{"id":9666,"date":"2022-12-01T12:34:33","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T17:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=9666"},"modified":"2022-12-01T12:37:11","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T17:37:11","slug":"a-burning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2022\/12\/01\/a-burning\/","title":{"rendered":"A Burning."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Megha Majumdar\u2019s debut novel A Burning<\/a> <\/em>became a surprise bestseller in 2020, shortly after its release, catching fire (pun intended) in part because of a page-turning narrative and terse chapters that keep the pace moving. It\u2019s a well-written book, crafted as if by a far more experienced writer, but a simple plot and poorly developed characters make it a less satisfying read than other novels with similar themes and settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Burning<\/em> revolves around three characters in Kolkata: Jivan, a teenaged girl who aspires to the middle class; PT Sir, her former physical education teacher who finds himself rising quickly in the ranks of a Hindu nationalist party; and Lovely, a hijra<\/em> and aspiring actress whom Lovely is teaching to read English. When Jivan witnesses a terrorist attack on a train near her home, she posts some anti-government comments on Facebook, and finds herself arrested and charged as an accessory to the crime. Lovely could serve as her alibi, as Jivan was with her right before the bombing took place, and PT Sir could be a character witness. Yet they both find that helping Jivan would hurt their own aspirations. PT Sir has gained this status with the party by serving as a witness against various defendants in criminal cases, claiming he saw them commit the crimes in exchange for a small payment and increased favor. Lovely seems to be falling for some kind of predatory scheme aimed at would-be actors, but when a demo reel she posts to WhatsApp goes viral, she\u2019s suddenly famous for that and her connection to Jivan\u2019s case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book is gripping, and extremely hard to put down; I read it inside of 48 hours, even knowing more or less what would happen to Jivan. The short chapters keep the book humming along, and the prose itself is clear and concrete. There\u2019s little here beyond the purely descriptive \u2013 we don\u2019t get a lot of inner monologues and there are no characters of any note beyond the main three. It\u2019s a just-the-facts novel, almost like an old detective story, which makes the book feel urgent throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also some unsubtle commentary here about upward mobility in modern India, a society that has seen rapid growth of its middle and upper classes in the last 30 years, but that still has an enormous underclass that measures in the hundreds of millions of people. That backdrop may explain how, or why, two otherwise moral individuals, neither of whom had any real status prior to the terror attack, would consider throwing away the life of someone they knew just to help themselves. PT Sir comes across as venal, but Majumdar gives Lovely enough of a back story to depict her with nuance, as someone who survives, and has always had to grab any lifeline she sees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there\u2019s not a lot else going on below the surface, starting with Jivan. She\u2019s less a character than a victim of fate and circumstance, bobbing along on the surface of an ocean she can barely see. She\u2019s an object of pity, and Majumdar gives us just a sliver of her life in flashbacks, as a journalist interviews her, somewhat covertly, for a profile in a tabloid newspaper. They\u2019re not that illustrative of why Jivan is in the situation she\u2019s in, because Jivan didn\u2019t actually do anything wrong \u2013 her Facebook comments weren\u2019t even that inflammatory, and it\u2019s a little hard to believe she\u2019d end up charged with a capital crime for them, although that\u2019s probably part of the point. It\u2019s mob justice dispensed by a religious plurality operating with the power and impunity of governmental authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n