The Covenant of Water by
Abraham Verghese
A Review and Recommendation.
By Srianee Dias
The
indication that you have just finished reading an exceptional book is the
melancholy feeling that you get when a good experience is over, such as after a
relaxing vacation or a special concert.
You are sad to say goodbye to the characters who have been your
companions for the last few days or weeks.
‘The
Covenant of Water’ is such a book. I
decided to read it in spite of its intimidating 700+pages, because Abraham
Verghese is one of my favourite authors.
He is a physician and writer who is presently a Provostial Professor and
Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University.
The story, which spans about 80 years and covers 3 generations, begins in Travancore,
South India, which later becomes part of the State of Kerala. The author depicts the characters and their
surroundings with tender detail and great affection, and one can develop strong
connections; because those of us who grew up in that part of the world probably
knew people like that. The descriptions
of some of the characters will make you chuckle.
I have not visited Kerala, but people who have
travelled there remark on the similarities to Sri Lanka. There are descriptions
of hill country tea estates, beaches and villages, which are all familiar to us.
The story
is chronological and feels like short stories featuring the various characters
woven together in the narrative. There are many references to the history of
the times, the British occupation of India, World War II, the struggle for
independence, the activities of the Communist Party in Kerala and so on. It is a family saga with joyful celebrations
and heartbreaking tragedies, all described in exquisite detail with great sensitivity.
While reading this book there were times when
I felt that I was re-living my past. In
the early part of the story, in 1933, a young Scotsman recently graduated from
Medical College joins the Indian Medical Service in order to develop his skills
as a surgeon. Coming from a working-class background, he felt he didn’t have the right connections to get ahead in
his field in England. The description of
his first appointment in Madras in Longmere Hospital (a fictitious hospital)
took me back to my first appointment after my internship in Karawanella! Two crowded wards were assigned to him filled
with Indian patients, while his boss, a
Senior Civil Surgeon, looked after the almost empty ward reserved for British
and Anglo-Indian patients.
In
Karawanella, the set up was rather similar, where the DMO only allowed his
‘private’ patients to be admitted to his ward, by underlings like us. These patients had paid him a fee privately
(Illegal for a government medical officer).
We were given strict instructions not to admit any ‘floor’ patients to
his spotless ward. We didn’t always
follow the instructions, but that is another story!
Similarly,
when Verghese describes the experiences of a medical student, I was transported
in time to the formalin reeking anatomy block, and the pathology lab with
shelves stacked with specimens in glass containers.
There are
many medical details throughout the book,
because I think Dr. Verghese cannot completely shed his role of a
teacher of medicine. Perhaps it is a bit too much detail for the average
reader, but I enjoyed those sections immensely.
One does not have to be a physician to relish this book.
There
were many passages and sentences which I
read over and over again because the language and the imagery were so beautiful. (That is why I don’t enjoy listening to
audiobooks.) An example: writing about a
matriarch who relates family stories, he writes “…such memories are woven from
gossamer threads; time eats holes in the fabric, and these she must darn with
myth and fable.”
From my reading this book, I learned about the St. Thomas Christians of that
region. Their ancestors converted to
Christianity following the visit of St. Thomas, one of Jesus Christ’s
disciples, in AD 52. They are some of
the earliest Christians. There are many biblical and literary quotations in the
book, faithfully acknowledged in the notes.
I hope
some of the readers of this blog will pick up this hefty book sometime soon and start reading. It will be difficult to put it down.
