Solitude of the Emperors - My reflections

I read "Solitude of the Emperors" by David Dravidar. There were two reasons why I bought the book. One was the India Today review which suggested that this book was a must read. Second was that I had read the authors first book, The House of Blue Mangos. In the Blue Mangoes book, I loved the first portion just for his description. I personally thought that he had lost his way towards the end. The gripping opening is not followed by a good second half.

So I started reading Solitude with a lot of expectations. The comments that I am going to type below may be affected by the fact that I did not read the book at one go like many. I did what I could, and here is what I felt.

The things that I greatly appreciated was the author's control when he describes a place. The opening sequence was so good and so gripping. The author described small town K..so well with its sweet stall and sleek hospitals. Someone I know was commenting on the rise of hospitals in the Nagercoil area and I thought that the author had a done a great job describing the scene. Some episodes like the demeaning behavior of the higher caste brahmins were so natural. Seeing Indian words like kolam without italics told me that Indian English had arrived and we need not apologize to others that this was a word from the vernacular.

My disappointments were again with the end. It was like a poor Sivakasi pattasu. A lot of noise, flame in the beginning and a total busss in the end (see no italics!!). From the start as the story progressed, I felt the author went into a discourse mode. He does this through the book that is being read by the main protagonist. Nice book within book, but only gyan. The end came on to me in a very tame manner. So fast that I did not realize that the story had ended! May be the author decided that after all this was an incident in Meham, a small village and it did not merit more. Somehow where the author wanted me to connect, I missed it. Completely! Totally! Hence I feel after I read the book that I missed a ride that the others enjoyed but I am left panting having missed the train that has just left the station. May be the subtleties were lost on me (being bang on middle of the normal distribution).

As I reflect, I feel that this is a good book that people should read. But if you are expecting an emotional cauldorn or intellectual superstuff that you woudl be thinking for 2 days after you read the book (e.g. Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki...MUST READ), this book is not it. But I will recommend it for the first part...again.

Dear Mr. Dravidar, thank you for Solitude, but please, please build in more drama...you do it so well that it is a shame we don't get to see the full picture. And don't be in a hurry to finish the book. That is the feeling I got with Solitude.