Book Review
Can someone be so racked by guilt that one renounces living altogether?
A five page letter with a postscript by an estranged mother to her dear son with clear instructions that it be read by him when alone and only after her death rocks the very foundation of an entire family.
Udayan Mukherjee's debut novel has a plot that is crisp, prose highly mature and compact, lines - not melodramatic but strongly melancholic that dissect emotions flawlessly. We travel the entire landscape of memories of Ronojoy and Sujoy - two brothers, their memories of their parents - Mala and Subir, Apu kaka, their Dida, their house in Delhi, a summer home in the hills in Mukteshwar; we join the dots as the story progresses between their life events that initially seem are in disarray.
A past caked with anguish, guilt, betrayal, remorse and longing for love punctures a vulnerable present leaving only uncertainty for future - a heavy read, I still strongly recommend for reasons below -
1. The author unfailingly explains how falliable we humans are, how hugely important it is to forgive an erring act by a loved one. Forgiving does more good to oneself than one who errs.
2. It needed so little to make children happy just as it needed little to scar them for life. This statement by the author with ample backing drives home the point that childhood conditioning leaves an indelible mark for life.
3. The author explains how there is no one reality, no one reaction to the same set of events, some are hurtled towards an emotional abyss while they exhibit an outer calm, bottling up emotions while others openly vent the turmoil. Judging anyone was just futility.
The book has an open ending befitting the fact that many things that happen in one's life cannot/do not attain a closure.
Udayan Mukherjee's Dark Circles stresses on how important it is to broker peace with one's past to handle the present, and also forge the present constantly to brace for the future.
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