The Far Field - Madhuri Vijay

Fiction

Read it!

I initially picked up this book because the art work on the cover is beautiful, and I am very glad I did.  Madhuri Vijay has created something very special with this novel. This is my first exposure to her as an author, and I can't wait to see what else she has written/will write.

This novel is about Shalini. She is from Bangalore who has a very ordinary, yet troubled childhood. Her mother's mental issues are never spelled out, but it's clear she has something wrong. The mother is amused by a wandering Kashmiri clothing seller who comes many times to visit her in her home.  As a child, Shalini can feel that something is wrong, but can't quite put her finger on it. After her mother commits suicide, Shalini decides to find the carpet seller and get her questions answered. Only she doesn't really have a solid location for him, just an old story that he told that helps her in a starting direction. She stays with his extended family for a while and then his son when they agree to help her find him. She exists in a vacuum and passes her time there, wondering if she should stay permanently. Stumbling into a falsely peaceful looking area, she affects the lives of everyone she stays with trying to get her questions answered. Ultimately, her family finds her and a colonel brings her back, then sleeps with her. Her report on the events that she saw in Kashmir are misconstrued to assist the army and the Kashmiri's son is arrested. Shalini is left to live with the fact that inspite of her neutral intentions, her decisions have left a permanent, horrifying mark on people she grew to care about. 

The author unwinds and untangles one thread at a time for us as she goes on an epic trip to uncover some unresolved questions from Shalini's childhood. I know it sounds like a huge trope, but it's very well done. Vijay addresses mental health, infidelity, Kashmir, and how sometimes our actions have unintended, irreversible consequences. It's not a difficult read (though like most of the novels I read, it's quite long), but it does leave you feeling desperately like you wish there was a different outcome. It disturbed me for a few days after I read it.

This isn't my first exposure to the atrocities that continue to happen in Kashmir, but I was very much hoping that the ending would have been at least neutral. It definitely wasn't. I also very much enjoyed (in the literary sense, not seeing a character suffer) how the author focused not only on mental illness and how it can be difficult for an individual, but the long, ongoing consequences that the rest of the family may face. I felt a distinct concern for Shalini the entire novel as it is so obvious that she is wandering lost and trying to make sense of things that were never even spoke of, not to mention explained.

Take your time and wander through this. Its a hell of a book.

~Becky~