The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese speaks to the human condition. Its description is deceiving and off putting. Many people would skip a book that describes itself as having a plot involving a 12-year-old married to a 40-year-old. However, the setting is early 1900s Travancore, India, and the facts as laid out by this fiction writer is that there is no consummation until the girl is 16. By today’s standards, many people would find that offensive. Yet, there is so much more to this story than that shallow description. Like many family stories, we learn of tragedies, superstitions, births, deaths, romances, weddings, personal and relationship failures. But, we also see a community of people struggling to survive during war, famine and the confusion of quickly changing exterior worlds. Among it all, the family matriarch hopes for a family member who can shed light on a curious medical condition. For Verghese, one must be patient. He begins the story in India, near Kerala. Then, he jumps to Glasgow, Scotland. There, Digby experiences his own family tragedy. Digby finally arrives in India and we wait to find out what his connection is to the Parambil family. Sadly, Digby and Philipose, two of the major male protagonists, never seem to find happiness with the women in their lives. One of the confusing aspects is character naming. Big Apachen is the family patriarch; Shamuel is his friend and farm manager. It seems the author isn’t making a clear distinction between the two. Perhaps this is intentional as Philipose sees Shamuel as a father figure. Female characters seem to find solace in the company of one another, in work and art. The challenging portion of the story occurs as the author uses a family character named Lenin to explain the volatile political changes of the 1960s and 70s. If you are a discerning reader, you might appreciate the author’s attempt to get his audience to consider how false caste and class structures are. He returns to this theme repeatedly. We see those with land and resources dependent on those who serve them but unable to understand their colleagues. Jabbon’s refusal to take a generous offer of farm management and part ownership from Philipose further demonstrates how little privileged groups understand their relationship to those living and serving in close proximity. Verghese doesn’t challenge the position of serving women. However, he thwarts upper class women who seek an outlet other than servitude. Women are damned in any class they inhabit, he suggests. Still, the book is an engaging read. I was unable to put it down even though I often speed read through other texts. His settings are genuine; his characters are imbued with hubris as well as selflessness. You’ll enjoy the elephant Damodoran, who makes his presence known early in the book. One might consider him symbolic of the spirit of India itself. If you pick up the book, the lushness, the humidity, the monsoons, the diseases, the hopes and dreams of the characters will drive you to read the novel to the end. Dale Marie Taylor daletaylorbooks.com