Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by tubareads
A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee
3.0
There were many things I wanted "A State of Freedom" by Neel Mukherjee to be because it is a book that is truly brimming with rich characters, a brilliant storyline and Mukherjee's outstanding ability to write about the common man as it truly is. His characters encapsulate the very essence of being a human being, trapped by the circumstances of society, of inequality and of class differences within a south-asian setting.
A State of Freedom has five stories that are not related through characters (except some) but rather through a common theme of class differences, privilege or lack thereof and the struggles of everyday life regardless of how wealthy a person may or may not be. The first and last story being the shortest and the third one being one of the hardest I have had to read (TW: Animal cruelty), I did find myself enjoying every single one of them. Mukherjee has mastered the art of latching onto the reader and writing characters that you might fully despise but also deep down, sympathise with.
For instance, I found myself craving for a quick demise for a certain character in the third story, a more physical and aggressive one but what the author gave me instead had me sit still for a while and really reflect back on the power of emotional defeat and how gut-wrenching it can be compared to anything physical.
Now onto the reason I couldn't bring myself to give it 5 stars is simple; I found it extremely difficult to finish the third story because of how disturbing it was. I also felt disconnected to the characters because I went into reading this book as a singular story and it was five, mainly different stories.
I am very big on inner feelings and how a book makes ME feel and this is something I wrote while reading through this book and this might not apply to you as a reader but felt important for me to mention: while reading a state of freedom, i thought about the lives we lived as children, with our mother or aunt playing with our hair, singing sindhi lullabies and telling us folklores about ghosts, unrequited love and how the chicken let a fox eat it whole because it cared so much. our children will never know the safety or… for a lack of better word, the familiarity or the sense of what that meant, what those moments meant to me or those like myself. i left home at 20 so i live between two worlds. the world of my sweet karachi that has so much to offer and yet so little to fulfil that promise of offering and the european world, unknown to me but something that maybe the most familiar thing my children may have to what karachi is to me.
A State of Freedom has five stories that are not related through characters (except some) but rather through a common theme of class differences, privilege or lack thereof and the struggles of everyday life regardless of how wealthy a person may or may not be. The first and last story being the shortest and the third one being one of the hardest I have had to read (TW: Animal cruelty), I did find myself enjoying every single one of them. Mukherjee has mastered the art of latching onto the reader and writing characters that you might fully despise but also deep down, sympathise with.
For instance, I found myself craving for a quick demise for a certain character in the third story, a more physical and aggressive one but what the author gave me instead had me sit still for a while and really reflect back on the power of emotional defeat and how gut-wrenching it can be compared to anything physical.
Now onto the reason I couldn't bring myself to give it 5 stars is simple; I found it extremely difficult to finish the third story because of how disturbing it was. I also felt disconnected to the characters because I went into reading this book as a singular story and it was five, mainly different stories.
I am very big on inner feelings and how a book makes ME feel and this is something I wrote while reading through this book and this might not apply to you as a reader but felt important for me to mention: while reading a state of freedom, i thought about the lives we lived as children, with our mother or aunt playing with our hair, singing sindhi lullabies and telling us folklores about ghosts, unrequited love and how the chicken let a fox eat it whole because it cared so much. our children will never know the safety or… for a lack of better word, the familiarity or the sense of what that meant, what those moments meant to me or those like myself. i left home at 20 so i live between two worlds. the world of my sweet karachi that has so much to offer and yet so little to fulfil that promise of offering and the european world, unknown to me but something that maybe the most familiar thing my children may have to what karachi is to me.