Uploaded April 2023 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Perumal Murugan's 'Pyre' is absolutely broken by a bad translation and a repetitive plot that simplifies its concepts, and relegates its agentless characters to endless bouts of crying. Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023.
4/10
Pyre: Saroja and Kumaresan are in love. After a hasty wedding, they arrive in Kumaresan’s village, harbouring the dangerous secret that their marriage is an inter-caste one, likely to anger the villagers should they learn of it. Kumaresan is confident that all will be well. He naively believes that after the initial round of curious questions, the inquiries will die down and the couple will be left alone. But nothing is further from the truth. The villagers strongly suspect that Saroja must belong to a different caste. It is only a matter of time before their suspicions harden into certainty and, outraged, they set about exacting their revenge. With spare, powerful prose, Murugan masterfully conjures a terrifying vision of intolerance in this devastating tale of innocent young love pitted against chilling savagery.
Goodreads: goodreads.com/user/show/61199102
Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/TheDiscoKing
Let me know what I should review next! Thanks for watching, and remember: just leave the village, lads.
#internationalbookerprize #bookerprize #pyre #books #booktube
Perumal Murugan's 'Pyre' is absolutely broken by a bad translation and a repetitive plot that simplifies its concepts, and relegates its agentless characters to endless bouts of crying. Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023.
4/10
Pyre: Saroja and Kumaresan are in love. After a hasty wedding, they arrive in Kumaresan’s village, harbouring the dangerous secret that their marriage is an inter-caste one, likely to anger the villagers should they learn of it. Kumaresan is confident that all will be well. He naively believes that after the initial round of curious questions, the inquiries will die down and the couple will be left alone. But nothing is further from the truth. The villagers strongly suspect that Saroja must belong to a different caste. It is only a matter of time before their suspicions harden into certainty and, outraged, they set about exacting their revenge. With spare, powerful prose, Murugan masterfully conjures a terrifying vision of intolerance in this devastating tale of innocent young love pitted against chilling savagery.
Goodreads: goodreads.com/user/show/61199102
Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/TheDiscoKing
Let me know what I should review next! Thanks for watching, and remember: just leave the village, lads.
#internationalbookerprize #bookerprize #pyre #books #booktube
