We That are Young is a modern-day King Lear set in India. The setup is a rich industrial dynasty in the style of the Tatas, Birlas, or Ambani families (the big industrial families of India). And the war of succession that follows when the patriarch resigns.
About the Book
Jivan Singh, the bastard scion of the Devraj family, returns to his childhood home after a long absence – only to witness the unexpected resignation of the ageing patriarch from the vast corporation he founded, the Devraj Company. On the same day, Sita, Devraj’s youngest daughter, absconds – refusing to submit to the marriage her father wants for her. Meanwhile, Radha and Gargi, Sita’s older sisters, must deal with the fallout. And so begins a brutal, deadly struggle for power, spanning the luxury hotels and spas of New Delhi and Amritsar, the palaces and slums of Napurthala, to Srinagar, Kashmir.
~ Synopsis from goodreads
My Review
I wanted to like this book. I really did! I went into this with such high expectations. It has received some very impressive reviews. Sadly, the book didn’t work for me, which is actually very surprising. I love Shakespeare’s tragedies – the over-the-top drama, and everyone dying, the sheer storytelling of it all, so this retelling of one of his greatest tragedies should have worked for me.
Sadly, it did not. There were multiple issues I found with it.
One note writing. The book is written from multiple points of view – Gargi (Goneril), Radha (Regan), Sita (Cordelia), Devraj (King Lear), Jivan (Edmund), and Jeet (Edgar). All these different people narrating the events, but the writing style remains the same. Preti’s voice is very strong, but by the time I had reached 100 pages, I was quite tired of it. It was all tell, no show. Here is a sample of her writing, and now imagine reading 556 pages of such prose.
We that believe in India shining. We that are the youngest, the fastest, the democracy, the economy, the global Super Power coming soon to a cinema near you, we, hum panch, that are the five cousins of the five great rivers, everybody our brother-sister-lover, we that are divine: the echo of the ancient heroes of the old time, we that fight, we that are hungry, so, so hungry, we that are young! We that are jioging on the brink of ruin; we that are washed in the filth of corruption, chaal, so what? Aise hi Hota hai: we that are a force all that is natural – slow – death to Muslims, gays, chi-chi women in their skin-tights, hai! We that sit picnicking on the edge of our crumbling civilisation, we that party with shots and more shots, more shots as the world burns beneath us, as the dog barks, as the cockroaches crow, as the old eat their young and the young whip their elders all wearing the birth marks of respect, we that present only the shadow of ourselves behind our painted smiles, we that protest for the right to drink whisky-sours served to our beds at noon, we that eat our beef with chopsticks, we that twist tongues to suit our dear selves, we that worship the ancient religion of Lakshmi, of Shiva, of wealth creation and ultimate destruction, we that will be born strong in the next life and in a party that never ends, we that are the future of this planet, we that begin with this beloved India, will endure, yes it all belongs to us, and we will eat it all! All of it is ours, we that our India and no longer slaves: We that are young!
One note characters. I will correct myself here. The characters aren’t exactly one-note, but because the writing tone is so one-note, even the different characters seem to merge into one, all unpleasant, greedy, and grasping.
Vague motivations. I found people’s motivations for their actions very bizarre. I think this is probably on me, but I just couldn’t relate to these filthy rich, spoiled people willing to fight each other so fiercely for power. I mean, in their place, I would have been quite happy to chill and just live on my monthly allowance. I had a similar problem while watching Succession as well, although the show did an overall great job building out everyone’s motivations. A couple of characters – Sita, Jeet are terribly under-developed, confusing me. Why did Sita return to her father? Why did Jeet leave the family business and live with homeless people? Why did he come back? Nothing made sense to me, and in the end, I realized I didn’t care very much either. A sure indication that I was just not invested in the book or the characters.
Way too long and repetitive, and terrible pacing issues. The book starts off decently and then gets slower and slower. There are whole sections of the book where the protagonist is just talking to themselves (or at the reader). The book does pick up the pace in places, but just when it starts to hit its stride, the narrator changes, and it feels like a slog once again. This book needed some serious editing.
In short, I found it overwritten, pretentious, and tedious. Such a huge disappointment!
