Mehreen Ahmed's Blog - Posts Tagged "incandescence-novelreview"
Incandescence by Mehreen Ahmed
IncandescenceReviewed by
Dr Modhura Banerjee
Assistant Professor and Head of Department
Jamini Mazumder Memorial College, West Bengal.
Radiating the Incandescent: Reading Ahmed and Remembering Tagore
Mehreen Ahmed’s Incandescence is a parallel exploration into the conflicts and stasis of liberation offered by eternal love and sluggish boundaries of nuptial domesticity. Mila, Rahim, Papri, Irfaan are Mehreen’s own version of Tagore’s Labanya, Amit, Ketaki and Shovonlal from his pathbreaking novel ‘Sesher Kobita’ ( The Last Poem) that has inspired the author in different phases of her adulting. Rahim And Mila,much like Tagore’s Amit and Labanya are star-crossed lovers, who redefine love by freeing it from the shackles of carnal domestic fulfilment which would in turn corrupt the purity, intensity and incandescence of what they possessed. Their love was their only chance at eternal, infinite, rejuvenation within their limited mortal existence which they did not want to soil through matrimony. Therefore, they chose to marry different partners Papri and Irfaan, who were prosaic alternations of their poetic love. Papri, a sad orphan, victim to her own circumstance, having little choice but to accept the second position in her husband’s life and Irfaan hopelessly trying to domesticate and match up to an undaunted spirit like Mila, both inevitably ending up in tragic isolation.
Mila is as strikingly iconoclastic as Labanya, yet at times so fragile, vulnerable and confused about her choice between accepting her love for Rahim or abiding to her duty as a wife to Irfaan, questioning the ethical boundaries that societal hegemony has taught her or accepting them stoically. Every choice and slips had it consequences, ensuing its own trail of tragedy, adding to the essence of Mila, taking her world by storm. Mila is guilt-ridden for her affection for Rahim due to her empathy for Papri, yet she indulges in his letters, finds validation in his love. Mila is terrified of waking-up late and displeasing her in-laws yet some how fathoms the courage to break away from a failing marriage which refuses to accept her individuality. It is the quirky women characters like Mrs. Chowdhury, Saima, Rabeya that light up the world of Incandescence. However lines like “She loved her life, she hated her life, she just didn’t know what to do with her life, her suffering purpled like the blooming jacarandas under silent, grey sky”- is where the true treasure of the book lies. It brilliantly demonstrates the skilful art of Mehreen Ahmed, her dexterity with rhetoric, her craftsmanship of language, her fondness and familiarity with the soil of Dacca. Such beautiful and powerful expressions to communicate complex human emotions is indeed a rare find. The novel is strewn with poetical diction often used to depict the raw interplay of the human world with the nature-both in its vernal tides and withering winters. The trees, the sound of azan, the aroma of coffee, the fallen branches, the lakes, the rotting grass, the changing seasons affect and predict the emotional landscape of the humans.
Dr Modhura Banerjee
Assistant Professor and Head of Department
Jamini Mazumder Memorial College, West Bengal.
Radiating the Incandescent: Reading Ahmed and Remembering Tagore
Mehreen Ahmed’s Incandescence is a parallel exploration into the conflicts and stasis of liberation offered by eternal love and sluggish boundaries of nuptial domesticity. Mila, Rahim, Papri, Irfaan are Mehreen’s own version of Tagore’s Labanya, Amit, Ketaki and Shovonlal from his pathbreaking novel ‘Sesher Kobita’ ( The Last Poem) that has inspired the author in different phases of her adulting. Rahim And Mila,much like Tagore’s Amit and Labanya are star-crossed lovers, who redefine love by freeing it from the shackles of carnal domestic fulfilment which would in turn corrupt the purity, intensity and incandescence of what they possessed. Their love was their only chance at eternal, infinite, rejuvenation within their limited mortal existence which they did not want to soil through matrimony. Therefore, they chose to marry different partners Papri and Irfaan, who were prosaic alternations of their poetic love. Papri, a sad orphan, victim to her own circumstance, having little choice but to accept the second position in her husband’s life and Irfaan hopelessly trying to domesticate and match up to an undaunted spirit like Mila, both inevitably ending up in tragic isolation.
Mila is as strikingly iconoclastic as Labanya, yet at times so fragile, vulnerable and confused about her choice between accepting her love for Rahim or abiding to her duty as a wife to Irfaan, questioning the ethical boundaries that societal hegemony has taught her or accepting them stoically. Every choice and slips had it consequences, ensuing its own trail of tragedy, adding to the essence of Mila, taking her world by storm. Mila is guilt-ridden for her affection for Rahim due to her empathy for Papri, yet she indulges in his letters, finds validation in his love. Mila is terrified of waking-up late and displeasing her in-laws yet some how fathoms the courage to break away from a failing marriage which refuses to accept her individuality. It is the quirky women characters like Mrs. Chowdhury, Saima, Rabeya that light up the world of Incandescence. However lines like “She loved her life, she hated her life, she just didn’t know what to do with her life, her suffering purpled like the blooming jacarandas under silent, grey sky”- is where the true treasure of the book lies. It brilliantly demonstrates the skilful art of Mehreen Ahmed, her dexterity with rhetoric, her craftsmanship of language, her fondness and familiarity with the soil of Dacca. Such beautiful and powerful expressions to communicate complex human emotions is indeed a rare find. The novel is strewn with poetical diction often used to depict the raw interplay of the human world with the nature-both in its vernal tides and withering winters. The trees, the sound of azan, the aroma of coffee, the fallen branches, the lakes, the rotting grass, the changing seasons affect and predict the emotional landscape of the humans.
Incandescence by Mehreen Ahmed
https://thepoetrymarket.wordpress.com/
Book Reviews
“IncandescenceIncandescence”
By Mehreen Ahmed
406 pages
ISBN: 979-8-9863807-0-4
Dark Myth Publications, Copyright 2022
Review by LB Sedlacek
In a series of passages that read like vignettes, Ahmed gives us wonderful vivid prose inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s The Last Poem—Shesher Kobita. Ahmed says in her introduction to the book that “What’s important in this book is the exploitation of the characters to the extent of what to expect from life, in general, both philosophically and materialistically?”
Ahmed achieves answers to these questions and more in this new book. She reshapes in a way the one might think a traditional novel like book should be written. It is enlightening as well as an enveloping way to read – think Paulo Coelho type of books and writing.
From the section entitled “Wave”:
“On the bank of the River Kali, the two cars pulled up. The
passengers sitting in them squeezed, came out of the cars
jostled by each other. Looking out into the murky waves,
they waited for the lifelines in the offing.”
Ahmed creates an all immersive atmosphere within these pages. It’s a journey you will want to take with her characters.
Ahmed is also author of “The Pacifist.”
Book Reviews
“IncandescenceIncandescence”
By Mehreen Ahmed
406 pages
ISBN: 979-8-9863807-0-4
Dark Myth Publications, Copyright 2022
Review by LB Sedlacek
In a series of passages that read like vignettes, Ahmed gives us wonderful vivid prose inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s The Last Poem—Shesher Kobita. Ahmed says in her introduction to the book that “What’s important in this book is the exploitation of the characters to the extent of what to expect from life, in general, both philosophically and materialistically?”
Ahmed achieves answers to these questions and more in this new book. She reshapes in a way the one might think a traditional novel like book should be written. It is enlightening as well as an enveloping way to read – think Paulo Coelho type of books and writing.
From the section entitled “Wave”:
“On the bank of the River Kali, the two cars pulled up. The
passengers sitting in them squeezed, came out of the cars
jostled by each other. Looking out into the murky waves,
they waited for the lifelines in the offing.”
Ahmed creates an all immersive atmosphere within these pages. It’s a journey you will want to take with her characters.
Ahmed is also author of “The Pacifist.”
