Stevie‘s review of The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, translated by Arunava Sinha
Contemporary Indian Fiction published by John Murray 11 Jul 19
I like to read as widely as possible, and that includes translations of novels that have been popular in their country or culture of origin. There’s always the niggle that the translator might have missed some of the original nuances of the story or narrative voice, but it’s still interesting to see how attitudes, situations, and story-telling tropes differ around the world. This short (to western eyes) novel was written by a Bengali author living in India and draws its setting and characters very much from that world, with much of the action revolving around the home of a once-wealthy family, most especially the newest member of the household, and her attempts to fix the situation using methods that don’t involve selling off more assets than have already been disposed of, simply for their cash value.
Somlata comes from an impoverished background and knows the importance of hard work and careful financial planning. Her new husband’s family, however, consider most forms of employment beneath them, and so finance their lifestyle by means of selling off land and jewels with no thought of reinvesting the proceeds to provide them with an ongoing income. When the oldest woman in the household, the widow of Somlata’s father-in-law’s brother, dies unexpectedly, Somlata finds herself haunted by a ghost who instructs her first to locate and re-hide the old woman’s jewellery box and then taunts her with tales of long-hidden family secrets.
The ghost plays tricks on Somlata and her in-laws, causing her to burn or over-season the dishes she prepares for them, and others to suffer falls or become mute when they seem likely to reveal their suspicions as to the whereabouts of the jewellery box. Wanting to rectify the situation, Somlata manages to raise enough money to set her husband up in a shop, a role he and his family at first resist but soon come to enjoy. Somlata, too, enjoys the new freedoms provided to her by the business and by her new found prosperity, even as she at times is forced to go against the wishes of the family in order that they don’t disrupt her success.
This story is intercut with another, set some two decades later, in which Somlata’s daughter also enjoys unexpected freedoms, while living in the part of the house once occupied by the old woman whose jewellery box Somlata is still hiding. It took me a while to ascertain how the two stories were linked, which may have been due to a lack of background knowledge on my part, and I did find some of the assumptions that seemed to be expected of readers to pass me by.
Overall, this was an enjoyable read, but I could have done with a few more expository sentences to keep me on track.
Grade: C
Summary:
At eighteen, Somlata married into the Mitras: a once noble Bengali household whose descendants have taken to pawning off the family gold to keep up appearances.
When Pishima, the embittered matriarch, dies, Somlata is the first to discover her aunt-in-law’s body – and her sharp-tongued ghost.
First demanding that Somlata hide her gold from the family’s prying hands, Pishima’s ghost continues to wreak havoc on the Mitras. Secrets spilt, cooking spoilt, Somlata finds herself at the centre of the chaos. And as the family teeter on the brink of bankruptcy, it looks like it’s up to her to fix it.
No excerpt available.
