The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Dieses Buch spielt in Indien, dem mittlerweise bevölkerungsreichsten Land der Erde, das politisch, kulturell und sozial regelrecht zerrissen ist.

Die Widersprüche zwischen Tradition und Moderne, Konservatismus und Fortschritt, Liberalismus und Religiosität sind für Außenstehende schier unfassbar.

Ein Subkontinent, auf dem es alles gibt, in allen Variationen. Schreckliche Unterdrückung von Minderheiten, Folter, Mord, Korruption, Kollaboration.

Die Geschichte vor diesem Hintergrund wird nicht linear erzählt, sondern hüpft in der Zeit hin und her.

Zuerst geht es um eine Hijra (Transsexuelle Person) und ihren Lebensweg, dann um eine Gruppen von Studienfreunden, die alle unterschiedliche Wege einschlagen. Wir sehen, dass viele der hier vorgestellten Personen ein bisschen (sympathisch) "durchgeknallt" sind. Ihre Schicksale und Gedanken werden humorvoll-lakonisch kommentiert.

Zwischenzeitlich ändert sich aber der Ton und wir erfahren die Schrecken des Kaschmirkonfliktes (Schilderungen von Foltermethoden inklusive).

Natürlich kommen alle Fäden zum Schluss zusammen und ein Baby erzeugt Hoffnung in einer fast hoffnungslosen Umgebung. Wir sehen hier die Kraft der Gemeinschaft, die zwar die Gesamtsituation nicht ändern kann, aber durch ihre Liebe und Acts of Kindness ein bisschen mehr Glück in die Welt trägt.

Der Stil mit den teilweise traumartigen Sequenzen erinnert mich an phantastischen Realismus (keine Ahnung, ob man das so nennt/nennen darf).

I honestly have no idea to rate this. I'm not sure of my thoughts or anything, but it was an experience for sure. I'm going to have to reread this at some point because it's just a lot to take in but I think I liked this a good bit! Time to continue to write an essay on this.

The historical background of this challenging, beautifully written novel is the Kashmir Insurgency, a most violent time in Indian history. (A history I knew nothing about.)(My bad.)

Arundhati Roy tries to spread her arms wide enough to encompass everyone, all who suffered and fought in this conflict. She has presented a wave of memorable characters, all with his or her own fascinating back story. At first, it's hard to know what some of these stories have to do with one other, but then it does all come together in the end. This is not a linear story; Roy does take us for a pretzel-ride, twisting in and out of people's lives, going back and forth in time to take in the view from different vantage points.

If the novel seems messy, then it would help mirror the times. Personally, I do wish the author had arranged her work into shorter chapters. However, this is not meant to be a loud criticism. I found her characters memorable, and was particularly fascinated that hijras, or transgender people, found their own place to take care of each other within their society.

A good historical novel always teaches me something, and I feel that The Ministry of Utmost Happiness made me aware not only of an important, violent struggle, but created an exquisite window into the humanity behind it. We all read about deaths and tragedies in our news feeds, but seldom get any sense of what is happening to individual people, what it is to survive during dangerous times. Four of the lives we follow are people who know each other from school, never forget one another, yet play different roles in this history. The way Roy kneads these complicated relationships into this story makes her work seem all the more real.

I am very glad to have read this, it was good for me.