September 27, 2007
Mother Talk book review: The Spendor of Silence, by Indu Sundaresan
American readers often find Indian novels daunting; I don’t know how many people I’ve talked to who have said, “I tried to read [insert name of Salman Rushdie novel here] but I just couldn’t get through it.” We are put off by the intense reliance on magic realism and history, both of which are integral to the genre. American novels — let’s face it — are often divorced from history and fantasy.
But it is precisely this reliance on magic and history that give the Indian novel its remarkable texture and depth. And for readers who are daunted by Rushdie, Indu Sundaresans’s The Spendor of Silence offers a wonderful in: Sundaresan’s novel is both an Indian novel and an American novel, one that unfolds a classic adventure/love story against the backdrop of World War II.
Sundaresan’s story is compelling, but it is also familiar: American soldier Sam Hawthorne journeys to the princely state of Rudrakot in search of his missing brother. There he meets Mila, the daughter of the Indian political agent. They fall in love. Twenty one years later, Sam dies and his daughter, Olivia, opens a trunk sent to her from India and begins to unravel the story of her parents’ love affair, which of course also involves the story of Sam’s missing brother and the daring and heroic plan to rescue him. The plot is, quite honestly, both engaging and predictable.
It is not the plot of this novel that makes this novel compelling, though; instead, it is Sundaresan’s Americanized take on the conventional Indian novel that draws the reader on. Sam is not a Brit; he is from Seattle, and he brings his distinctly outside view to the British India he visits. Sundaresan is able to take the most mundane of moments and open them out, so that they reveal not only the characters’ inner desires but the detailed differences between the Indians and the British and the Americans.
Sam, who was cautious an pondered every deed before he took a step in the direction of anything, had clasped Mil’as hand without thought, and once he held that small and slender hand within his, he did not want to let it go. What he wanted was to bring that hand to his chest and hold it against his heart, but he stayed that action, his fingers shaking with want over hers.
At that moment, Mila looked down on their hands and thought it was an intimate act, unlike a mere shaking of hands to say hello upon meeting. She saw the fine hairs on his knuckles, a little tremble before he increased the pressure and wove his fingers into hers. The cool of the metal from the coins flooded her palm. There was a tiny scratch on the back of Sam’s hand, and this Mila touched fleetingly.
“Does it hurt?” she aked.
“No.”
She had not been cognizant of the sound of her own voice or even that she had spoken aloud, but when she heard his voice. Mila realized that they were at the mela grounds, in front of everyone. Men and women simply did not touch in public, no matter how long they had been married, or how close their relationship. Indians certainly did not, and neither did the British; if anything, distant pecks in the air, accompanied by a “darling” was the closest one came to one’s husband or wife. (188-189)
Sundaresan’s ability to move from a typical romance novel moment — Sam’s instictive grasp of Mila’s hand and all it represents — to a larger reading of cultural and gender taboos — not even the married British touch each other in public — is one of the novel’s greatest successes.
This is a terrific novel; readers who are already familiar and comfortable with Indian fiction will appreciate Sundaresan’s Americanized perspective on the genre; readers who are unfamiliar with — or intimidated by — the sweeping historicity and magic realism of Indian fiction will find it accessible and compelling.
This post is part of the Mother Talk book tour; click here for links to other reviews.
Posted by Susan @ 9:02 am • Mother Talk book review, other places
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September 27th, 2007 at 11:22 am, Marjorie Says:
What a wonderful review - thanks! I especially appreciate your observation that this is a great “in” for Americans who’ve felt daunted by Indian fiction.
September 27th, 2007 at 11:36 am, mother-talk.com » Blog Archive » “The Splendor of Silence” by Indu Sundaresan Says:
[…] 27: Friday Playdate says “This is a terrific novel; readers who are already familiar and comfortable with Indian […]
September 27th, 2007 at 4:23 pm, Tricia Says:
#122,000…Sounds good.
September 28th, 2007 at 7:15 am, cce Says:
Another great Indian novel, one I read years ago, is The God of Small Things. Absolutely loved the very visceral conjuring of a land I’ve never seen.
Thanks for the recommendation on this one.
October 3rd, 2007 at 6:42 am, Lori Says:
Is this his normal style or did he have to make a book like this just so Americans would read it/could understand it? I hope it’s his normal style and not just trying to get Americans to understand another perspective.
October 3rd, 2007 at 6:43 am, Lori Says:
I should probably say that I mean it makes me mad that an author would have to change his style for the American public. It makes us look really bad.
October 3rd, 2007 at 7:21 am, Susan Says:
Lori, that’s a good question. Indu Sundaresan grew up in India, but she went to graduate school in the US, and lives in Seattle now.
I don’t have any sense that Sundaresan changed her style for an American audience; instead, this is a different take on the Indian novel, or the American novel, because it is both, really (or neither, if you want to think of this kind of immigrant literature as its own genre). The Splendor of Silence is clearly and deeply informed by Sundaresan’s experience of Indian culture (which includes the British Raj) and American culture (Sam and Olivia live in Washington state).
You can read an interview with Indu Sundaresan –in which she talks about her interest in literature of the Indian diaspora — here.