Reading Update 2
THE GUN ISLAND BY AMITAV GHOSH
Life of an outlander always mesmerizes me and so the fictions of Amitav Ghosh , Jhumpa Lahiri always congregate my book shelf. Reading 'the Shadow lines' brought another type of impression than this recent one. Ghosh's 'Gun Island' is the story of an immigrant , the narrator Dinanath , in short Deen who belong to Kolkata , India. But his ancestral address was Bangladesh where the major characters of the fiction are from. Basically the story is about Climate change and its impact on Culture and the how the writer ,through the characters both human and creatures ,has developed the story I will explore here in this review as it advances.
The story starts from Kolkata with the re-introduction of Manasa Devi and her incidence upon the Gun merchant and his elopement all over the world, to the narrator by her close acquaintances. From them Deen came to know about the shrine concreted in Sundarban probably by that merchant and his visit there with Haren Naskar and Tipu surprised him much. From getting a glimpse of king cobra to the shipworm in Venice along with the death of dolphins, the yellow bellied snake and the venomous spider have impacted the narrator's mind so much that he on his way to solve this puzzle confronted various gruesome occurrences.
Basically Ghosh here personalized each animal and creatures to tip off human beings the worst impact of the change of climate and it has affected the normal life as well. Along with it he also shows the least effect of technology and its engulfment of the human mind. Therefor Tipu, one of the interesting character of the novel, has taken full advantages of the internet and fall into the trap of human trafficking. The writer here going beyond realism mingles myth, magic , mystery and supernatural power to assert his opinion of the changing circumstances and to authenticate it he uses the characters of Tipu and Cinta , a Venetian professor who constantly have the premonitions and we find it to become true.
The basic theme of the story is the weather change and its crisis on culture. This change of weather brings either enormous rain or drought and thus people use to migrate along with various animals as well. And how this change brings crisis in culture. Here we get various examples of this how the flood in Madaripur Bangladesh killed many people by the sting of snakes who also wanted to take shelter in a tree likewise Lubna's family and they had to give up their lives. To save their life and to make their ends meet Lubna and her husband Munir had to flee from there and illegally they came to Venice. We get several evidences of this diffraction like Tipu , Rafi and many more migrants who in their hope of getting a better life in Europe became an illegal migrants and fall into the trap of human traffickers and tortured beastly. How the shoals of fish died in Sundarbans and the school of dolphins who once was the resident of Sundarban now migrated in Mediterranean sea witnessed by Piya , a zoologist is also the worst effect of bad climate.
There are two historical characters that amazed me most was the Gun merchant and Captain Ilyas , the former was a merchant who had dissension with Manasa Devi and the later was a captain who seized the merchant once. These two characters are referred here so many times perhaps to make it proof that history repeats itself. The merchant whose escape from one place to another constantly to get rid of the bite of snake at last bitten by a venomous spider may establish the point that whatever one does but his sin cannot restrain him. Cinta always said that someone or something always keeps an eye on them and her repetition of the line 'From the beginning the Salvation comes' probably brings in light the point that guilt cant be root out easily. Past is always there in the present and somehow it besets its footprints.
Bringing the character of the Merchant perhaps the writer wants to establish another point of affinity between Bangladesh and Venice because when in the shrine the carved images was beyond understanding of Deen and the mention of the few places like ' Taal-misrir-desh' , 'rumali-desh' could not be grasped easily by the narrator redefines by Cinta that these places actually existed in Europe and she explained it how old Venice had a connection with Bangladesh.
Thus the story in spite of its amalgamation of myth and supernatural incidents conveys a positive consequence on society and once again it is a proof that art, literature possess the capabilities of foretelling the impending disaster socially or environmentally either.
This is an honest review and here I am not influenced by any kind of outsiders.
The story starts from Kolkata with the re-introduction of Manasa Devi and her incidence upon the Gun merchant and his elopement all over the world, to the narrator by her close acquaintances. From them Deen came to know about the shrine concreted in Sundarban probably by that merchant and his visit there with Haren Naskar and Tipu surprised him much. From getting a glimpse of king cobra to the shipworm in Venice along with the death of dolphins, the yellow bellied snake and the venomous spider have impacted the narrator's mind so much that he on his way to solve this puzzle confronted various gruesome occurrences.
Basically Ghosh here personalized each animal and creatures to tip off human beings the worst impact of the change of climate and it has affected the normal life as well. Along with it he also shows the least effect of technology and its engulfment of the human mind. Therefor Tipu, one of the interesting character of the novel, has taken full advantages of the internet and fall into the trap of human trafficking. The writer here going beyond realism mingles myth, magic , mystery and supernatural power to assert his opinion of the changing circumstances and to authenticate it he uses the characters of Tipu and Cinta , a Venetian professor who constantly have the premonitions and we find it to become true.
There are two historical characters that amazed me most was the Gun merchant and Captain Ilyas , the former was a merchant who had dissension with Manasa Devi and the later was a captain who seized the merchant once. These two characters are referred here so many times perhaps to make it proof that history repeats itself. The merchant whose escape from one place to another constantly to get rid of the bite of snake at last bitten by a venomous spider may establish the point that whatever one does but his sin cannot restrain him. Cinta always said that someone or something always keeps an eye on them and her repetition of the line 'From the beginning the Salvation comes' probably brings in light the point that guilt cant be root out easily. Past is always there in the present and somehow it besets its footprints.
Bringing the character of the Merchant perhaps the writer wants to establish another point of affinity between Bangladesh and Venice because when in the shrine the carved images was beyond understanding of Deen and the mention of the few places like ' Taal-misrir-desh' , 'rumali-desh' could not be grasped easily by the narrator redefines by Cinta that these places actually existed in Europe and she explained it how old Venice had a connection with Bangladesh.
Thus the story in spite of its amalgamation of myth and supernatural incidents conveys a positive consequence on society and once again it is a proof that art, literature possess the capabilities of foretelling the impending disaster socially or environmentally either.
This is an honest review and here I am not influenced by any kind of outsiders.
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