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A review by kash_reads
Undertow by Jahnavi Barua
4.0
Highlights:
"Kinship ties were never felt more keenly than on days they were loosened or severed: at weddings when girls left to join another family, on graduation when children left home to study and, most of all, at deaths, when a bond snapped never to be replaced again. "
Thoughts :
I read this book as a part of #LITwithIndianLit, though this book was on my TBR ever since it was longlisted for the JCB Prize. Undertow is a simple story of three different generations of a dysfunctional family dealing with conflicts most families are privy to. The majority of the book is from Loya's perspective who returns to her ancestral roots in Assam where her orthodox grandfather Torun lives, with whom her mother has not talked since her inter-caste wedding. Jahnavi's writing is almost poetic at the same time easy to understand, by the end of the book, you want to get up, pack your bags and move to Assam. She puts up a lucid account of the beauty of the place, the hills, the river, the plants as if it's all happening in front of your eyes. Since the book is from Loya's point of view, it provides an outsider's understanding of the state, especially the political turmoil.
The story overall is very real, the characters feel like the people around you and so their inner turmoils and their resolution provides comfort to you. The end of the book is well.. debatable. For me, the end was a bummer, but I can see how it was necessary. Overall the book brings out the beauty of Assam like no other. ( I am definitely planning a trip soon, hopefully, will see the yellow house
"Kinship ties were never felt more keenly than on days they were loosened or severed: at weddings when girls left to join another family, on graduation when children left home to study and, most of all, at deaths, when a bond snapped never to be replaced again. "
Thoughts :
I read this book as a part of #LITwithIndianLit, though this book was on my TBR ever since it was longlisted for the JCB Prize. Undertow is a simple story of three different generations of a dysfunctional family dealing with conflicts most families are privy to. The majority of the book is from Loya's perspective who returns to her ancestral roots in Assam where her orthodox grandfather Torun lives, with whom her mother has not talked since her inter-caste wedding. Jahnavi's writing is almost poetic at the same time easy to understand, by the end of the book, you want to get up, pack your bags and move to Assam. She puts up a lucid account of the beauty of the place, the hills, the river, the plants as if it's all happening in front of your eyes. Since the book is from Loya's point of view, it provides an outsider's understanding of the state, especially the political turmoil.
The story overall is very real, the characters feel like the people around you and so their inner turmoils and their resolution provides comfort to you. The end of the book is well.. debatable. For me, the end was a bummer, but I can see how it was necessary. Overall the book brings out the beauty of Assam like no other. ( I am definitely planning a trip soon, hopefully, will see the yellow house