Dear Lit Loves,
Hi. So this month someone in my book club decided we should read The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. And then one of the members brought a copy of the book and set it down on our round table. Personally, I took one look at the seven hundred page tome and just completely lost my desire to even read the book. Seriously, a thick, long book can be as intimidating as a white, blank page. For a week I let my copy of the book just sit on my sofa table. I gave it dirty looks and a side grin which means I am really not happy about someone or something. I considered just reading someone's Cliff Notes on the book and not even attempting to read the book itself. Then my conscience got the best of me. Read the dang book, already! At least I might be able to declare who my favorite character is to my book club and explain why.
It took me three weeks to read The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. The entire story revolved around a young girl in India who is twelve being sent to marry someone she has never even met. Oh, and the girl's future husband is forty years old! Just that concept alone brought fire to my veins. The book takes place in Kerala. And I must say that the only information I had on the author was that he in some way is involved in medicine which explained why in this one Indian family, there is a condition causing someone to die in each generation. And each death was explained in detail. And the death is usually associated with water and drowning. The parts of the book about medicine and acoustic neuromas were detailed expertly.
Suffice it to say, I did read the book. I also felt like throwing the book across the room at various points while reading it. There were just so many characters weaving in and out of the story throughout the entirety of the book. The author definitely underscored India's caste system. I did not like the caste system prior to reading this book and I thoroughly detest it after reading the book. Also, the author began using words from the Indian language throughout the plot and it just made me frustrated as a reader. You ask me to read a seven hundred page book and then begin using words from a language I do not know and it requires me to Google each word?! I thought that was asking a lot of the reader.
What was the book about? Family. Our biological family and then those who we chose to treat as ourbi family. It involved what we inherit from our biological family members and oftentimes what we choose to give or how we treat those in one's biological family as well as one's "chosen" family. Also, the book revolved around what parents will sacrifice for their children. For example, if you knew you had a disease that could be contracted by your child, would you stay and expose them to the harmful, disfiguring effects of the disease and let the child experience how a society can ostracize people because of their illness/conditions? Or, would you feel that for the child's sake, you might decide to choose to leave and let them be raised by someone else such that the child will never inherit a disease that will disfigure them and cause them to be shunned from society? Perplexing and heavy questions for sure.
Overall, this book made me really thankful I do not live in a country revolving around a caste system. The book made me reflect on my own decision not to have children due to the inheritable diseases I have that could be passed on to a child. Finally, the book enabled me to reflect upon all the sacrifices that were made by my own parents for me and my sibling. And the book truly made me think about why even in the United States, people have family that deliberately choose to not show up for other family members during times of serious distress and duress. I have witnessed this first hand and have been on the receiving end of being shunned, ignored by family for various reasons. And the very people who shun their family call themselves Christians? How does that work? It is a real dagger to the heart when anyone shuns you, but especially when your own flesh and blood shun you because they do not find you "acceptable" according to their standards.
This book and the various characters and events were quite triggering for me as a reader. I think maybe some books should come with a warning label if some of the events in the book are particularly distasteful or graphic. I know I will be wary about whether I recommend this book or not as I am undecided on a rating for it. The writing was beautiful, but the events were quite tragic. Upon finishing the book, I simply felt a sense of relief and to this day I still cannot say I would wholeheartedly endorse this book to my family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. And I will be quite interested in how members of the book club I belong to felt about the book and if they read it or listened to it in its entirety.
Till my next read,
Grace (Amy)
