Mistress

Beautiful. It’s the only word I could think of to describe this exquisite work by Anita Nair. It is not too infrequently that I feel at a loss for words to express what I feel about some literary work and Mistress evokes a similar kind of overwhelming emotion in me. It’s just beautiful. It had been such a joy to stop every now and then to marvel at its beauty. (Off the top of my head, I could only recollect a couple of other books which I felt were ‘beautiful” – God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy and Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. ) I feel that trying to fit the pleasure it gave me into words would be disrespectful to the experience and thus won’t dwell on the same any further.

Mistress is a masterful tale of art and adultery. Chirs comes to Shoranpur in Kerala from America to interview Koman, a famous Kathakali dancer. Koman’s niece Radha and Chris get passionately involved with each other while Shyam, Radha’s husband, could only watch helplessly. Radha’s and Shyam’s marriage is a wreck since the beginning as they are from different backgrounds and have different views of life. Radha is Shyam’s the most prized possession and he is forever waiting for her to return his love. Shyam is insensitive and materialistic, while Radha is sophisticated. They couldn’t be anything else given their backgrounds and upbringing. So, may be the reason for the sorry state of their marriage is just that they are not meant to be together. But what about Shyam’s love for Radha? Does he really love her, understand her?

Koman narrates the story of his life right from the beginning – with his father’s story – “In the beginning there was a sea.” Koman believes that in order to understand him and his art, one has to know where he has come from, and everything around him. Koman is both an observer and a participant in the tale he recounts, which unfolds the complexities of relationships.

The key characters in this novel all speak in first person, giving the reader a rich sense of them. The author presents the novel in 9 parts, one for each emotion – navarasas, the nine faces of the heart: love contempt, sorrow, fury, courage, fear, disgust, wonder, peace.

If I were to note down all the observations and conversations from Mistress that tugged my heart, I’m sure it would run into at least 100 pages.   I was so captivated by Anita’s prose that my need to capture at least some snippets of it here (for future reference) is so great.

Uncle -

I can see you are thinking forever, and he is thinking here and now . You can’t blame him for that. But it is you who will be hurt…….Everybody is entitled to making their own mistakes, I couldn’t rob an experience from her even if it was a mistake. Besides, whatever was destined to happen would. 

Shyam isn’t a bad man. He can’t be faulted as a husband. But I can see that Radha isn’t happy with him. To divorce him because he bores her – what court of law would hear of it? 

‘You are fortunate’, I said, ‘to be able to preserve your dream as you dreamt it, to want it despite all the years of waiting.’ I know that my dreams have acquired a blurred edge with all the ands and buts I have been forced to make place for. 

How do you live with such deceit for the rest of your life? How much do you not let it haunt you? How do you balance all the acts of goodness you may do against that one act of deceit? 

Shyam -

I would like to kill you. I hate you for what you are doing to me. But how can I? To kill you would be to lose you. That I cannot bear. I cannot let him take you away. I cannot let you go. Nor can I let you do this to me…none of this I can bear.

Chris -

Is this a game perhaps? Something you need to do to prove a point? To yourself. To your husband? 

Radha -

I saw the ease that flowed between her and her husband. The casual intimacies of a marriage. He took her hand in his when he talked. She touched his cheek in a casual caress…I looked away. I was glad to see them leave. Any reminders of my past made me realize how drab and barren my life was. 

The little girl voice, the bated breath, the widening of eyes, the pouting of lips, the touching and stroking as I talk. All I need to do to complete the act is scream and turn pale when I see a cockroach. Shyam would love it. He would love me to be the helpless shrieking female while he squashed the cockroach under his slipper. 

Aashaan -

I know who I am and what I am. I place the burden on you, on how you wish to see me. 

 Uncle -

It is the nature of children to never allow parents their youth, their mistakes or their fears. In the end, this unspoken tyranny children exercise over their parents is just as oppressive as the rules parents lay out for children. 

I was once like her. Is that what drew me to her? When I saw her, I saw a reflection of myself. Was this love? To seek in someone a mirror image of one’s own hopes and dreams, one’s own soul? 

Radha -

An act of defiance for me; an interesting encounter for him. Loneliness and a funneling need that had exploded into unbridled passion. That was all it was. And as is the nature of such things, it died as it was born. Abruptly.

Uncle -

I had hurt her and she was exacting revenge. Is this what living is all about? This perennial scoring off each other; this seeking of retribution.

Chris -

Aren’t you running away because she expected more from you than you were prepared to offer?

If he could, he would do it differently. Start all over again so they might have a better chance of keeping their love alive. But does he really want that chance? The truth is, he doesn’t know what he wants.

Radha -

She feels a great yearning to lean back against a shoulder and feel comforted. It is Shyam she thinks of now.

It is fear that makes me seek him, not regard for him.

I cannot continue to play wife merely because it frees me of worries. I have not done right by Shyam. I have played wife all this while despising him. For this I know remorse. I went to him broken, and expected him to heal me. When he couldn’t, I began to despise him and knew sorrow.

 I loved the way Fear and Wonder were described:

You can pretend all other emotions: courage or love, laughter or sorrow, disgust or wonder, contempt or calm, but you cannot pretend fear… you will give yourself away. Fear cannot hide itself, it emanates from you even if you try to conceal it. There is one other aspect to fear. When you are afraid, you react in two ways – with utmost courage or cowardice. The choice is yours, but only fear can draw that decision from you. 

That is the hallmark of wonder. A curiosity to know, a yearning to possess. And when you do, the wonder ceases. That is the nature of adbhutam. To be transient. For you will never know it again in exactly the same degree.

Rockstar

Watched this movie last night. I’ve been hearing mixed reviews about it right since the beginning and at last got curious enough to want to judge it myself. One of the reasons why I wasn’t so eager to watch it before could be that I don’t hold a particularly good impression of Ranbir. Something about the characters he portrayed in the first two movies of him that I watched (Bachna ae Haseeno, Wake Up Sid) and my conception of his off-screen attitude didn’t sit well with me and I’ve taken a kind of dislike to him. And also may be I didn’t take his break-up with Deepika (whom I admire) too well. Though it’s a fact that the personal stuff of celebrities gets discussed around a lot, on the face of it, it seems a bit silly to me that I let it affect me the way it does.

Coming to the movie, it appealed to me very much. And what’s more, I finally gave into the charm of Ranbir. He is a good performer and appears dashing on screen. I really liked him in this movie. This film is about an artist and the role of music and love in his life.

Artists think and live at a different level, making them enigmatic to others. An artist’s mind typically holds a lot of romantic attraction for others. All seems attractive on screen and in fiction but at a practical level, many would find it very difficult to truly understand them or be part of their lives. Only very few can make it. Because in reality, no one gives us the privilege of letting us know what’s happening in their mind.  May be only an artist can truly understand another artist. For one to understand them completely, one needs to view things through their lens, think from their level. We can’t comprehend them well from our own frame of reference. While it’s true with anyone, the chasm between the artists and others is usually wider.

A true artist, by the virtue of his romantic nature, is usually a passionate and intense lover. The love between Ranbir and Nargis was beautifully depicted in the movie. There exists a deeper connect between the two, something which overtakes them. They fit like pieces of jig saw puzzle. They feel helpless before the “love, passion, or whatever” between them that at certain point nothing could hold them apart. I found it amazing how she opened up to him the first time (about “Jungli Jawaani” ) and how effortlessly everything else followed.

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.”  – Rumi

Everyone seeks such an intense love and long for such a person in his/her life, but more often than not they are met with disappointment. In fact, many people search for it all through their lives in vain. The problem is that one cannot will it to happen or intervene in any manner in the process; it happens only if and when it happens. Such an intense feeling/emotion/relationship is usually like ‘elixir of life’ to many. The sheer rarity of such an occurrence and the pain and struggle one undergoes in one’s longing for it, gave rise to some practical notions like – no one can make you complete; there’s no “Mr. Right” etc. Nevertheless, the quest continues ceaselessly.

On hindsight, I feel that I didn’t watch the movie with the attention it deserved. I guess some movies are meant to be watched in appropriate and relaxed mood, with nothing to distract you. Will definitely try to watch Rockstar again soon.

Dreams of Joy

Just finished reading Dreams of Joy by Lisa See. It’s actually a sequel to her Shanghai Girls, which I read a couple of years ago and liked very much. Shanghai Girls had been a story about two sisters Pearl and May, set in the 1930s to 1950s. They both are well-educated, lived a stylish life in Shanghai  and used to sit for ZG’s paintings. Pearl loves Z.G. and believes that he too cares about her but is devastated when informed by May in an awkward confrontation after twenty years that it is she whom he loved and that they had been lovers back then (before marrying rickshaw pullers and fleeing to America). The blow felt by Pearl at this revelation is heart-wrenching. Throughout Shanghai Girls, we get to see Pearl as the wiser, patient, compassionate, responsible and enduring person whereas May is depicted to be childish and self-indulgent. But May’s argument in the end of the book that all Pearl did was to attract misfortune and glorify herself as a martyr; that she could have escaped being gang-raped on that fateful day when they left home in an attempt to leave China, the event which scarred her heart for life, if only she stayed where she was instead of trying to play the “big sister” thing in order to protect May. This accusation or rather insight is as devastating to me as it is to Pearl I guess.

It’s interesting to see how Pearl and May perceive each other. Each has completely different and seemingly opposite personalities and they have a certain disdain for each other alongside the sisterly love. The calm and composed Pearl resents the care-free and selfish nature of May, while May scorns the “air” taken up by Pearl.

Coming to Dreams of Joy, it starts where Shanghai Girls ends – Joy, the daughter of May raised by Pearl as hers, decides to leave America and go to China to help build the People’s Republic of China and mainly to escape the guilt of being the cause of her father’s suicide and also shocked and hurt by the fact that the truth about her parentage has been hidden from her and thus been deceived by her mother and aunt. After Joy leaves, Pearl follows her to China to bring her back.. And the story continues.

In Shanghai Pearl meets Z.G and all her old feelings surface. Even after 20 years, she feels the same for ZG, despite knowing that he loves May and not her. As hurting as it is, she still feels for ZG. As the story proceeds, they get to meet often.. And Pearl deliberately avoids writing about ZG in her letters to May, though May keeps on asking about him. Pearl enjoys taking a small revenge against her sister, even though she realizes that it’s a fruitless exercise. At last, there comes the moment – she sleeps with ZG and then, just like that – she gets over him. She finally accepts the fact that ZG loves only May. He doesn’t feel about her, Pearl, as he feels about May. And then all of a sudden she feels free of burden, joy and happiness. She falls is love with a person from her past in a true sense (not like she felt for her husband out of responsibility and gratitude)and marries him in the end.

What got me curious was the fact that it took her so long and so much to get over ZG. Finally, what really made it possible for her? What’s the tipping point? It’s not very clear. It’s just a momentous realization akin to enlightenment, but it’s not easy to come by – it usually takes decades, not just years. At one time she recollects May telling her that she is only infatuated with ZG and weighs that remark later, while in China, – she doesn’t care whether it’s only infatuation..and only seeks contentment in basking in the pleasure of his company.

My doubt is – is hers infatuation or love? Who is the best person to judge?  Is hers considered infatuation because her feelings are unrequited? Would like some answers here.

Also, I wonder what really makes a person, especially a woman, to grieve over her unrequited love and forever make a place for her lover in her heart? Is it because that gives her satisfaction and approval? Approval of whom? Unrequited love has forever been romanticized in literature and people who agonize for their lovers, or rather their unfulfilled love, till their death are glorified beyond extent. Does she feel guilty to forsake the reminiscences of her first love? Why does she feel it as her duty, more than anything, to be loyal to her love (even though unrequited, or especially because it is unrequited), even though he doesn’t care a bit about what she does or does not feel for him?

In love, mostly it’s the feeling of being in love, that people love most. People love being in love. It’s even more true in the case of one-side love or unrequited love because they have no other base to carry on with their love.

There is one philosophy which claims that – anything between two persons should be two-way. There must be both “give” and “take”. The balance must be maintained in every and any relationship for sustainment . Otherwise, the relationship won’t last for long. The giver just gives up sooner or later. But the one-side lovers have only this “romanticized” view of being in love as the reason to continue being in love with the same person. They refuse to give up hope to get something in return from their beloveds until a very long time.

But to what effect? They will never be able to love any other man in the same way and they just have to wait for that magical moment when they can get over their first love, which usually comes too late in old age or just never comes. What a pity! I believe that- if only the state of being in love is not romanticized so much, people would have easily moved on to find new love in their lives, which is actually a more fruitful exercise. Is the real test of love to be with the person you love for long and still continue to love? In the absence of which, the only love you feel is for the “imagined” or “expected” traits of the beloved and/or nuances of life.

This is all the mind speaking. But the heart goes on its own way. But the thing is the heart is influenced and shaped by the culture, society and literature and media around it. So, ideally the mind should win. But the heart always knows how to sneak in. it lures the mind with promise of instant gratification in certain thoughts.

I’ve had similar thoughts even while reading about Scarlet’s blind love for and fierce devotion to Ashley in Gone With the Wind. What did it all fetch her in the end? It ruined her life. In a way, it was so upsetting to read about it.

Coming back to Dreams of Joy, it’s my first encounter with anything related to communism. It is shocking and sad to know how flawed leadership has led to the great famine that lasted 3 years, killing millions of people. The novel also depicted how despite the lofty ideals of equality, there are certain classes of privileged people  in the Mao’s New China. Hypocrisy is prevalent and common man suffered. I admire Joy for the way she handled things in China, coming to terms of her life, shocking though it was as it unfolded before her, but never losing her courage and spirit.

I must say that the tale of Pearl, May and Joy has cast a deep impression on me and greatly influenced some of my perceptions. I wouldn’t forget the three ladies and their intricate story.

Break Ke Baad

Note: This is not a review. I know it’s too late to give one. Having seen it only recently, I just wanted to express some of my thoughts on it. I guess the following makes complete sense only to those who have already watched the movie.

Watched Break Ke Baad yesterday on TV. When I caught a few scenes of the movie much earlier, I got distinctly irritated by Aliya’s (Deepika Padukone) stupid behavior and didn’t quite understand why Abhay (Imran Khan) was being so good. But when I took time to watch the movie yesterday, I began to have a much broader perspective of the characters.

I realized her passion and her courage to chase her dreams. I admire her for it. But what kind of a foolish person will afford to lose such a committed, loving and caring boyfriend? That’s definitely stupid of her. It was well pointed out that she chose to run away from her problems instead of trying to resolving them and she didn’t have her priorities set right. The biggest problem is that she has taken Abhay so granted that she failed to realize what and how much he means to her and her life.

Talking about Abhay, I was bowled over by the character. Can this man be real? How can a person be so committed, despite having been told on the face to f* back off? I didn’t get to follow the part where Abhay admits to his own problems or some similar sort of thing. Whatever his personal issues are, I still feel that it’s a rarity for a person to have so much clarity with regard to relationships, especially for a man.  I don’t mean any offence to menfolk but it’s just that my observation so far has been that usually women act more maturely in relationships compared to men of the same age. Well, of course there are always exceptions.

I really liked the parts where Aliya returns to India cancelling the contract when she realizes how upset her mom had been (it shows that she is not totally selfish and blind to everything else other than her goal) and where her mom gives her assent to go and pursue her  dreams and apologies for trying to pull her back from living her life. Totally loved Ayisha’s (Sharmila Tagore) words over there.

I especially liked the following dialogue by Sharmila to Deepika:

“People don’t love you because you are special; you are special because you have people who love you around you.“

My Friend Sancho

I picked up this book by Amit Varma impressed by his immensely popular blog India Uncut. It’s an amazing blog which features his take on various things and happenings around us. His wisecracks and satires hit the bull’s eye and are often thought-provoking.

I was curious to discover how his fiction work would turn out. I didn’t have high expectations of this novel to begin with and so it didn’t disappoint me. But it could have been better. My Friend Sancho is a simple, straightforward story of a young journalist and the moral dilemma he faces as his professional and personal lives intersect.

The protagonist “Abir Ganguly” is possibly a lot like the author. But I have no way to be sure. I can only guess. The only problem with him (Abir) is that he stretches his sense of humor a bit too much, perhaps to  mask his nervousness  or whatever. But he is honest enough even to admit that to the reader. So much goes on inside his head and a significant portion of it includes sexual fantasies/remarks , cursing and the like. While it was amusing in the beginning and offered insight into the psyche of that guy, the intended humor felt like a distraction and bore not long after. A lot of what goes on inside his mind is irrelevant to the reader/story that after a while one gets tired of his inner voice.

I couldn’t help a smile when I noticed that the author referred to his own blog in the novel 3 to 4 times. This got me wondering about “vanity”. Is it a virtue or a vice? Or rather how much of it is considered a virtue and how much of it vice? Is it something that everyone has, at least to some degree, but which is disapproved when exhibited by others? I really wonder!

Everything considered, the novel isn’t bad. The subtle love story intermingled with the main theme makes it endearing. It makes for a humorous, light read.

By the way, have you wondered about the title? Who is this Sancho? It’s the nickname of the lady lead. Before this revelation urges you to consider this as an out-and-out love story, let me clarify. It’s not. It definitely has more to offer, but not on a too serious level.

Orange

“Love is good only for sometime” – interesting but not so novel/radical an idea.  This is the concept on which the recent star-studded movie “Orange” has been about. Sprang from the direction of the famous Bommarillu Bhaskar, everyone had lots of expectations from this movie but it clearly disappointed. I must say it’s a badly made movie. May be something got lost along the line – since the time the idea was conceived to the moment when it finally came out as a movie.

The protagonist believes that Love is good for only sometime. He thinks that with time, the sweetness of love vanishes and leaves one only in the midst of never-ending lies, which in turn lead to suffocation and frustration. The director took his sweet time (around 3/4th of the movie) to drive the point of the protagonist into the minds of the audience, which kind of felt too much. Consequently, he couldn’t spare much time for proving the flaw in the protagonist’s philosophy of love/life.

It is obvious that his philosophy has a flaw because, people don’t live like that – in a series of brief love affairs. There is solid case for a life long love relationship and that is the reason why everyone crave for it.  It’s agreed that the romance and excitement of the initial days don’t last long but it’s natural. Love takes different forms as the relationship progresses and it’s foolish not to adapt to it. At the same time, everyone will do with keeping the fire of their initial romance blazing up even after years together and this is what all self-evaluating couples strive to do. The secret is to realize that one needs to nurture love. This challenge doesn’t mean that you need to end the current relationship and enter a new one to experience the romance again. It is just an easy way out but almost always not a rewarding experience in the end.

I feel that sticking to one relationship (as much as one can) is important not only for the sake of the society  but also for satisfying our natural instincts. If it’s not so, it wouldn’t have become such an acceptable and widely popular practice.

While there were a few enlightening moments where the hero was made to evaluate his conviction, the case wasn’t built strongly as it deserved. The movie lacked clarity and the whole point of it seemed to only glorify the hero and his skewed beliefs more than anything else. As a bonus, the movie has the effect of making your head spin in confusion by the time you are finished with it.

In the end, I was left clueless as to the reason behind naming the movie “Orange”. The caption – “Love in Fall” didn’t help me much either. Did anyone get it? If so, can you please enlighten this ignorant being?

Committed

Just finished Elizabeth Gilbert’s Committed. As I’ve written in an earlier post, Committed is a kind of sequel to the more well-known Eat, Pray, Love. In Committed, the author explored many aspects of marriage: history, expectations, women, infatuation and the like. It sure was interesting.

On the other note, I felt that the way she defended single ladies was so comical. She proclaimed that single women are an inevitable part of evolution; that they are saviors of the society and blah, blah, blah. For me, all this just made me sense her desperation. It seemed as if she needed the readers to validate her choices and opinions. She was so defensive.

In the end, she seemed to accept that marriage might not be unpleasant after all. But not really! She has her own terms and ideas of marriage, which is of course totally fine. She very conveniently “forgot” to mention any of the numerous benefits of marriage, verified by a number of research studies. No worries.

But somehow I’m not convinced that she had made her peace with “marriage”, as she claimed. Not at least with the kind of marriage I’m aware of.

I Too Had A Love Story

I liked this simple and cute love story by Ravinder Singh (an IT professional) just for a simple reason that it’s really simple and cute. The author narrated the story in a straight-forward and no nonsensical way. The best thing I liked about it is that he didn’t try to prove any point unlike “some bestsellers”. He just wanted to share a story and he did it well.

I always have misgivings about these so-called true stories. Can they all be true – the drama, the romance, the little embarrassing details…? Well, I guess I need to take them all with a pinch of salt.

PS: Just after finishing the book, my mind set off on an exciting and wild imagination spree: Will I ever write a book? If I do, what would it be about? How would it be like? It would definitely be a fiction. Will it be a drama or a love story or something else????

Come on now, don’t panic! Nothing might come out of this wishful thinking after all.  Relax.

Eat, Pray, Love

I have little talent for writing book reviews. In fact, it is apt not to regard them as “reviews”.  As anyone who reads my blabbering about the books I read, can tell, I just try to pen down certain, often incoherent, thoughts. And presently, I do just the same.

I have put off reading this bestseller by Elizabeth Gilbert for quite a while but in the end I gave in. I believed that one western woman’s personal journey wouldn’t interest me much but the book surprised me.  The author’s colloquial and witty expression impressed me. Above all, I was smitten by the honesty, which the woman has put forth into the words.

The first part of the book- being all about pleasure (of food and language) – had been a pleasant read. I was struck by the urge of the author to learn Italian for no other purpose than to feel the taste of those magical words on her tongue. I appreciated that a lot.

Being an Indian with ideas about spirituality of my own, the “Pray” part was not entirely unfamiliar to me. But reading a westerner’s perspective on the subject was a novel experience for me. I especially liked the way she explained complex spiritual concepts – in a simple and straight-forward manner.

The final part of the book is the one which I considered least captivating but it was fun to learn things about Bali.

Unfortunately, I found myself unable to empathize with the author. Frankly, I could neither understand her need to not have children nor her misery in her marriage. I felt many a times while reading the book that she is a very self-centered person – who always thinks only about herself and only from her perspective. It also struck me that in the modern western culture, it’s largely that way in relationships: each person cares for only what he/she gets out of a relationship or the other person. As long as everything goes right and their needs are met, the relationship flourishes. But as soon as some calamity occurs, the relationship ends.  I don’t want to sound as a bigot but it’s just my general perception. (I may be wrong too!)

This selfish nature was evident even in her brief affair soon after her marriage ended. Both she and her boyfriend were looking at only the reflection of their own needs and desires in the other person. No wonder they had to end their relationship.

Whenever two people are in a relationship, they need to treat that relationship as a third entity and nurture it.  There is nothing called a perfect match, where none is required to make certain adjustments.   To my knowledge, every relationship requires certain degree of compromise on the part of its entities. There is always – ” give and take”.  I safely assumed that it’s obvious to one and all that once you are in a relationship, you think and decide for your partner’s happiness too in addition to yours.

I was baffled to know that even people who are in their thirties, with enough life and experience behind them, fail to understand such a simple concept. But such was the case with this woman. And no where in the whole book, did she realize this.

I know I’m not being fair with this woman – who is from a different culture and background than myself. And given my own cultural stereotypes, I admit that my judgment might be a bit skewed.

And then I started reading Elizabeth’s next non-fiction work: Committed, in which she talked all about Marriage. I was relieved to find her more mature in this work.  In addition to admitting to her narcissistic nature, she even talked wisely about relationships. While “Committed” might seem less attractive a read compared to her “Eat, Pray, Love”, it does have many pearls of wisdom. None of them are new or groundbreaking but still are invaluable. Again, I was bowled over by her honesty. She is one hell of a brave lady.

Museum of Innocence

I came across the Turkish author and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk a while ago online and have been looking forward to read his ‘My Name is Red’ ever since. I zeroed in this particular book, among other well lauded ones of the author,  for no special reason other than that its title piqued my curiosity and promised a unique experience.

But when I learned about his recent book – The Museum of Innocence, I at once grabbed it from the library with much anticipation. And I was not disappointed.  In fact, I loved it. It’s a story of love and obsession about a rich business man, Kemal, who gets smitten by the beautiful distant poor relative, Fusun, who is 12 years younger than him.

I was really awestruck by the depth and intensity of Kemal’s feelings for Fusun, his ability to take refuge in her memories and notably from the various petty things related to her directly or indirectly.  His longing and perseverance is evident in the fact that he continued to visit Fusun’s house for 8 long years in the hope that she would come back to him one day.

At the end of around 10 long years pining for her, Fusun agrees to marry him. But she dies in a car accident the morning after their informal and private engagement. Kemal lives the rest of his life creating the Museum of Innocence, whose exhibits are all those things he had collected that reminds him of Fusun.  In essence, Musuem of Innocence is a tribute to his love for Fusun.

This novel got me wondering about the possibility of living for love and love alone. I was really intrigued. One important thing I liked in this novel is that the author didn’t seem to be keen on giving a name to Kemal’s feelings for Fusun and he didn’t try to glorify it. He narrated the story as a matter of fact. I felt that the last words of Kemal, which are also of the novel, were the most profound ones in that they made me look at his life in new light: “Let everyone know, I lived a very happy life.”

The story takes place in Istanbul and the author, through his picturesque narration introduces us to the life in the city and also makes us privy to its many quirks.

Museum of Innocence, with its richness and depth, will remain as one my favorites forever.