Estuary - Perumal Murugan

Fiction

Read it

I know that as I read and write reviews, I use the word favorite quite often. I simply can't help it - there are so many reasons for having favorites and having them for different reasons. To be quite trite, Perumal Murugan is also a favorite author of mine. I had read One Part Woman and Poonachi previously and greatly enjoyed myself. It's been a joy to watch his writing evolve. The BookWorm clerk - a brilliant salesman and always handing me more books I simply must read - suggested this. As I know I enjoy Murugan, I readily agreed. That and the book cover is beautiful. I'm a sucker for beautiful covers. Please don't inform the BookWorm clerk.

Estuary is a story about a family of Asuras (loosely in mythology creatures that are humanoid with extra powers). A government clerk father, a home making mother, and a college aged, spoiled son. Murugan takes us through a stunningly accessible journey of a family trying to send their son to college and make peace with the new technologies and changing world. The father is the main character, and the one who struggles the most. Their son was born after years of trying and superstitious intervention. As with all parents, he is dismayed to find out that his son is not longer the happy child who wanted all the attention and has now developed strong opinions of his own. The son's ever increasing financial demands and increasing distance cause the father great pain and he struggles to re-connect. As he is introduced to the technologies that his son is most comfortable with, the father is overcome with panic that his most precious son may go down the wrong path and completely wreck his life. After a small mental breakdown, a kind friend brilliantly works with him to see the positive sides that technology can bring and helps him learn to use the things so that it isn't an amorphous scary entity.

The brilliance of Murugan is how accessible he is. Anyone with children can identify easily with the anxiety that these parents feel and how real the fear of technology, losing the child to the wrong path, and losing touch are for every parent. I'm not quite sure why Murugan chose to use Asuras as a theme and he hasn't really clued us in to why this is important. Perhaps it's simply my lack of understanding of Asuras that is the problem. Either which way, I very much understood and empathized with the main character.  It was a breath of fresh air and very refreshing to read after the previous two challenging novels.  His portrayal of college visits and putting young adults in horse harnesses and blinders so that they only study, and how the parents fell in line without thought was particularly brilliant and hilarious.

I cannot wait to see what Murugan has up next. 

Absolutely read it.

~Becky~