The Eyes that Drowned Uyuni is a short and captivating read. The narration beautifully swings between the present and past of Parag, of how he lost his beloved wife Mriga and how he had won her. The author, Prashant Chopra, brought out the intimacy between Parag and Mriga without getting into too much details. Something seems to be going on with Parag, he believes he has a huge back tattoo, or gashes on his back. When he looks in the mirror though nothing is there.
The daughter, Riyah, seems sweet and innocent, why would a mother want to leave her?
I totally agree with the following quote: "The same gentry that couldn't stop being royally cordial moments ago (using words like sorry, thank you, my bad....) was now scrambling to poach every inch of aisle space available (apparently everyone was in a dire hurry to get off the plane)." This is how all my plane rides end, everyone pushing to get to the front of the line, which I hate, because the doors aren't even opened as of yet!
The Eyes that Drowned Uyuni feels unfinished, like an early draft. There is no character building like other novels / novella's I have read. You are thrown into a story, without character history. We do not know what city we are in, where are we in the world?
Chapter 19 ends, and then Chapter 20 begins, however, we are further back in Parag's past? A smother transition needs to take place, such as: in 1985, I sat in my 10th grade year at ............ school. Or, re arrange the paragraphs where it feels smother, as it does a few paragraphs down from the beginning of Chapter 20.
A beautiful, poetic, and intriguing tale that deals with the essence of what love is. Personal love of many forms—between man and woman, father and child, and teacher and student, are explored along with another level of love—prevailing social/political structures versus a new paradigm that respects individual dignity and equality. The author’s admiration of purity in all human relationships is well translated into struggles to overcome mental and emotional boundaries, and eventually finds the ultimate answer to what love ought to be: a selfless state in which one loves the other for the sake of love itself. Juxtaposing the past and present brings out a sense of fantasy, although the author clearly intends to emphasize illusionary aspects of something called “time.”
Truly enjoyed reading this book. Looking forward to reading its sequel.
The eyes that drowned Uyuni is a short and captivating read. The narration beautifully swings between the present and past of Parag, of how he lost his beloved wife Mriga and how he had won her. The portions expressing Parag's love for his child tugs at your heartstrings. I also loved the way the author brought out the intimacy between Parag and Mriga without getting into too much details. On the contrary, with its enigmatic end, this paranormal romance, or so I believe, had me reading it twice over because I wanted to make sure what I understood was what is implied. And in the process it made me speculate a little! (And a trivial observation is that the author tends to describe and express everything thrice, in different forms and ways)
Disclaimer: I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway. c:
This is a beautiful novella, poetic and passionate. The story is lush, tragic and moving; the characters haunting and richly described.
Unfortunately it suffers from a huge lack of editing. Confused verbs and adjectives, typos, ambiguous phrasing... Because of it's many language errors, The Eyes that Drowned Uyuni feels unfinished, like an early draft. Chopra's book needs the polishing of a good editor to really shine.
The Eyes may have drowned Uyuni, but Chopra's words drowned me. It seemed like he picked every word and even every space with such care, it was a form of poetry.
Though a timeline shift was abrupt enough to be a bit confusing at first, I was able to catch up quickly. (One thing...why the cliff hanger?)
I will definitely be doing a re-read - I feel that many nuances can be picked up by a multiple read.
A poetic story of extreme love, and its consequences. Has an almost Tarantino-esque plot switching style, which is technically difficult to execute, but done well here.