The Covenant of water by Dr Abraham Verghese
Audiobook Review
Rating- 3/5 a quick run by an editor could have made it short and crisp! and consequently improved the rating!
This is a long long audio book which stretches’ to more than 23 hours!
The best and the worst thing about the audiobook is that the narrator is the author himself! Good is that he knows which parts are important or funny or serious or sad. The author modulates his voice and in some places when it is supposed to be funny he uses the ‘aah aah’ sound which was hilarious! He also uses his understanding of the supposed accent to make some lines funny! One of the character has a Scottish accent and he does that and the UK accent really well to make for an interesting listen!
The accent and the change in the tone of narration is also very irritating sometimes! Especially when he is narrating an Indian speaking English and he then sounds like ‘Appu’ in the Simpsons! When the person is a female he tries to get a Falsetto voice which is sometimes so irritating! Of course it is a personal perception and mood dependent issue!
Another major thing about the Novel is that the whole novel is a point of view of a Malayalee Christian and the narrative is in those lines. The side stepping when talking about any other religion but emphasizing on the ‘meat eating’ behavior of the Hindu character especially if that character is a Brahmin! I know this point may be controversial but I can say for sure that if a Hindu Brahmin in those days is travelling by train then he would eat curd rice with pickle and nothing else! He could not ask for the chicken curry and most probably he would retch at the site of the chicken! A ‘pattar’ cook would not be making Mutton Biriyani! But I guess from a point of view the author is allowed his creative liberties! I also knew that when he spoke about the Hindu Priest predicting the ‘Sex’ of the baby, it would turn out to be wrong! Clever use of amazing prose and narrative to actually show passive aggression! This of course is only my point of view which as a reviewer is my creative liberty!
Having said that, the author does make so much effort in getting his point across! He takes his own sweet time to get to the issue, he puts frequent breaks in between major incidents and there is an essence of wanting for more!
My other major bone of contention is the death! The moment you get close to a character or identify or even relate to a character, that character is unceremoniously bumped off! Even if that character is the chief character in your mind! That is just sad! At one point in the novel the author has killed off one character after other with some dying in the most terrible ways that there is no character to talk about!
Being a doctor he has got the medical stuff right and his research is top notch! This is evident by the half hour of reference and acknowledgment after the book narration is over!
The description of early village life and the courtyard and the village is really nice and serene.
The explanation and investigation of the ‘condition’ felt initially like the chief point of the novel and it did reach its conclusion but it was not the end point as it was made out to be in the beginning.
I loved the character of Big Ammachi and Philipose but somehow the author did not give them, especially Philipose the closure he deserved. What happened to him was sudden and a big let down as far as I am concerned. He deserved better.
The character of Mariamma who is the final piece of the puzzle starts of as a confident one but falters so much in the end with bad choices and the ‘harassment’ angle though important could have been better managed.
If not for the vivid description of the ‘love making’ and ‘adultery’ the novel could have been a good read for the younger audience also.
Finally the character of Digby Kilgour; how much ever the author tries to sugar coat him and his so called troubles (which he actually brings about himself); he was someone who had a thing for the married woman! That is the only explanation and nothing else! Without spoilers I can say for sure that if he had stayed away from both of the so called ‘loves’ of his life, it would have been better for everyone!
The whole book could have been shortened into almost half! Though the poetry in words and the prose is award worthy, in the end all I am thinking is, “Get to the point!!”
If you love prose, poem, medicine and Kerala then you must check this out! If you have 20 hours to spare that is!…
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