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A review by allthatissim
The Poison of Love by K.R. Meera
4.0
Full review on: FLIPPING THROUGH THE PAGES
Tulsi is the main protagonist of this book and the story starts in Vrindavan where she is a Meera sadhu now. The story then continues in flashbacks, switching between past and present. When Tulsi was young, she was a talented woman who had a bright career ahead of her and was about to marry her fiance. But then there was Madhav to whom she was strongly attracted and thus leaves her fiance and marries Madhav.
Madhav had 27 girlfriends in past and Tulsi was his 28th. Still, Tulsi believed him and dedicates herself towards his charms and sweet talking. But soon she comes out of her fairy tale and realized that the things were not what they appeared. She makes various horrific choices in the way and finally lands to Vrindavan as shaven-headed Meera Sadhu. A very sick but apparently repentant Madhav then traced her to Vrindavan and was desperate for an audience. Tulsi was still shocked to see that she was still attracted towards him after all the mishappenings. She finally met an end that was hard to believe.
Love is something which is widely used everywhere and in every context. It can itself become intense if it goes after a limit. K.R. Meera has effectively started this book with these lines:
The starting line itself gives a creepy feeling. Though Tulsi was a bright student, she leaves behind a broken family and a promising career to embarks on a life that she never expected, just because she was too blindly in love with Madhav. Even after 8 years of her misery and finally ending up in Vrindavan as Meera sadhu, she was not able to detach herself from her feeling about Madhav and the repulsion that she carried out for him, though she resented him.
This was my first book by K.R. Meera. I was not familiar with her writing style that’s why I was little shocked by the narrative and description. Tulsi’s relationship with Madhav was extremely twisted and destructive. Her state of mind was perfectly described by the author which made it equally engrossing and disturbing. The author has clearly made the line between love and hatred by moving back and forth between Tulsi’s present (in Vrindavan) and her past while building up to a chilling end.
A unique thing in this book was the description of corpse-eating ants which perfectly stitched parts of the story together. Tulsi used to have dreams about ants and then she also saw them in Vrindavan where she used to live. She associates them with death. She was so hurtful and mad in love that she was self-destructive.
This novella has been written in the first person and goes back and forth in time. Due to this, sometimes it was difficult to understand the exact plot. Except this, it was dramatic and realistic with all the feelings.The novel ends on a dark note, as it had begun. K.R. Meera keeps a firm grip on her words. The feel on every page is that of the scraping of raw skin and horrified. Towards the end, you can’t actually make sympathy on either of the characters as both were bad on their own parts. This book leaves you with pain, anger, resentment, and sadness and I think this is the main thing that author wants to deliver.
The Poison of Love is an intense and dramatic novel which clearly explains what a corrosive love can do. It is not an easy book to read and I would certainly not recommend it if you are in a mood for a light read. It is a strange story of emotion and betrayal which turns out to be dark. For many of the readers, this is a one-sitting read. It gives you mixed feelings where at one point you can find yourself devouring the characters while on another page you find yourself completely horrified.
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Tulsi is the main protagonist of this book and the story starts in Vrindavan where she is a Meera sadhu now. The story then continues in flashbacks, switching between past and present. When Tulsi was young, she was a talented woman who had a bright career ahead of her and was about to marry her fiance. But then there was Madhav to whom she was strongly attracted and thus leaves her fiance and marries Madhav.
Madhav had 27 girlfriends in past and Tulsi was his 28th. Still, Tulsi believed him and dedicates herself towards his charms and sweet talking. But soon she comes out of her fairy tale and realized that the things were not what they appeared. She makes various horrific choices in the way and finally lands to Vrindavan as shaven-headed Meera Sadhu. A very sick but apparently repentant Madhav then traced her to Vrindavan and was desperate for an audience. Tulsi was still shocked to see that she was still attracted towards him after all the mishappenings. She finally met an end that was hard to believe.
Love is something which is widely used everywhere and in every context. It can itself become intense if it goes after a limit. K.R. Meera has effectively started this book with these lines:
Love is like milk. With the passage of time, it sours, splits and becomes poison.
The starting line itself gives a creepy feeling. Though Tulsi was a bright student, she leaves behind a broken family and a promising career to embarks on a life that she never expected, just because she was too blindly in love with Madhav. Even after 8 years of her misery and finally ending up in Vrindavan as Meera sadhu, she was not able to detach herself from her feeling about Madhav and the repulsion that she carried out for him, though she resented him.
This was my first book by K.R. Meera. I was not familiar with her writing style that’s why I was little shocked by the narrative and description. Tulsi’s relationship with Madhav was extremely twisted and destructive. Her state of mind was perfectly described by the author which made it equally engrossing and disturbing. The author has clearly made the line between love and hatred by moving back and forth between Tulsi’s present (in Vrindavan) and her past while building up to a chilling end.
A unique thing in this book was the description of corpse-eating ants which perfectly stitched parts of the story together. Tulsi used to have dreams about ants and then she also saw them in Vrindavan where she used to live. She associates them with death. She was so hurtful and mad in love that she was self-destructive.
This novella has been written in the first person and goes back and forth in time. Due to this, sometimes it was difficult to understand the exact plot. Except this, it was dramatic and realistic with all the feelings.The novel ends on a dark note, as it had begun. K.R. Meera keeps a firm grip on her words. The feel on every page is that of the scraping of raw skin and horrified. Towards the end, you can’t actually make sympathy on either of the characters as both were bad on their own parts. This book leaves you with pain, anger, resentment, and sadness and I think this is the main thing that author wants to deliver.
The Poison of Love is an intense and dramatic novel which clearly explains what a corrosive love can do. It is not an easy book to read and I would certainly not recommend it if you are in a mood for a light read. It is a strange story of emotion and betrayal which turns out to be dark. For many of the readers, this is a one-sitting read. It gives you mixed feelings where at one point you can find yourself devouring the characters while on another page you find yourself completely horrified.
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