“Having been wary of ready Indian women authors, with writings centering mainly on diaspora, I was pleasantly surprised and entertained by Anita Nair’s The Better Man. Choicely recommended and lent to me by a friend, I picked it up with suspicion but was slowly engrossed in a wonderfully written tale of one man and his fears, and tryst to discover his self-worth and identity.
The pitch and flow of the novel is rhythmic. More than a novelist, Anita Nair comes out as an adept storywriter, because she has intrinsically woven many small stories into a striking tapestry of a novel. Characters are introduced throughout the novel with eloquent portrayal. Gradually the characters are shown to play a role in the life of the protagonist, Mukundan Nair, a retired government employee, forced by circumstances to return to his native village. All the “episodes” move in perfect tandem to reach the culmination point of the novel.
Anita Nair has a knack for crisp and complete characterization and is also an accomplished prose writer with liberal rendering of the scenic and daily life of a small (and fictional) village in Kerala. She has touched on many controversial and sensitive subjects, but all with extreme grace and subtlety. She talks about untouchability, casteism, cultural and religious bias, occult, adultery, exploitation and disregard of women, dominance of power and money, bureaucratic red tapism, and even homosexuality. While the novel’s protagonist is a man, the storyline has ample women characters, but unfortunately most of them are depicted as the weaker sex, facing disregard, mental and physical humiliation, and neglect in the face of single-minded pursuits of the individualistic ambitions by the men in their lives. Only a few of these women are able to break the barriers of male subjugation, albeit after years of suffering.
In spite of portraying some of the bleaker aspects of everyday society, Nair’s work is never depressing. There is always a promise of hope and the language is very uplifting. In fact nearing the end of the novel, she even depicts redemption for these overbearing male characters, when Krishna Nair, the lifelong caretaker of a Tharavadu, decides to return to his family, with the realization - “All these years, I was caught in some absurd slavish love. I squandered the best years of my life, but perhaps I can still make up for it. A lifetime is what I wasted.” Mukundan is also shown taking steps for the redemption of his troubled soul, while Bhasi, another escapist from the world of realism is suffering from the desire to belong, seek social acceptance, find his roots and build everlasting relationships.
I have called Nair’s work as entertaining because it has its humorous moments, for example, the incident related to Mad Moindu, or the story of Power House Ramakrishna, or the erratic Philipose, and is filled with a lot of spice - from ghosts and murder, to secrets in the lives of the characters to intelligent conversation. The pace is endearing, the prose captivating, and the story mature and fulfilling. She has also amply used her knowledge of myths and there is a generous sprinkling of mythological references and even comparisons in the various episodes. All in all, The Better Man is a good and satisfying read and has inspired me to get my hands on her first novel - Ladies Coupe.
Read the review on my blog: http://blog.felinemusings.com/2009/06/07/the-better-man-by-anita-nair/”
