The Way of the I Ching Book

Shining Hero by Sara Banerji is a rather unique story set in modern day India, partially in the neighbourhood of Calcutta and partially in Bombay. It focuses on two half brothers, Karna and Arjuna; the first being raised in poverty by his adoptive mother, while the latter is raised in a wealthy environment by his biological parents. The boys meet each other after the death of Karna's mother, Dolly, and between the two of them a troubled relationship full of rivalry grows.

I dove into this book right after I had finished The God of Small Things and never having read any Indian literature before, I was really afraid of the things I would come across. I feared it would be as ranty as tGoST and would move just as slow: it's needless to say I was pretty pessimistic about the literature before I even had the right to have an opinion on it.

I was proven wrong right in the first chapter. Yes, it seemed to move a little slow and at that point, various points in time were mixed, causing the present and the memories to get a little confusing, but Sara Banerji somehow managed to hold my attention. Even though the beginning was a little inaccurate (How could Koonty mistake a pregnancy for a fish allergy? And hasn't anybody noticed her belly growing?) it didn't seem to be: you could easily keep track of Koonty's thoughts and her simple way of thinking almost seemed to make it all sound realistic. It is this, and also various other people's way of thinking, that actually made the whole story realistic. There were plenty of... impossible things, but they seemed to be possible.

The drama going on in the lives of Karna and Arjuna could, perhaps, be considered a bit too much, but for this too, the simple way of thinking done by the narrators (narration changed a few times - first it was Koonty, then Dolly, then Karna, then Arjuna and sometimes between those, Shivarani) made it sound fairly realistic. In fact, the tragedies going on stopped me from putting the book down. When Pandu (Dolly's husband) died, I was shocked. When Dolly died, I actually cried, for it was really sad. I cried. The deaths of Koonty's husband and later Koonty herself were shocking, too. Especially how they happened - her husband was killed because someone thought he had killed one of the communists (he hadn't, but they only found this out later.) and Koonty committed suicide because she was a widow and because she thought her lost child, who was actually Karna, had died soon after birth. I knew the Indian culture is really different from what I'm used to, but I hadn't expected it to have such dark sides. It definitely was a great book to use for my project, that much I can tell you.

What really struck me about this book and the culture was the difference between rich and poor, though. The book focuses on this a lot, with Arjuna being rich and Karna being poor, and the way it was portrayed was really, really striking. Karna had a really tough life, but even though they went through difficult times, his mother Dolly and he loved each other more than anything. They were also proud enough not to steal anything, which made me feel really bad for them. Especially when Dolly was dying and Karna still begged people for food and medicine in stead of stealing it - I was honestly wishing he would actually steal things because it would have made things so much easier!
On the other side - the rich side - was Arjuna, who was a little, arrogant and spoiled kid who refused to share anything with Karna later on and didn't feel any sympathy for anyone. He was used to having lots of money and getting what he wanted: so used that he never changed.

I didn't feel bad for him a single time. Not even when Koonty died soon after her husband, leaving the boy without any parents whatsoever. I cried when Karna was orphaned, but I didn't even feel bad when the same happened to Arjuna. Whether this was Sara Banerji's intention? In the beginning, definitely. I realized after about 3/4 into the book that her opinion on the boys seemed to change a little. While she had described Karna as the poor boy to who everyone happened in the beginning, she started criticizing him at this point. Sometimes, she even made him appear incredibly cocky. I didn't lose my faith in him a single time, though. When Arjuna turned out to be the winner of everything in the end, I still didn't like him. For man's sake, I even wished for him to die at a certain point.

Honestly, I haven't regretted reading this a single moment. If you're looking for an easy but interesting read, I'd definitely recommend it. You don't even need to know a whole lot about the Indian culture - I didn't know anything about it other than some basics. Sure, it'd have helped me to know more at certain points, but it didn't bother me when I read about something I didn't know about.

Just go read it. That's all I have to say.