THE REVIEWS:
I give below short excerpts from The Hindu and The Deccan Herald reviews of my novel; and the complete review from The Book Review, New Delhi:
‘Subtle and understated…A sturdy independence of mind is evident in Prabhaker Acharya’s debut novel…The rural milieu provides the author with a fertile source of original and felicitous metaphor. Memories of past happiness long buried in the subconscious mind float suddenly to the surface "like butter churned by the gopis for little Krishna to steal"; and moments of ecstasy are as fleeting as Godhooli, that magical moment when the dying sun turns to gold the dust raised by the cows as they come home. Analogies like these are movingly eloquent and leave a lasting resonance in the reader's mind.
The Hindu LITERARY REVIEW
‘A story well told by a writer with skill and sensitivity…’ - Deccan Herald.
In Quest of One's Roots
B. Mangalam
THE SURAGI TREE
By Prabhaker Acharya
MapinLit, Ahmedabad, 2006, pp. 452, Rs.395.00
Prabhaker Acharya's The Suragi Tree is a delightful novel. The 400plus narrative is surprisingly a quick, absorbing read: racy, but relaxed,spanning over six decades but time-warped, tale of a solitary manbut peopled with an enormous number of characters, each one vivacious and memorable; the intertwining of a rural landscape with a distinct
community orientation and the metropolitan anonymity that seeks to strike up a bond with strangers; the creative turmoil of a writer who writes brilliantly but quotes from good old English canonical writers on every third page - these are some of the defining elements of this novel...
The novel's absorbing plot, a quality of earnestness and simplicity in its narration, its relaxed and relaxing pace, its suave control over academic scholarship and village life that interpenetrate with easy familiarity in the narrative are simply breathtaking. This is easily the most well written first novel by a writer in recent times. What is more remarkable is the fact that Acharya turned to writing fiction after retiring as Head of the Department of English, from a college in Mumbai. The novel shows remarkable creative
energy that manages to remain unblunted by the retired English Professor's profuse indebtedness to his profession. Some chapters read like veritable lectures with generous quotes from all the canonical British writers: Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Herbert, Marvel, Chesterton, Spender, Frost, Milton, Yeats, Eliot and others. There is an earnest debate on whom the Indian writer addresses while writing in English. The protagonist Sudhakar Rao teaches English in a college in Mumbai. Hence, classroom
lectures spill over and spice up the narrative especially as the young lecturer dates his women students, watches movies with them, scours the city for eateries to take them for lunch and loses his job over one of them. But these misadventures are firmly textured within a cultural context that reverberates with vivid memories of his childhood in Nampalli, a serene village in Karnataka, his brahminical upbringing, an intense bond with his uncle whom he loves, idolizes, emulates, deserts and agonizes over.
Sudhakar Rao's conflict with his physician father who wants him to study biology while Sudhakar sits dreaming under the Suragi tree, composing poems and stories, is laced with an angst, pathos and reverential emotional distancing that is poignant and heartrending. This is an experience, perhaps, many readers who have struggled to pursue literature in a society going berserk over FITJEE, Akash, Narayana, CAT coaching would identify with. The novel puts across a positive need to preserve a link with one's past, to cherish one's childhood bond with nature and community even while reckoning with the inevitable growing out of its protective, restrictive fold.
The novel's simple structure of sin and expiation, of crime and punishment is transcended by a narrative intelligence that is aware of the poignancy and restriction of having to live with "frayed and inadequately severed relationships" with one's family, village, workplace and nature.
Sudhakar Rao shares his birthday with Yeats. He makes much of this, venerating Yeats's poetry, his passion for Maud Gonne and his "courage to make a fool of himself in love". Sudhakar's love for Dakshi, his student half his age, however is characterized not by Yeatsian "courage" but by a reticent, detached, passive acceptance of others' wilful intervention over the relationship.
Sudhakar's growing solitude, his physical exile from his hometown is juxtaposed with his increasing popularity among children of his apartment complex some of whom bless him with unconditional love, nurturing him during illness and inspiring him to new creative heights. The novel teems with memorable characters: Sudhakar's mother (bereft, for a change, of smothering motherliness), his cousins, his worldly wise, "successful" younger brother, his group of friends at Nampalli and Udupi, especially little Ramu who protects his wayward mother in her old age and of course Dakshi.
The novel tries to place the narration within English literature literary criticism of the modernist phase. But the novel's real success lies in the fact that it manages to transcend its conscious indebtedness to modernist poets and reaches out to postmodernist sensibility without compromising on a lucid, riveting narrative that retains the charm of old world storytelling.
MapinLit's production is flawless and one hopes its marketing is equally professional. This novel is a must-read for this decade of readers bombarded by novels rooted in plagiarization and internet culture. Sudhakar Rao's intense bond with the Suragi tree, the myths he believes in and the mystical experiences he encounters in the last section of the novel transports the reader to a world that has been shut out from fiction in recent decades. The novelist's quest for reaching out to his roots is sure to make the uprooted
reader appreciate the need for a value-loaded past and turn the others misty eyed about one's fragile bond with memories of childhood and a vanishing landscape..
B. Mangalam teaches English at Ram Lal Anand (Evening College),Delhi
University, Delhi.
I give below short excerpts from The Hindu and The Deccan Herald reviews of my novel; and the complete review from The Book Review, New Delhi:
‘Subtle and understated…A sturdy independence of mind is evident in Prabhaker Acharya’s debut novel…The rural milieu provides the author with a fertile source of original and felicitous metaphor. Memories of past happiness long buried in the subconscious mind float suddenly to the surface "like butter churned by the gopis for little Krishna to steal"; and moments of ecstasy are as fleeting as Godhooli, that magical moment when the dying sun turns to gold the dust raised by the cows as they come home. Analogies like these are movingly eloquent and leave a lasting resonance in the reader's mind.
The Hindu LITERARY REVIEW
‘A story well told by a writer with skill and sensitivity…’ - Deccan Herald.
In Quest of One's Roots
B. Mangalam
THE SURAGI TREE
By Prabhaker Acharya
MapinLit, Ahmedabad, 2006, pp. 452, Rs.395.00
Prabhaker Acharya's The Suragi Tree is a delightful novel. The 400plus narrative is surprisingly a quick, absorbing read: racy, but relaxed,spanning over six decades but time-warped, tale of a solitary manbut peopled with an enormous number of characters, each one vivacious and memorable; the intertwining of a rural landscape with a distinct
community orientation and the metropolitan anonymity that seeks to strike up a bond with strangers; the creative turmoil of a writer who writes brilliantly but quotes from good old English canonical writers on every third page - these are some of the defining elements of this novel...
The novel's absorbing plot, a quality of earnestness and simplicity in its narration, its relaxed and relaxing pace, its suave control over academic scholarship and village life that interpenetrate with easy familiarity in the narrative are simply breathtaking. This is easily the most well written first novel by a writer in recent times. What is more remarkable is the fact that Acharya turned to writing fiction after retiring as Head of the Department of English, from a college in Mumbai. The novel shows remarkable creative
energy that manages to remain unblunted by the retired English Professor's profuse indebtedness to his profession. Some chapters read like veritable lectures with generous quotes from all the canonical British writers: Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Herbert, Marvel, Chesterton, Spender, Frost, Milton, Yeats, Eliot and others. There is an earnest debate on whom the Indian writer addresses while writing in English. The protagonist Sudhakar Rao teaches English in a college in Mumbai. Hence, classroom
lectures spill over and spice up the narrative especially as the young lecturer dates his women students, watches movies with them, scours the city for eateries to take them for lunch and loses his job over one of them. But these misadventures are firmly textured within a cultural context that reverberates with vivid memories of his childhood in Nampalli, a serene village in Karnataka, his brahminical upbringing, an intense bond with his uncle whom he loves, idolizes, emulates, deserts and agonizes over.
Sudhakar Rao's conflict with his physician father who wants him to study biology while Sudhakar sits dreaming under the Suragi tree, composing poems and stories, is laced with an angst, pathos and reverential emotional distancing that is poignant and heartrending. This is an experience, perhaps, many readers who have struggled to pursue literature in a society going berserk over FITJEE, Akash, Narayana, CAT coaching would identify with. The novel puts across a positive need to preserve a link with one's past, to cherish one's childhood bond with nature and community even while reckoning with the inevitable growing out of its protective, restrictive fold.
The novel's simple structure of sin and expiation, of crime and punishment is transcended by a narrative intelligence that is aware of the poignancy and restriction of having to live with "frayed and inadequately severed relationships" with one's family, village, workplace and nature.
Sudhakar Rao shares his birthday with Yeats. He makes much of this, venerating Yeats's poetry, his passion for Maud Gonne and his "courage to make a fool of himself in love". Sudhakar's love for Dakshi, his student half his age, however is characterized not by Yeatsian "courage" but by a reticent, detached, passive acceptance of others' wilful intervention over the relationship.
Sudhakar's growing solitude, his physical exile from his hometown is juxtaposed with his increasing popularity among children of his apartment complex some of whom bless him with unconditional love, nurturing him during illness and inspiring him to new creative heights. The novel teems with memorable characters: Sudhakar's mother (bereft, for a change, of smothering motherliness), his cousins, his worldly wise, "successful" younger brother, his group of friends at Nampalli and Udupi, especially little Ramu who protects his wayward mother in her old age and of course Dakshi.
The novel tries to place the narration within English literature literary criticism of the modernist phase. But the novel's real success lies in the fact that it manages to transcend its conscious indebtedness to modernist poets and reaches out to postmodernist sensibility without compromising on a lucid, riveting narrative that retains the charm of old world storytelling.
MapinLit's production is flawless and one hopes its marketing is equally professional. This novel is a must-read for this decade of readers bombarded by novels rooted in plagiarization and internet culture. Sudhakar Rao's intense bond with the Suragi tree, the myths he believes in and the mystical experiences he encounters in the last section of the novel transports the reader to a world that has been shut out from fiction in recent decades. The novelist's quest for reaching out to his roots is sure to make the uprooted
reader appreciate the need for a value-loaded past and turn the others misty eyed about one's fragile bond with memories of childhood and a vanishing landscape..
B. Mangalam teaches English at Ram Lal Anand (Evening College),Delhi
University, Delhi.
