Sunday, June 23, 2013

Rising of a Dead Moon : Review


Author - Paul Haston
Publisher - CreateSpace independent Publishing Platform
Paperback & EBook - 238 Pages
Ratings - 4/5

The book is currently free to download on goodreads.

It can also be purchased in either hardback or kindle on Amazon.
The Indian company for Amazon is Junglee (www.junglee.com).

The Amazon link is here:
http://www.amazon.com/Rising-Dead-Moo...

 
Rising of a Dead Moon is all about a seventeen year old Indian girl whose life has been oscillating between being Usha-Nakti and Usha again. The book set in the British colonial time, focuses on the plight of a young widow who is blamed for being inauspicious when her husband, three times her age passes away. She is shunned by the society and her miserable fate does not abandon her no matter where she goes. Her journey from the girl who rejoiced in the lap of her father, listening to stories, to the girl escaping the sati pratha and fleeing to Africa in search of her father is a gripping one. You feel for the girl and feel rage beyond words at the people who treat her inhumanly. You wish to see her smile when she is treated like a person by Dr. Hitchcock and J. Rothwell and feel the pain when they have to move on leaving her with the authorities.
 
Pros:
1. Amazing narration. The book fast paced.
2. Getting a lot of historical facts correct made the story flow.
3. Playing with readers emotions and easy character involvement grip the readers till the end.
 
Cons:
1. A bit too sad for my taste.(Sorry)
2. The ending, well, it could have been so different and maybe better. It actually reminded me of Water by Deepa Mehta.
3. There is a reference of praying to Brahman, the universal one. I felt that reference was wrong. Brahmans are supposed to be the highest caste of Hindu society and they are the ones who used to get the first right to step into temples in olden times. No brahman can assume the title of god or a prophet. The god I feel the god who was being referenced in that section was Bramha.
 
Over all the book was a good and very fast read but too sad for my taste. I would give the book a 3.5/5 but I was pleased with the amount of work put into the novel, the correctness of most historical references and being from Orissa, the reference of Jaganath, Puri made me really happy. So I would rate the book a 4/5. Contemporary readers will surely love the book.

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