Off the easternmost coast of India lies the immense archipelago of tiny islands known as the Sundarbans. Life here is precarious, ruled by the unforgiving tides and the constant threat of attack by Bengal tigers. Into this place of vengeful beauty come two seekers from different worlds, whose lives collide with tragic consequences. The settlers of the remote Sundarbans believe that anyone without a pure heart who ventures into the watery island labyrinth will never return. With the arrival of two outsiders from the modern ...
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Off the easternmost coast of India lies the immense archipelago of tiny islands known as the Sundarbans. Life here is precarious, ruled by the unforgiving tides and the constant threat of attack by Bengal tigers. Into this place of vengeful beauty come two seekers from different worlds, whose lives collide with tragic consequences. The settlers of the remote Sundarbans believe that anyone without a pure heart who ventures into the watery island labyrinth will never return. With the arrival of two outsiders from the modern world, the delicate balance of small community life uneasily shifts. Piya Roy is a marine biologist, of Indian descent but stubbornly American, in search of a rare dolphin. Kanai Dutt is an urbane Delhi businessman, here to retrieve the journal of his uncle who died mysteriously in a local political uprising. When Piya hires an illiterate but proud local fisherman to guide her through the crocodile-infested backwaters, Kanai becomes her translator. From this moment, the tide begins to turn. A contemporary story of adventure and romance, identity and history, The Hungry Tide travels deep into one of the most fascinating regions on earth, where the treacherous forces of nature and human folly threaten to destroy a way of life.
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"The Tigers in India" is a short essay by the American philosopher William James in which he contrasted knowing that there were tigers in India by hearing about them from knowing that there were tigers in India by actually seeing and coming into contact with them. Amitav Ghosh's fine novel "The Hungry Tide" made me feel I knew the man-eating tigers of India in this second, more intimate way. Ghosh's novel is at its best when it describes the wild, untamable and fierce qualities of nature which do not bend to human will. The novel is full of vivid descriptions of tigers and their human prey, crocodiles, snakes, large forests of mangroves, storms, and fatal typhoons.
"The Hungry Tide" is set in a remote part of northeast India known as the Sundarbans which consists of thousands of small islands formed by the interflux of two rivers as they flow into the Bay of Bengal. Life is precarious with shifting islands, tigers and other predators, poor soil, and minimal contact with the outside world. Ghosh describes the people of the Sundarbans, their history, and their struggles with the natural world. He made me yearn to visit this unfamiliar place.
The novel develops slowly. There are three major and a host of secondary characters. It is a great deal to follow and absorb. The first primary character is Piya, a young American scholar of Indian descent. She is a student of marine mammals and has come to the Sudabar to study the river dolphin. We learn a great deal about dolphins in this book, but the descriptions don't have the vividness of the scenes with the tigers or crocodiles. The second main character, Kanai, is urbane, 42 years old, a successful translator, and a womanizer. He is in the Sundarbans at the request of his aunt Nilina who wants him to read a journal left by her late husband, Nirmal. Nilina is a pragmatist and activist who has built her life by helping others and creating a hospital on a small island. Her husband, a would-be poet, radical, and dreamer lived in her shadow. His journal tells the story of a group of Bangaladeshi immigrants who were forced out of a Forest Reserve in the Sundarbans by the Indian government in order to preserve the tigers.
The third main character is an uneducated fisherman named Fokir. Fokir comes to Piya's rescue at several points in the novel and he helps her find dolphins. Fokir doesn't speak English and he and Piya cannot verbally communicate. Fokir's wife Moyna has struggled to get an education and to become a nurse. There are tensions between her and her illiterate husband.
The portions of the book that deal with nature and the Sundarbans interthread with the stories and relationships of the characters. In particular, Ghosh explores the tension between love and sexuality on on hand and education and career on the other hand, especially as this tension applies to women. This theme is developed in three characters: Piya has seemingly abandoned the possibility of a committed relationship in order to pursue her research on the river dolphin. She must identify and struggle with her developing feelings for both Fokir and Kanai. Nilima became an organizer and a force in the Sundarbans by building the hospital and organizing the community while her schoolteacher husband remained on the sidelines -- creating unhappiness between them. Fokir and Moyna struggle to raise their son and keep their marriage in the face of the differences between them in education and ambition. Ghosh subtly develops this theme throughout the book. He shows how changing gender roles and expectations affect both life in the developed world of the United States and urban India and in rural, isolated areas such as the Sundarbans.
There are many other themes, including the modern conservation movement, explored with understanding and balance in Ghosh's novel. At times, indeed, there was something of an overload. I thought the book was awkwardly constructed as it moves back and forth from chapter to chapter between Piya's story and Kanai's story until they gradually interconnect. The narrative is frequently delayed by long stories which, while interesting in themselves, interfere with the flow of the action. At times I grew impatient and wanted the story to proceed.
In summary, what most impressed me in this book were first the dramatic pictures of raw and violent nature in the Sundarbans and second the nuanced discussion of issues that people face involving the priorities of love and work, as these issues continue to unfold and evolve in all parts of the world.
