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The Hungry Tide - Amitav Ghosh

Last read:

17th May 2024

Genre:

Historical Fiction

Ownership:

- Gift from cousin

I don't remember whether this was a birthday present or a christmas present, only that I procrastinated for several years on reading it, and really shouldn't have. I really liked this book, though the end felt a little lacklustre. I wanted the resolution to last a bit longer. I know I loved the descriptions of the surroundings, it felt so vivid, and the way the cruelty and indifference of the landscape mirrors the cruelty and indifference of the authorities really hammered home the atmosphere of oppression from all sides and the strength of the communities that live there. Vague notes re: ending I think what bothered me about the ending is that there wasn't enough time for any payoff from Kanai's character arc. He had the arc, but almost as soon as he reached the point of growth there was a vague timeskip and the book ended. Piya had a small epilogue of payoff for her emotional journey, but her growth arc was basically one argument with Kanai about locals killing a tiger where his side got half a sentence of acknowledgement in the epilogue. Major spoilers It sucks that Fokir died. It was foreshadowed, and made sense in a tying-up-loose-ends kind of way, but again it felt like there wasn't enough time to get to know him when most of the book he's a blank, stoic figure. Which is of course the point with Piya and Kanai both projecting their assumptions onto him and neither being entirely wrong but both far from seeing his whole personhood, so maybe that's not such a bad thing, thematically. In any case, good book, I think it deserves the 4 stars its ratings round up to on Goodreads and LibraryThing.

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