The Seduction of Silence

Rating:
Summary: Pleasant enough story with memorable characters
Review: "The Seduction of Silence" portrays five generations of an Indian family and their search for spiritual enlightenment and domestic happiness. Although the novel opens (and, in a sense, closes) with Aakash, the family patriarch, the story focuses on the women--their occasional happiness, their common misery, and their fate. Aakash's wife, Jyoti Ma, begins a tradition that repeats itself with each generation: through selfishness and pride and naivete, she drives the members of her family away. This theme continues with her daughter, Tulsi Devi, granddaughter, Rohini, and great-granddaughter, Saakshi. With each generation, too, the men are basically absent: they either leave the family in search of mystical awakening or become aloof or tyrannical husbands who alienate their children.

The first part of the novel, set in a Himalayan Eden, reads like an allegory, in prose reminiscent of magic realism. As the story progresses, however, and the setting changes to Delhi and then to London, the tone gradually becomes less magical and more realist. The effectiveness of this technique is decidedly mixed, especially because the novel is fairly short for a multi-generational epic. The first section works in spite of its brevity; the "fairy tale" of Aakash and Jyoti Ma and their children is enchanting without being sentimental. But, once the family moves to the squalor and the bustle of India and England urban centers, the story feels rushed, the details seem random, and the author allows increasingly less time for the reader to "get to know" the members of each succeeding generation. Furthermore, the melodramatic (and somewhat expected) climax, which briefly recalls the fairy-tale imagery of the first part of the novel, is too forced to be remotely believable.

Through it all, each generation seeks comfort in different beliefs, from Hindu mysticism to 1960's hippie culture to Anglo-American spiritualism to yoga meditation. The philosophical motif that links each generation's seeking (the oft-repeated phrase "everything happens for a reason") is a bit corny--particularly because it's never clear what the reason is--but since the characters (and the author) skeptically disparage each other's beliefs (there's even a mocking reference to the "Arthur Conan Doyle Room" for seances), the story avoids being preachy.

The "Seduction of Silence," then, is far too simple and (even at 400 pages) brief for the many complex themes it tackles. Still, Le Hunte has written a captivating and pleasant debut effort that ultimately succeeds because of its involving story and all-too-human characters.

Rating:
Summary: The Seduction of Fairy Tales
Review: "The Seduction of Silence," is an easy book to read, quite involving, and 2/3's good. As you've read, it's a multigenerational saga, and though the author distances herself from the Indian slant, it is, through and through, a novel of India.

Bem Le Hunte places her story in rural India - the villages of the Himalayan region - and in that aspect as well as in the gentleness of the spirituality portrayed, it's unlike the seething urban dramas we've gotten used to. It's also quite connected to the "Ramayana," and a reader who knows that story will find many parallels in the wanderings of Aakash and Ram with Ram, Sita, and Lakshman. The primary spiritual lesson is "god will provide," and in this story god does provide - through thick and thin.

Ms. Le Hunte has a good feel for class, caste, character, and Hindu cosmology and though the novel is a bit on the "fairy tale" side I found the reality to be grounded enough to keep the story on track. She runs into difficulty when the venue shifts from village India to the hippie London of the 1960's. Her grasp of the milieu seems much less sure, and the story seems to suffer for being rushed; and though she provides us with a touching conclusion, it's a little too "deus ex machina," to be completely sasifying.

Even so, I recommend this book for its understanding of how the myths play out in daily life, and for an entertaining read.

Rating:
Summary: The Seduction of Fairy Tales
Review: "The Seduction of Silence," is an easy book to read, quite involving, and 2/3's good. As you've read, it's a multigenerational saga, and though the author distances herself from the Indian slant, it is, through and through, a novel of India.

Bem Le Hunte places her story in rural India - the villages of the Himalayan region - and in that aspect as well as in the gentleness of the spirituality portrayed, it's unlike the seething urban dramas we've gotten used to. It's also quite connected to the "Ramayana," and a reader who knows that story will find many parallels in the wanderings of Aakash and Ram with Ram, Sita, and Lakshman. The primary spiritual lesson is "god will provide," and in this story god does provide - through thick and thin.

Ms. Le Hunte has a good feel for class, caste, character, and Hindu cosmology and though the novel is a bit on the "fairy tale" side I found the reality to be grounded enough to keep the story on track. She runs into difficulty when the venue shifts from village India to the hippie London of the 1960's. Her grasp of the milieu seems much less sure, and the story seems to suffer for being rushed; and though she provides us with a touching conclusion, it's a little too "deus ex machina," to be completely sasifying.

Even so, I recommend this book for its understanding of how the myths play out in daily life, and for an entertaining read.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent first novel, excellent novel period
Review: I am always delighted in finding new fiction that is both entertaining and that it gives the reader several views of culturally rich characters and location.
After hearing Bem le Hunte read and share some excerpts from the book I am eagerly awaiting her second novel and I am recommending
The Seduction of Silence to many of my friends.
The combination of an almost perfect character, an inperfect wife, the trials of their offsprings and the beautiful setting in which the story develops make this book a favorite that has been well received abroad and finally comes to the US.

Rating:
Summary: This isn't a book about India
Review: The novel is a saga of an Indian family that spans four generations. Aakash is the spiritual founder of Prakriti, a fertile farm in the Himalayas. Despite a loveless marriage to Jyoti Ma, Aakash sires two children, a boy, Ram, and a girl, Tulsi Devi. Ram leaves home for the hills when young; Tulsi Devi goes to a convent school to study. Due to terrible circumstances, she instead has a baby boy, Jivan, and is forced in to a marriage with Colonel Chopra. Their child, Rohini, leaves for England in the '60's with an English beatnik. Saakshi, Rohini's daughter, brings the saga squarely back home as she returns to Prakriti to have her child there.

Hunte has suggested, in a recent interview, that her novel could be classified in the "spiritual realism" genre. She is yet another author who claims that her book is not really "Indian" while constantly leaning on Indian spiritual mysticism to make it different. Remove the mumbo-jumbo, however, and all you have left is an ordinary, occasionally spicy saga on your hands.

Most of the events in The Seduction of Silence are unrealistic. Hunte also delves into the Hinduism bin at the drop of a hat. In the beginning, Aakash lets go of his young (six year old?) son into the woods seemingly for ever with the son telling him: "God will provide and so far we have never gone without our needs being met." Spiritual this may be, realistic it ain't. About the only time that The Seduction of Silence gets believable is when Saakshi arrives, towards the end. Her quest for her roots seems believable probably because "many details of Saakshi," as Hunte says, "were lived rather than imagined."

Spirituality and fatalism are surely a part of India but Hinduism in India is more a way of life. One does not stay in motels and have aghoris (worshippers of Kali who eat their meals out of human skulls) knock on our doors, as Hunte would have us believe; the spirituality in India is much more subtle.

Many in India have objected to such "mystical" portrayals of the country and for good reason. Very often, the line between myth and reality is blurred. Books like The Seduction of Silence only serve to reinforce unfortunate stereotypes of India as a "mystical land filled with chanting mendicants."

Rating:
Summary: Five generations of social commentary
Review: The thread of a search for spirituality wends its way through The Seduction of Silence, India-born Bem Le Hunte's lovely book that spans the years of English influence in India. The writing in this book is as glorious as the background upon which it is based. There is a mystical quality in both the story and the prose that is not unusual in the works of Indian authors, but Le Hunte, now based in Sydney, Australia, seems to have her feet planted in Western reality even as she wiggles her toes in Eastern philosophy. Her story deals with five generations within a family, couplings that are sure to end in disaster when East meets West through intermarriage.
A social commentary within a novel.

Rating:
Summary: Uplifting and enlightening
Review: This book is so beautifully written and I was incredibly inspired after reading it. If you love writers such as Isabel Allende, Coelho, or anything that really explores the depths of human experience along with travel, mystery and adventure then you will truly love this read.