“Novels,” S Hareesh declares in the author’s note for Moustache , “are free countries and there is very little a writer can do about what t...
“Novels,” S Hareesh declares in the author’s note for Moustache, “are free countries and there is very little a writer can do about what the characters get up to.” A necessary disclaimer for such a novel – whose characters speak and act in ways that are anathema to the sociopolitical status quo – in a country not half so free. In an India which saw the systemic mismanagement and coverup of the Hathras rape and murder case only the other day, even the blurb of this novel – which promises that its protagonist, Vavachan, will revive “memories of characters of Dalit power” – is fuel for furore.
Moustache – now shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature 2020 – has found itself the target of widespread acclaim for much the same reasons that it has received outrage: its bold coverage of power hierarchies, its unflinching portrayal of horrifying social dynamics, and its suggestive possibilities of empowerment through transgression. Beyond this, though, the novel’s mettle lies in its unceasing confrontation of the complex confusions of these social dynamics: even the very symbol of the moustache, for instance, here transgresses caste and reinforces patriarchy.
Characters, sequences, symbols and situations are all embedded in similar complexities: from Kesava Pillah,...
