The far field by Madhuri Vijay

"The far field" by Madhuri Vijay - Over to J&K! 

This book is published by Fourth Estate India in 2019 and has 444 pages. This is author's debut novel.

Shalini was very close to her mother. After her death, nothing interests Shalini. She is fired from her job. Aimless and drifting along, she impulsively decides to search Basheer Ahmed, a roving salesman of fabrics from Kashmir, who became a friend of her moody, outspoken and impulsive mother long time ago. She doesn't know anything about Basheer except his name, doesn't even know thre name of his village. 

Why does Shalini want to find Basheer? Will she find him? Will she be safe in J&K? What is this all about?

Shalini's story takes us from Bangalore to Kishtwar to a village in mountains and back to Bangalore. She meets good people in J&K, really good human beings. But how will her presence be taken by locals?

Shalini is basically lost. She doesn't know what she wants. She is hungry for relations and relationships, sometimes real, sometimes imaginary. She tries to become a family with whomever she meets. This leads to one disastrous decision after another. It's a story of self discovery. Search of relationships by a young lady, search for humanity. Shalini finds it all in J&K, technically Jammu area. She meets good people, simple folks who earn less but have big hearts. Materialistic pleasures have no place in the quiet but rigorous village life. There is a willingness to help and care. Everyone has ample time. 

Although author has created J&K life,  there is invisible threat of terrorists and terrorism. There is also an omnipotent presence of Indian army and fear of it. Later it comes in the out. 

I felt that author was biased against army. All the locals are nice, god fearing decent folks. Even when they side with terrorism, it's white washed. On the contrary army is shown initially as a threat and later as outright villain. Pretty one sided.

Pace of the story is slow. Initially I thought that the story will end in Kashmir, but that doesn't happen. Then there is a six year time leap and then it ends where it could have ended before time leap. 

Madhuri was born in Bengaluru and lives in Hawaii. This book had won 2019 JCB prize for literature. JCB prize for literature, established in 2018, is Rs 25 Lakh award presented to distinguished work of fiction by an Indian author, each year. 

Why did I read this book? Curiosity and JCB prize. 

What I didn't like? Bias.

What did I like? Simple life.  

Read if you don't mind the genre.