Note: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for a book review.
I am not a fiction reader. The cover art of this one is impressive and that made me go for the book. Of course, additionally the book blurb is exciting too. Some clever wording that attracted me to the book. It’s about an Indian girl and her life after an arranged marriage along with her transition from a small town to urban city resident. The book starts to explore themes of the conservative Indian household wherein our protagonist, Janhvi, narrates her experiences in the form of a diary. A good thing about the book is that it is focused on a few characters eliminating the chaos of too many people that makes no sense to the storyline. So far, so good. As I started reading, however, I realised that the writer has tangled multiple themes of Feminism, Patriarchy, LGBT, Dowry, Abortion and unfortunately falls short of achieving the desired output for the story. Janhvi’s educational background of having studied Law and yet harbouring mediocre views towards a city that she is new to didn’t quite match upto the story.
I will be more honest here than the goodreads review because I don’t wish to put off other readers about reading it. The challenge of writing a book that speaks on varying levels of the undergoings of a traditional Indian family is quite a task. The author picks up relevant issues but falls short with her writing style. To a great extent, the writing seemed juvenile to me. I also don’t understand the insinuation of Shree- Ram in the epilogue. Is this the writer’s cheeky attempt of denigrating a Hindu deity that millions revere in this country and is often upheld as an ideal man? I don’t know. Because it doesn’t serve any purpose to the story apart from perhaps courting some controversy. Also, the overuse of the cliche for marriage consummation/wedding night anticipation could have been avoided. A lot of writing carries words from a teenager’s vocabulary. That was a major turn off for me. A good deal of dialogue sounds like a book version of Indian Television soap episodics. I chuckled especially when I came across this case that Janhvi handles for her firm, one that involves the real life divorce of a TV actor couple. That was not very subtle nor did it sound clever to me on part of the writer. I don’t read contemporary Indian English novels solely for their lacklustre and immature handling of story lines and their lack of literary value per se.
Coming back to this book, the main characters of Jahnvi and her husband, Ram are developed weakly. The inner turmoils of Janhvi as the lonesome wife in the new big city are recognisable but her conversations with self are cringy and borderline on crazy ranting. The husband is portrayed strangely too. The entire flow and growth of the characters is deadened without any stable characterisation. The writer could also use a better Editor for the book. I felt this was a rather muddled attempt especially when a lot of social themes are fleetingly addressed. Fiction usually works better when it builds the story around a theme and gradually addresses that theme. Beyond the Veil, falls short of this expectation one gets after reading the blurb, which specifically mentions the meeting of bruised souls to change the definition of soul mate. I wish the plot was simplified by avoiding the constant cliche of claiming to be a feminist and a free thinking woman throughout the book. I have read books on domestic abuse, violence against women, unhappy marriages so any writing that jumps into a collation of all these topics holds my attention. Here though, in a bid to quicken the pace of the plot, the story falls in shreds. Lastly, the book seems like a haphazardly edited collection of blog posts that gives off the angry vibes of its writer which is also fine except in this case, it doesn’t work out too well.
A book blog 