Book Name: The Bridal Pyre

 Author : Avantika Debnath

Reviewed by : Vignisha Ramachandran

Recently Supreme court passed a judgment that a husband can divorce a wife who tries to separate the son from her aged parents. Good judgment indeed... Great applause for the judgment in social, visual and print media. But have we analyzed why the wife wants and tries to separate the husband from his family? I request you to go through the novel “The Bridal Pyre” By Avantika Debnath. The novel fantastically portrays the true picture of a woman undergoing trauma and turmoil in her in law’s house. 

Meera , just like every woman in India, enters her matrimonial house with lot of dreams, leaving her family, friends, job. What does marriage gift her? A spineless husband who does not question his parents, who does not give her a shoulder to lean on and cry, whose pride does not allow the wife to go for a job as it will affect his family name if wife earns to make the family’s both ends meet, who still drives the wife to get money from father in law.... 
A mother in law who has illicit affair with her husband’s friend... who had killed her mother in law... who questions daughter in law for putting her legs on her husband(it calls for ill luck of the husband in her opinion) and separates the couple at night, who snatches all the jewels and money of the daughter in law still finds fault with her every action.... A father in law who is not capable of controlling his wife... who, to his share, tortures the daughter in law equally..... 

Meera still adjusts, adjusts, keeps on adjusting... She is the true picture of an Indian girl who hides her tears in her smile; who never lets her parents know the problems she is facing in her matrimonial house. She faces mental and physical agony in the house. The only person who wipes off her tears is Toffee, her dog. No human being is on her side. She loses her unborn child. But the most painful loss was her brain child, her novel which she had completed and sent to publishers. She becomes lifeless, still tries to adjust up to the point when she realizes that further adjustment will lead to her death. 

The first part deals with her suffering in her in-laws’ hands where the second part picturizes her struggle against the corrupt society. She runs every nook and corner in search of justice. Every single aspect of society slaps her and she keeps running. One or two honest people she meets, who, as well pushed down by the corrupt elements of the society. The novel clearly picturizes that justice is denied even for educated, modern Indian women.

The novel is not the story a single woman... A true picture of an Indian woman...A complete portrayal of a modern city woman..... There is no exaggeration anywhere in the novel. It is unbelievable that it is a debut novel. It looks like a novel written by an experienced novelist