One come across a fiction steeped in cultural mores, society’s faultlines and the challenges thrown at both by the characters without a sermonising intervention by the author. A reader must be grounded in the realities of the backdrop to be able to tell competently how The Glass Bead Curtain by Lakshmi Kannan fares. To be precise, you have to be a Tamil Brahmin or well acquainted with the community to relate to the narrative. But if you’re not, the pathos will still strike a chord, given that reactions to circumstances are human after all.
The time is that of Madras Presidency at the turn of the century about a hundred years ago that saw the local society in a cusp of change from the traditional to the modern. There is, for example, the conundrum of a young widow whose social status is challenged by her aspirations, talent and a few benign motivators. It’s not just the dawn of modern values; a track of the state of affairs of the nation runs parallel to the protagonist’s personal travails. That should be captivating if you have stomach for such a duality.
The title of the book could, however, prove an impediment to the book’s sales. An esoteric name may sound profound to an elite circle of intellectuals; it is a bad idea for the market. But then, this novel has made it to the curriculum of the Master of Art course at the Rajasthan University. That, in itself is a market. More so if the luminaries who launched the book help spread the word around.