The Far Field

Such an tiring read, the story drags on and on with no real plot or climax. At the end you find yourself resenting the main character for wasting your time as she’s wasted her life away.

"I am thirty years old and that's nothing"Story starts with this astonishing mysterious line"Her mother died when Shalini was twenty one. "This is what I have told myself for last six years, each time I have had the urge to speak" "It will make no difference"What happened in Kashmir that she isn't recovered yet.The story begins when a Kashmiri salesman Bashir Ahmed knocks on their door and enters to Shalni and her mother's world, Shalini sees different side of her mother.Her mother wants to escape from her world with Bashir but soon she finds that he is also escaping from his life, living far away from his family, at Bangalore, leaving them in trouble.✨✨✨ When Shalini turns twenty-four she considers going in search of Bashir but she don't know about him but a story when she six.She leaves for Kashmir knowing nothing but a story (maybe not real)Her journey to Kashmir unfolds facts.Living with strangers a place like Kashmir, she finds a connection in her life.For me, this was a fantastic, mind-blowing and beautiful read.Highlights• So, you see, there is nothing to be gained by prenteding to a wisdom I do not Possess. • And suddenly it seemed like the most natural thing I had ever done in my life, sitting in comfortable silence with this sober copule in the predawan, the couple I met a few days ago and staying under common roof. • Holding My finger and mumbling Kashmiri words the Aquib went on to the school way. • Milking the cow with Amina and her calling Shalini Murgi. • Teaching Sania and discussing things with Mohammad Din.• She got to know that Bashir was arrested by the military and ...• Riyaz and Amina didn't tell her a secret • After dinner standing outside the house with Riyaz • Having the same desire, her mom had once for Bashir, leaving home• Bashir's leaving • Her encounter with the soldiers • Leaving Bashir's Family with guilt • The things happened at Brigadier's place • Things she got know through a phone call, days after leaving Kashmir • Things buried under her heart at the age of thirty, six years passed but...#thefarfiled #bookreview #jcbliterature2019 #bookstagram

"From the beginning, I adored Suneyna for her shy smile and her habit of unconsciously reaching out to touch me whenever we were working.  Her little hand would wander out and graze some part of my face, my chin or nose, and then she would go on as before, busily choosing blocks, unaware that she had shaken me deeply."Such is one of the more compelling small moments in Madhuri Vijay's first novel, "The Far Field."  These little beats of simple action are all the more welcome as they randomly emerge amidst a very grim fictional though realistic landscape.The protagonist, Shalini, from Bangalore, India, journeys northeast to Kashmir, soon after she has arrived at an uncertain crossroads in her life at age 30. She resolves to look for someone who she greatly admired when she was young.  She is as emotionally involving as a well-drawn but very updated Dickens protagonist.The characters are so vivid in this story, especially the people of the mountain villages.  There is an openess, a direct manner of address that Vijay captures in the various people Shalini meets.  Their warmth is unique and nicely contrasts with Shalini's more remote less trusting more cautious big city manner.  There are the barest of small mud and wood houses though clean and optimized for spartan habitation that overlook mountain meadows.  Another world.In Vijay's short story, "You Are My Dear Friend" emotions are held back within the actions of the protagonist or do not seem to exist when there is conflict.Although "The Far Field" might be characterized as a womens' novel, the men are not stereotyped and are as interestingly drawn as the women.  Kashmir is such a mindless tragedy of a once very beautiful place that keeps continually replaying the brutal disconnect between Hindus and Muslims after the Partition of India in 1947.In modern times, emotional sensitivity is regarded as mental weakness and psychotic emotional overreaction is seen as a more normal though slightly sick form of mental control over others.  Variously seen as progressive or not really but nevertheless necessary though degraded, "The Far Field" probes the obscene collateral damage of polarizing hatred and plain ignorance.It is a very fine first novel by a sensitive writer who brilliantly contrasts the lack of feeling or emotion in our modern geopolitical landscape where different ideas and singular individual differences are not to be tolerated in the best interests of an outwardly benevolent one world attitude.  Excellent writers and poets chart the changes in the emotional and philosophical social-sphere as T. S. Eliot did in "The Wasteland" or Anthony Burgess in "A Clockwork Orange"."The Far Field" would make an awesome film about Kashmir to join "Haider" and "Fitoor" in its finest moments.  The renown Hindi actor, Tabu would be perfect as Shalini's mother.  It could be produced by Anushka Sharma's film production company, Clean Slate Filmz, for theatrical release after the pandemic.  Ironically proving the point of Vijay's novel, it would actually be virtually impossible to shoot the film in Kashmir.  So an excellent film location expert would need to scout a substitute location.  And a skilled diplomat would also be needed to deal with any reservations film censors may have regarding the making of such a film in and about India."The Far Field" displays a mature emotional feeling that doesn't seem to appeal as much to American readers as much as it once did in earlier American writers.  It's emotional landscape is very relatable to today's tough times all over the world.  The emotions and travails that Americans face are very similar to those that middle or lower upper class professional people experience in India or anywhere else in the world.  The gulf between the well-monied and privileged people's existence contrasted to the more ordinary living of everyday people has never been as extreme as it is today."The Far Field" wisely observes interactions among urban outsiders not at all aware of the maybe more ordinary but "different" in some ways, people of innately unique spiritual substance that they might meet.One caveat.  It is quite sad but not anymore so than the pandemic and everything else that is wrong in the world these days.

Interesting for anyone who is aware of India's history and a good read

The Far FieldMadhuri VijayCommendable writing!!!"There is nothing like been consumed by the blazing fire of untold story"..This is a story about Kashmir.. the one most of us either are not aware of or we don't care about..The story is about reminiscences of a girl in Bangalore when a salesman comes at her doorstep selling in some Kashmiri clothes.. How it impacts her life and how she embarks on a journey to Kashmir which takes the reader through the ground realities there - Hindus, Muslims, Kashmiri Pandits, Politics, Militancy, Terrorism, Army and not to forget the common man..The story telling is immaculate and endearing...A love story, war story, family saga weaved into a delicate emotional story....One of the best books I have read this year..Recommended read to all my friends..