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A review by obsidian_blue
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
1.0
Did Not Finish--30 percent
I started this book in 2023 and at this point I just need to put it aside. I can't get into this. I know it has a ton of awards, but I just cannot engage with the characters and plot. I just hit a point this weekend that I am done trying to force myself to read anything that is not working for me. This was boring and not that exciting to me.
"The Covenant of Water" is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, set between the 1900s and up til 1977. I did not get that far of course because I decided to DNF it at 30 percent. I love historical fiction, but this just didn't work for me because it's so dang slow and I didn't engage with the first part of the book. A 12 year old girl (Big Ammachi) is sent to marry a 40 year old widow (Big Appachen) with a young son (Jo-Jo). So that right there had me going...um. So there's a reason why a year plus I finally said no thank you. I felt for Big Ammachi who is missing her mother and wants to be more immersed with the local church. But after that, we just get so many people/characters/etc. that I just lost interest. This book is over 700 pages and I just lost patience with it.
I started this book in 2023 and at this point I just need to put it aside. I can't get into this. I know it has a ton of awards, but I just cannot engage with the characters and plot. I just hit a point this weekend that I am done trying to force myself to read anything that is not working for me. This was boring and not that exciting to me.
"The Covenant of Water" is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, set between the 1900s and up til 1977. I did not get that far of course because I decided to DNF it at 30 percent. I love historical fiction, but this just didn't work for me because it's so dang slow and I didn't engage with the first part of the book. A 12 year old girl (Big Ammachi) is sent to marry a 40 year old widow (Big Appachen) with a young son (Jo-Jo). So that right there had me going...um. So there's a reason why a year plus I finally said no thank you. I felt for Big Ammachi who is missing her mother and wants to be more immersed with the local church. But after that, we just get so many people/characters/etc. that I just lost interest. This book is over 700 pages and I just lost patience with it.