Good Reads / Community Library Notes
A State of Freedom
Neel Mukherjee
Review by Priscilla Comen
A State of Freedom
Neel Mukherjee
Review by Priscilla Comen
A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee is a well-written portrait of people, poor and rich, who cross paths and affect one another: the father who shows his son the sights of India, including the Taj Mahal, and tells him the story behind the building; the bear that peers into their taxi window and begs for money for his owner; the adult son of a wealthy woman who compares recipes with the mother’s cook because he’s working on a cookbook of authentic Indian foods. The cook invites him to visit her slum village; the man who finds a bear cub and trains him to dance in front of crowds who pay so he can have food and shelter on his travels.
The young girl, Milly, whom we remember from the first story as an assistant cook in the wealthy home, is sent away from her home to be a maid for a Christian couple. Author Mukherjee observes and presents details as he sees and feels them with compassion. While Milly is at the wealthy family’s home, she breaks things accidentally, and is yelled at and forced to work harder and longer hours. On one of her visits home, she meets her childhood friend, Soni. She hardly recognizes her as Soni is now a guerilla in soldier’s clothes. She has joined the “party," has learned how to shoot guns, how to disappear, and to surround the enemy. Milly is amazed by her former friend.
Binay, whom Milly has seen occasionally, comes to the family’s apartment door with a fake delivery. They plan for her escape from where she has felt like a bird trapped in a cage. She worries what will happen to her bank account if she is caught, thinks maybe she should stay put. Binay comes for her, puts her in a wooden crate and carries it with a friend to a truck and freedom. Milly and Binay marry and live in a slum adjacent to the sea, which floods during every Monsoon.
She is hired as an assistant cook at a wealthy family’s home. Author Mukherjee has brought us back to the beginning to show us how connected lives truly are. Find this amazing book about life in some parts of India on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
The young girl, Milly, whom we remember from the first story as an assistant cook in the wealthy home, is sent away from her home to be a maid for a Christian couple. Author Mukherjee observes and presents details as he sees and feels them with compassion. While Milly is at the wealthy family’s home, she breaks things accidentally, and is yelled at and forced to work harder and longer hours. On one of her visits home, she meets her childhood friend, Soni. She hardly recognizes her as Soni is now a guerilla in soldier’s clothes. She has joined the “party," has learned how to shoot guns, how to disappear, and to surround the enemy. Milly is amazed by her former friend.
Binay, whom Milly has seen occasionally, comes to the family’s apartment door with a fake delivery. They plan for her escape from where she has felt like a bird trapped in a cage. She worries what will happen to her bank account if she is caught, thinks maybe she should stay put. Binay comes for her, puts her in a wooden crate and carries it with a friend to a truck and freedom. Milly and Binay marry and live in a slum adjacent to the sea, which floods during every Monsoon.
She is hired as an assistant cook at a wealthy family’s home. Author Mukherjee has brought us back to the beginning to show us how connected lives truly are. Find this amazing book about life in some parts of India on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.