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The story of the East is one: Naivety. I’m not sure if this is in fact a fact and if I’m completely comfortable with it but this is what writers with eastern roots would have us believe. And I say this so unabashedly after reading 5 ½ such books:
The Bonesetter’s Daughter- Amy Tan
Circles of Silence- Preeti Singh
The God of Small Things- Arundhati Roy
One Hundred Shades of White- Preethi Nair
Colombo- Carl Muller
The Inheritance of Loss- Kiran Desai
I suppose I can’t generalize but I will. It’s just the feeling I came away with after reading those books.
The last one I read, The Inheritance of Loss, was hardly a page-turner but Kiran Desai threw me a bone in the beginning. She asked me ‘Can fulfillment ever be felt as deeply as loss?’ and I was gripped. Good question. So what’s her answer? You’d think she would try to answer a question so closely linked with the title of the book and you’d think wrong. I don’t think there was an answer from her end. Well not one that went ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
So I got thinking. Can it? Yes… if we let it and we hardly do. If you try very hard, and shut out the world you can let a happy memory sustain you but loss seems to be the more natural way to go. We could as kids…remember remember?... but somewhere along the way we lost that… fulfillment couldn’t fulfill. Or maybe it’s just me…
That reminds me… There’s a monologue from One Tree Hill that goes like this...
“Sometimes pain becomes such a huge part of your life that you expect it to always be there because you can’t remember a time in your life when it wasn’t. But then one day you feel something else, something that feels wrong only because it’s so unfamiliar. And in that moment you realize that you’re happy.”
So it's not just me…
2 comments:
ummm... I am not actually sure whether I agree with you on the fact that eastern novels emphasize naivety. I haven't read all the books that you mention, but I have read "the bonesetter's daughter", "the inheritance of loss" and "the god of small of things". I love books by Asian authors, I think for the main part that is because I find it very easy to relate to the environment and the feelings that they speak of. The cultures of the East have somewhat similar practices, and therefore for me as a Sri Lankan, I find it very easy to relate to what they are saying and to understand it. But I understand what you are trying to say, there is something totally unique and different in the books you've mentioned with the books of the "West" (or by european authors?), but is it Naivety? May I beg to differ? :)
Oh so, you didn't like "The Inheritance of Loss" all that much huh? :) I loved it :) heheee :) purely because I felt that what Kiran Desai was trying to bring forth was what is so realistic in this part of the world. The thing I love about Asian authors is that, they dont have one huge story in their books. There is so much within the many stories that they portray. One of my all-time favourites is "The God of Small Things", I didn't find any other book that portrayed human feelings so profoundly and a story that was more tragedic!
With regard to your question whether fulfilment can ever be felt as deeply as loss, I beg to differ here as well :)... In my experience I have found that, its hardly we feel fulfilment. I think, we, as human beings, feel happiness but its only rarely that we feel fulfilment. And happiness, lasts for maybe a couple of hours or maybe a couple of days. Unlike that, loss is something I have felt so deeply and keeps lingering in you. Because some losses take a part of your heart, and you always feel that. But you know, I really don't know, maybe it is one of those questions that will go unanswered forever :)
Lovely post may I say? Really intriguing and thought provoking :)
P.S: Can I please borrow the books by the two Preethis? :) If they are yours that is :)
Quick! To the retraction board...:)but nah, I'll just say this- maybe I should have said naivety was a common thread in all of these reads. Why I said that was because when I read Asian novels sad feels sadder. You know what I mean..? I guess it's like what you said... we connect with the characters. And somehow as bad as this sounds our pain and our tragedy seems less glamarous than how the West makes theirs out to be. Or maybe it's just me... ;)
I liked the Inheritance of Loss and i'm so glad i read it. It did after all win the Booker Prize right? But it was not the sort of story that would shock you page after page, you know what I mean? My bad, because it was the book I read after Harry Potter 7 so maybe I was expecting something else. :)
Kudos on the momentary fulfillment equals happiness theory though!:)But as kids, most of us, have a string of happy moments right, enough to make us feel fulfillment even if we don't know it then. But then we grow up, and life shakes us up a little and then... and then we come up with statements like 'loss seems the more natural way to go' ;)
Oh and two of my close friends have the 'Preethi books'as we're calling them now ;) so if i'll try and get them for you. You should be able to read some book reviews on the net to curb your curiousity for now though. :)
And thanks bunches for your comment! It really opened my mind! :)
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