From the novels written by Indian writers, I have planned a small detour to desribe three novels which I had the opportunity of reading. All the three novels are from the East and each of them has valuable insights into the art of writing fiction.
Red Sorghum
Red Sorghum is an intense novel from China written by Mo Yan. The plot revolves around three generations of the Shandong family. The figures in the novel, the lusty heroic Generals of the Chinese resistance who are noble as well as corrupt, the petite women of the Northern Gao township who know when to take a man and when to play a trick, the priests and the peddlers’ who are immune to the soft virtues but are slaves to the flights of passion, the animals which are blood thirsty and vengeful. This is the stuff Red Sorghum is made of.The Sorghum is everywhere, in the fields, in the hearts as well as the minds. It is a witness to everything, to the bodies which are mowed down by scores and the blood which drains into the black water river. There is no peace here. It is one long battle as the story of Yu Zhan Hao and Dougoun is told in a series of flashbacks.
What would happen in a world where there is only cruelty? Eventually the people would be hardened to become cruel themselves. But in Red Sorghum, kindness and love do remain, may be in a child’s heart or in a woman’s love.
Soul Mountain
What does one say of a novel like Soul Mountain? The author denies the attachment of any generic terminology. It is fiction and biography, a random narration of experiences, travelogue, folklore, a recording of history, natural research, etc. Yet it is nothing. It is none of these. It is the author’s search for meaning; towards comprehending the meaning of life in the tumultuous vortex of imagination. The I and the You swim, deep into the zone of danger and bewilderment. He wants to discover the truth about absolute limpidness and tranquility. The peace that is final and everlasting. Has the author written something? It would become meaningful, only if he attaches meaning to it. The Soul Mountain is Gao Xing Jian’s attempt to capture the epiphanous moments of life; chance moments, which carry enormous significance; those experiences which life keeps hurling at you, only if you venture to seek them. Gao Xing Jian ventures not out of curiosity or a spirit of adventure but out of sheer boredom and the weight of solitude. These are the encounters a detached person would come across; a person who has cut off all strings, who is as free as the snapped kite, flowing freely in the air and drifting towards wherever the wind might carry it. A person who becomes a part of all that he sees and becomes a part of all that he meets. He is the chameleon who changes colours involuntarily searching and seeking new vistas of experience, but will remain his own self; sad, brooding, joyful and sardonic all at once.
A Thousand Splendid Suns
This was my second novel by Khalid Hosseini. I had read the Kite Runner j. The novel shines like a splendid Sun upon the compassion and humaneness that has survived in spite of all the horrors of war and desecration perpetrated by one war lord after another on Afghanistan.
The novel brings out the horror of loneliness and the value of friendship. Nothing in this world can obstruct the force of real love and sacrifice. Loneliness is a constant theme in the novel. Miriam, Nana, Jalil, Laila, Mamma, Rasheed and Tariq: each of them is a solitary individual, in that their physical or mental space allows no one or has built a wall around itself. Life is a series of mishaps and accidents in Afghanistan. The one thing that is common across all families is death and deprivation. First it is the Soviets, then the Communists, afterwards the warring feudal lords, then the Taliban and the allied forces. It is a battle ground for testing the efficacy of many an ideology but at whose cost? Miriam finds a meaning for her life, bringing up Laila’s children and putting down her life on the altar of death to secure a life free from the clutches of Rasheed for Laila.
A Thousand Splendid suns is an Afghan novel just as Mid Night’s Children is a Bombay novel. It depicts the greatness of a people in contrast to the pettiness of its rulers, the magnanimity of love which seeks no return.( To be continued)