One of my new year's resolutions is to read "more" and "carefully'. But, sadly, there is nothing much to read carefully in Perumal Murugan's novel Poonachi. The satire is not subtle at all. It is right on the face. Moreover, the narrative lacks a suggestive nature, so much so that I wondered whether this is the same person who has written the novel "One part women." One of the best things about "One Part Women" is that the text focuses "mainly" on the character's life, and the narrative is weaved in such a way that we feel the "absence" of the author in it. The social and political debate followed after the publication is solely due to the text's suggestive character.
But, the narrator in this novel is so ambitious that he forgets to keep an eye on what he is saying rather than what he is saying. This is so evident in the foreword itself, where Perumal expresses his apprehension regarding the controversies and how he has chosen the theme of this novel. After reading the forward, it becomes clear to me that Perumal Murugan wants to make a social/political statement and one of the best ways is to make this happen is by writing a satirical text.
Two things that differentiate satire from other genres are subtle narrative and suggestive character (When I read Orwell's Animal Farm, I didn't know that it was a satire on the failed project of socialism/communism. The text is so perfect that one would feel the story is a plausible situation that can possibly happen somewhere on the planet.) Unfortunately, both these elements are missing entirely in this text. The ear tagging episode of Poonachi is so evident that the writer has simply borrowed events/emotions from the newspaper clippings (Aadhar-related news).
At times, the narrator has throttled down characters so that they can reiterate what he wants to say. There is one episode where the old women talk about environmental destruction and how humans are killing animals in the name of development. I felt these words are not coming from the old-women character at all. These are simply the narrator's words, and he has merely stuffed them into the characters. This has resulted in making the text more uneven in nature. So, the text has become somewhat rough, i.e., it's not a smooth surface at all. And at two or three places, there is a reference to the "Asura" kingdom (I don't know whether it was there in the original or the result of the translation). Apart from those two places, the text didn't offer any details about this place. I don't know why he has used this place as the character's residence (Maybe I'm missing something here). In the end, this novel turns out to be a social/political essay.
PS: I have decided to read his other two novels, Koolamadari (Seasons of the Palm) and Nizhal Mutram (Current Show), translated by V. Geetha. I heard he was at his best in these two novels.
