Book name- THE MAGNIFICENT RUINS
Author- Nayantara Roy
Published by- Hachette, Price- Rs 899
Nayantara Roy’s debut novel deals with themes that many diasporic novels have already addressed: the sense (or lack thereof) of belonging, the feeling of in-betweenness between two cultures and two countries, and the search for identity. Roy explores these themes in a nuanced manner and in beautifully flowing prose where dialogue is used to reveal the shape of the individual’s mind while shifting between first-person and third-person omniscient narrative voices.
Lila, a 29-year-old editor at a Brooklyn publishing house, has been in the US since she was 16. An acrimonious divorce between her parents when she was only eight months old left Lila with her mother in the once magnificent Lahiri house at Ballygunge Place. Years later, Lila receives the astounding news that, according to her grandfather’s will, she has been made his heir and has inherited that five-storied building.
Lila’s arrival in Calcutta sets in motion a curious combination of resentment and love amongst members of the Lahiri family. Lila’s mission of renovating the house inspires both admiration and suspicion. These dualities of emotion mark almost every character of the novel. However, the most nuanced relationships in the novel are those between mothers and daughters. The relationship between Lila and her mother, Maya, has always been fraught, displaying both cruelty and love from Maya. During her Calcutta sojourn, Lila comes to know that Maya is repeating a pattern of motherhood with her that she experienced from her own mother, Geeta, who could never quite get over the death of her infant son and preferred her much younger brother-in-law, Hari, to her own daughter. The idea of ‘matrophobia’, as expressed by Adrienne Rich, is evidently reflected in the relationships among Geeta-Maya-Lila, all of whom try to reject the behavioural patterns of their respective mothers only to realise that their resemblance to each other is indelible.
Things get further complicated when Lila meets her childhood love, Adil, now a married man, and rekindles the relationship. On the other hand, her writer-friend, Seth, comes to India to propose to her. Torn between her feelings for the two men, Lila feels a tug of conflicting emotions she fails to resolve initially. The ‘magnificent ruin’ of the title is not only a reference to the historic Lahiri house but also to relationships — between members of the family, between mothers and daughters, and between lovers.
Roy’s subtle use of metaphors gives the work a depth and beauty that is impossible to overlook. One such recurring metaphor is that of Lila’s hair, keratin treated and straight in Brooklyn, but reverting to its curly, original shape — like that of her mother — on account of the humidity in Calcutta.
But what mar the effect created by this engaging narrative are glaring factual inaccuracies. The novel is set in 2015. However, it mentions “rivers” that one needs to cross while entering the city from the Dumdum airport as well as black-and-yellow taxis dotting the city. Clearly the details are coming from the writer’s own nostalgic memory of the city which would not be detected by its US readers. This eminently readable novel should have been edited better.
