Review For The Better Man
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It was at the 2019 International Book Fair held in Ernakulam, I had found The Better Man by Anita Nair. I decided to buy and read the book because I have heard about the book before as one of the major works of Anita Nair.
The Better Man is a story about Mukundan, a bachelor, who returns to a remote village called Kaikurussi after his retirement. He is also a common who decided to recollect his past childhood along with a brilliant philosopher and painter one-screw-loose-Bhasi.
After such events, Mukundan struggles to catch everyone’s eye on him. He loved to get publicity and dominance over the villagers. But unfortunately, Mukundan could not make his mark on the village and later got jealous of his Father Achuthan Nair who had such qualities. Mukundan always hated his father, but at the last moment, he realizes that his father was a better man than him and decides to become a better man than his father.
This is the story.
The story is almost okay. But that is not what a reader who gives much money for a book expects. The book could have added some more incidents and make the way a bit more interesting. The literature could be improved and honestly, the novel just looks like a direct translation of a common Malayalam novel.
The book actually creates small suspense in the first four parts, but like a sun setting down. The fifth part was not so suspenseful or much moving in my reading experience. I am not at all blaming the work but just point out some defects I have found in the book.
But anyway, the book has some experimental factors that it succeeds in creating a ripple for modern English fiction. The book declares to a small extent about focusing and confronting our present by doing something in our presence in the world. It tries to discover some present social issues such as having a lot of money gives you more power and helps to control others’ lives both positively and negatively.
