what could be done in the face of life? Nothing. It is an everlasting, ever recurring pain; while there is an end to life, there is no end to this.
Hori was an easy prey of the stalwarts of greed. His simple-mindedness and saintliness led to his exploitation by the moneylenders and landlords. Gobar, his antithesis in terms of adherence to the societal norms, could have been his savior had he really paid heed to him, but the weight of years of compliance seemed much lucrative [using words can be such an irony] to him than the freedom he could have had [irony, again, but hope outlives soul].
The novel alternates between the lives of both the poor and the rich. Both are on their own battlefields and both are being clutched very brutally. This novel gives a sharp Sisyphean pain - the pain seems unendurable, but what could be done in the face of life? Nothing. It is an everlasting, ever recurring pain; while there is an end to life, there is no end to this.