Listening Now

Listening Now (1998), by Anjana Appachana, is a novel that tells the story of the love between Padma and Karan as told from the viewpoints of Padma's friends and family.

I read this book in one long stretch over a few days while traveling for work. It was hard to put down, very dramatic. Padma and Karan each share a book-centered love - they both love books, their love is like the love stories one can read in books - that lasts in the physical realm for only a short time. Their time together alternates between troubling and beautiful with the beauty being the portion each active party remembers.

Society takes its toll on their relationship which is not allowed to continue. Both Karan and Padma continue their love affair in their minds, each going a bit crazy with their love. Mallika, the child of their love tells the story from her viewpoint as well.

Listening Now is an interesting study on gender roles in India. This is a good book to read in a stretch, as I did, because the feelings of each character are so fresh with the reader as you fall into the story as told by another character.

Labels: family, fiction, love

posted by reader kay at 5:58 PM