Review of the book The Broken Amoretti : A Love Story from the Queer World written by Sudipto Das and Aparajita Dutta
Read on….
- Title – The Broken Amoretti : A Love Story from the Queer World
- Author – Sudipto Das and Aparajita Dutta
- Format – Paperback
- Print lenght – 296 pages
- Publishers – Niyogi Books Pvt. Ltd. (Under the Imprint: Olive Turtle); First edition (10 June 2019)
- Price- INR 450
To begin afresh, after her broken marriage, Saoli returns to India and starts living in prembajar at the house her grandfather had bought from Bitasta’s father. While cleaning the house, Saoli comes across an old diary, perhaps belonging to Bitasta’s mother, Panchali.
The Diary has a very cryptic poem written in dactylic hexameter, the archaic meter of the ancient Greek epics. Aware of the fact that Sairandhri didn’t let her son, Parush, marry Bitasta, even though sairandhri and bitasta’s mother were best of friends, saoli gets in touch with the reckless parush, recently accused in a high-profile IP theft case in the US.
As Parush tells Saoli about his heedless and shattered life, his unrequited love affair with Bitasta, his lifelong hatred for his mother and his topsy-turvy corporate career in the US, Saoli unearths the darkest secrets hidden in the cryptic poem all this long.
Why didn’t Sairandhri want Parush to marry Bitasta? Why was Bitasta the only person she wished to see on her death-bed? Why had she been nothing more than a beautiful but lifeless mural at home? The cryptic poem has the answers. Join Saoli and Parush in their journey to decode the past and discover their real identities, where love can never be chained by stereotypes. It’s time to set love free!
First of all, the story is based on the concept that many are not willing to acknowledge about! The love between the same gender people is something no one wants to even talk about in our society.
Maybe in other places it is not looked upon as weird but still in many cultures and societies this idea goes down badly. So kudos to the authors for weaving a story around this theme.
The story happens in two phases, one where Saoli finds the diary when she comes back to live in her grandfather’s house and wants to know more about the people behind it and the protagonist – Parush narrating his life story.
An intense love story follows in Parush’s narration the one between Bitasta and Protagonist and everything seems fine till one day Bitasta chases away Parush telling him that she does not want to marry him!
A confused and dejected Parush does everything to hurt himself both physically and mentally till he lands back in India to escape a legal battle.
The mystery as stated in the story line is the reason why Bitasta refuses Parush, something that he discovers after lenght!
Well, to be frank, I sort of guessed that ‘mystery’ after a couple of chapters yet kept reading on.
Parush’s life in the story goes around several places – in college, with Bitasta, the family outings, a heartbroken guy leaving to the US and his wedding to the daughter of a bigwig, he later building a gaming empire and then getting caught in some legal affairs and then his homecoming!
And there are a lot of literature! Poems from Greek mythology and those from Kalidasa,Tagore and others. The comparison of mythological characters in the Greek and Indian mythology is seen in many place.
In some places, I felt the story dragged a bit and some looked repetitive. But Parush expressing his grief was heart wrenching!
I quite liked Panchali’s characterization -the type of mother Parush wants his mom to be, be it expressing affection so openly or having foward thoughts on most of the matters and I was also was intrigued by Sairandhri’s silence and the reason she addressed Panchali as Kalyani! I found Bitasta to be very haughty in some places and childish in some!
Parushs friends are a good gang who try to patch him up after his breakup with Bitasta and how they try to mend him and stop him from hurting himself though they fail many of the times!
The language is simple and kalidasa’s poems are well translated!
The cover of the book conveys the essence of the story.
Similarly, the poems in the book sort of brings meaning to the title of the story.
On the whole this novel is a bold narrative on a sensitive concept that the authors have done a decent job with.
If you are looking for Romance based novels or something in the LGBTQ genre , poems and mythological references, then you might like this one. This genre is new to me though.
Aparajita Dutta Aparajita is a writer and a social activist. An M. Phil in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University, she is currently pursuing her PhD from Louisiana State University. Her interests are gender and disability rights, sports, exploring new cultures and learning new languages.
Sudipto Das An alumnus of IIT KGP, Sudipto is a successful entrepreneur, author, musician, columnist and a speaker at TED events. A violinist, trained in Western classical music, Sudipto debuted as a music composer in 2014. History, culture, language, writing and music are of special interest to him. Member of an amateur music band, Kohal, he also enjoys travelling. This is his third novel.