“The Far Field” by Madhuri Vijay – The Kashmir Volcano

Vijay Madhuri may have only begun her literary career by publishing The Far Field in 2019, but she is quickly becoming a recognizable name for it.

The story follows a young and restless woman by the name of Shalini who sets out for a Himalayan village in the region of Kashmir, certain she can find some answers about her mother's death.

However, she quickly gets caught up in the volatile and explosive politics of the region, as well as the history and traditions of the people in the village.

Madhuri Vijay Observes a Fractured Country

For those of us who like to try and follow international news the idea of India being a politically-volatile country isn't exactly anything new, with relatively consistent protests and uprisings. However, while we might know what happens in a country through news headlines, how much do we actually understand about what is going on? How distorted and incomplete is our perception of the events without the proper cultural, political and socioeconomic context? To truly understand a country, its people, and why things happen the way they do, I believe it's necessary to dive into its culture, history and structure on a profound level, which is precisely what Madhuri Vijay offers in her first published novel, The Far Field.

The story opens by introducing us to Shalini, a young, privileged and restless woman from Bangalore whose mother recently passed away. Thinking back on her past, she becomes convinced her mother's death is somehow connected to a certain Bashir Ahmed, a salesman from Kashmir who used to visit their childhood home. Without having much more to go on, she decides to head for the remote village where she might find him to confront him in the name of truth.

However, Shalini doesn't realize just how sheltered from the reality of the world her privileged upbringing left her, and when she reaches the northern region of Kashmir she discovers it to be rife with trouble and unrest. As a local family takes her in, she learns about the history, traditions and customs of the region, all while the political climate worsens by the day and threatens to erupt into violence and retribution any day. As the village itself catches the fervour of hatred, Shalini is not only forced to confront the realities of life she always ignored, but also to make choices which could leave many people in pain and immense danger.

A Narrative of Wondrous Connections in The Far Field

While this novel is definitely loaded with political and cultural context for us to explore, I would first like to take a look at the narrative itself, for after all, we are talking about a novel and not a history book. I feel like the crux of what makes this narrative special is the amount and depth of connections we end up exploring, to the point where it feels like nothing is down to chance.

When we begin the story we are essentially like Shalini herself, largely clueless and only aware of a small wooden carving which might be connected to her mother's life. We take off in familiar territory, with the plot first taking us through the prospering urban streets of Bangalore, showing how our heroine is connected to the world around her, the joys and woes she experiences in her everyday life. This introductory part of the story was well-executed in my opinion, and allowed even someone such as myself, far-removed from Indian society, of finding a window through which I could explore it.

It doesn't take too long for the events to take us to Kashmir, at which point we once again share Shalini's disposition as she ends up in a society she barely understands. In this remote little corner of the world, we spend quite a lot of time learning about the people and their history, how they all connect to each other and have over the ages, and how local politics and customs end up dictating their lives. Vijay is quite the expert when it comes to characterizing people, making them feel real with very concise and effective descriptions, effectively bringing them to life and making it easy for me to care about them and their plight. This makes it all the more threatening when the dangerous factors start to pick up and we know not all of them will escape unscathed. All in all, like Shalini we become part of this world and suffer with it when the time comes.

An Examination of Indian Life

Learning about other places in the world can be a tricky ordeal. While history and sociology books might give you a whole list of facts, it takes something more than this to learn about the inner workings of a country, and I believe this “something” can be found in The Far Field. The author herself obviously has a good understanding of her own country, and she takes us deep beneath the surface to explore the Indian way of life and the challenges her people are facing in the modern world.

At first we get a cursory look at city life, and while the author does describe its woes and pleasures in some detail, it's clearly not the focus of the side of life she wants to present. Once we arrive in the Himalayan village things really take a turn for the interesting, and alongside our main character we start learning everything about the people, from who they pray to and what they believe in to their daily routines and dreams for tomorrow. Slowly but surely, a detailed picture begins to form in our minds about how life actually works and why people make the decisions they do.

Additionally, as the political climate in the novel becomes increasingly explosive (more or less mirroring the current state of affairs in the real world) we are also introduced to this rather complex side of things. I have to say, out of all the things I learned from this novel, the functioning of politics in India is what really stuck with me. While the contrast with Western society is quite stark in many areas, I couldn't help but think of it as a logical and sometimes extreme extension of our own politics. Many questions about the country's future arise from this examination, and just like our heroine, we slowly grow into a realization of total uncertainty in terms of answers.

The Final Verdict

The Far Field is an excellent debut novel by Madhuri Vijay, offering both a compelling and educative story, exploring a volatile region in a fractured and fascinating country while closely acquainting us with its people. It's a story about many things, including love, betrayal, life lessons, fear, experience, and virtually anything else life throws at us. If you feel like exploring India, its politics, culture and way of life in the kind of the depth few offerings can match, then I strongly recommend you give this book a read.

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Madhuri Vijay Personal site Madhuri Vijay is an author from Bangalore, India with a BA from Lawrence University as well as an MFA from the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Her career is still young with her sole published book being The Far Field, but it has already won her the 2019 JCB Prize for Literature.