Evening is the whole day - Preeta Samarasan

I am done with the job now. I am so relieved and relaxed. I feel free - probably this is how most prisoners would feel after getting out. I know this is not a permanent option; the realities of life would force me to look into the mirror soon and push me again towards another job, another drudgery.
Till then, let me enjoy.
I am done with J.D. Salinger's 'Franny and Zooey' but I have not really had the time to put my thoughts in order. Instead, I jumped on to Preeta Samarasan's 'Evening is the whole day'.

It is a story of an Indian family caught amidst changing times - occurring within the family relationships, within the society that the family has reluctantly embraced and in Malaysia post colonial departure (although not much of this). The story starts with sending away the maidservant Chellam for committing a sin in the 'Big House'. Each member of the family (Appa, Amma, Uma the oldest-eldest, Suresh and Aasha the little one who sees ghosts in the house and 'knows things somehow') has his/her own personal sorrows, agenda that somehow adds on to the emotional burden that the family bears. In the later chapters one gets to know the nature of relationship shared between Amma and Appa, the underlying tensions and the lack of intimacy. Appa, the ambitious lawyer who wanted to make it big in Malayan politics and make a difference to the society. His wealth, education or his ideals cannot really hide the selfishness lying underneath. Amma, the girl from the lower class who was grateful to Appa for rescuing her from the misery of her aimless life inflicted by the parents, enters the big house only to realize that the disappointments of life here are camouflaged in silk sarees, jewellery, and mindless tea parties. Paati (the grandmother) with her emotional games using her sons and grandchildren against the daughter-in-law. The oldest-eldest girl Uma who plans to leave for America for studies, harbouring anger at the family for having betrayed her trust. And additional ghost characters floating in and out of the story at various intervals.

I found the first half unnecessarily heavy, verbose. It was not very easy to go on with the book considering how slowly the plot moved - the details were too detailed, the descriptions too vivid. The character development of the 'ghost' - a little girl who died earlier in the house feels slightly overdone. It makes the novel a little too clever for comfort. The political unrest of Malaysia as depicted in the novel does little to hold the reader's interest since it seems like a small subplot thrown in as an after thought. However, in the second half the plot picks up pace and suddenly the writing is crisper as if the author suddenly decided to shed the descriptive narration. I enjoyed the plot build-up. The writing in most parts is powerful and holds one's attention - the simple hopes and fears of chellam the maidservant, the manipulativeness of Aasha, are wonderfully captured. One feels sorry for Amma, who struggles till the very end to attain the upper-classiness, in the process alienating her children and husband.

Overall, the book is a good read and I probably would pickup her second book if the author comes up with an other one.

Rating: 3.5/5