I just finished reading the book and it left me with a real, physical feeling of uneasiness and probably a hint of nausea; although it might be attributed to my fasting since I was too keen to finish the book, or I am in trouble. But let us stick with my first prognosis that it was the book. It is very difficult to form an opinion about the book because it reads very strange – I have not read anything of the sort. This is a very daring experiment towards an Indianized sci-fi story. From the very beginning, Ghosh was able to hook me into the suspense surrounding the disappearance of a person – Murugan; and the eerie silence around everything he ran into before his disappearance. He is a curious character who wants answers and dares to question; so gains reader’s sympathy by his disappearance.
As the reader goes through the pages, he uncovers the interlinked lives of many people across ages and regions and the mystery keeps on deepening as the links seem to be very random. Soon, the pile of coincidences starts giving way to an underlying story of a mysterious chromosome that has the potential to transfer traits of a person to another and cannot be transferred genetically. If that sentence doesn’t make sentence, please read the book if you really cannot hold your curiosity.
Ghosh caught my eye with his book - Sea of Poppies. His writing is very ingeniously native and I loved his use of language and descriptions. It somehow felt looking through an Indian eye rather than a foreigner’s eye – something that is very hard because most of the Indians grow up reading and thinking in English – and there is always a gap of language between what we feel and talk; and what we read and write. That said, I don’t think this book is one of his masterpieces. What he tried to do with a fusion of sci-fi, religion, Indian culture, and time travel is indeed very innovative and hard, but it does leave reader’s mind for more and not in a good way. Even though it is an intriguing story built upon a chromosome idea, at places the plot feels too thinly stretched out to meet the ends: particularly the Indian network of non-believers of traditional science. But the plot’s hold on me might be my own lack of reading of many sci-fi books.
Language wise, the story-telling started off quite well and I settled myself for a good story. But then, the plot and story-telling started to peel off. At one point, the author rambled on for 3 pages to convey the point that the station was completely empty barring the protagonist. He meant “completely” in its exact form and not figuratively. And he took 3 pages to convey that.
He has definitely evolved as an author afterall: I just checked that the Calcutta Chromosome was published way back in 1995 while Sea of Poppies is a much recent book from 2008. And that would account for the story-telling. It is satisfying to know the good and not-so-good of an author – to feel the progress – it is heartening as a writer to know that things will get better. It might take 13 years, but it will get there.
I have not at all given up on the author though – I hold him in highest regards. As I said, he has a very personal form of expression that I have not seen in other authors. Interesting bit of wiki trivia: his contemporaries at The Doon School included Vikram Seth and Ram Guha – what can possibly go wrong if you keep such company in childhood? So, I have ordered his non-fiction book on climate change – the Great Derangement, and cannot wait to see what it is in store.