In all his fiction, UR Ananthamurthy does more than narrate a story; he interrogates it. In his hands, the story must speculate on its own ...
In all his fiction, UR Ananthamurthy does more than narrate a story; he interrogates it. In his hands, the story must speculate on its own tale, search for meaning, and teem with ideas. Accordingly, while the plot of his novel Avasthe concerns itself with the life and times of the political leader Krishnappa Gowda, its pith lies in the questions it asks through the protagonist’s life.
What kinds of politics do we embrace and champion? Why do we need political revolutions? Is political engagement a means for better lives, or are our lives vehicles for political engagement? Does spirituality have answers to questions that politics fails to even consider? Can we love – supposedly a personal and pleasurable activity – while mired in politics? Is love a pure experience? Are we living, and well? From the specific to the general, Ananthamurthy packs entire questions about the individual and the world into this slim volume.
The Ananthamurthy touch
At the outset, Avasthe shares many themes with Ananthamurthy’s more well-known novels, Samskara and Bharathipura: the existential conflicts of the male protagonist; the politics of caste; the redemption of sexual union; relationships defined by norm and necessity and those forged by desire; the force of the ungraspable mystical world; a search for equality and...
