TITLE: When We Talk About A Place
GENRE: Adult Historical Fiction
‘When We Talk About A Place’ begins in 1749 colonial French enclave in India. The 205-year narrative spans eight generations. Six Hindu, Muslim and Christian family plots intertwine caste, community, religion and politics. They reveal touching intricate webs, tensile strengths and terrible weaknesses of India. There is deceit, murder, oppression and gritty elements of rural life. This saga also spotlights the classical cultural world of the Tamil people.
Your setting sounds very intriguing. I feel like I'm wishing for something more specific to grab onto to get a better idea of the story. Who is a character, what do they want, and what is the conflict keeping them from having it? And, how are all those extensive threads covering so many people and years connected?
ReplyDeleteThis is an overview of your novel's subject matters. You need to pitch the character's and their goals.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Holly
This sounds intriguing, but unfortunately it's not a pitch. A pitch would focus on a character and his/her/their conflicts.
ReplyDeleteLorr / Holly /Emma it is a 205-year narrative span featuring six families and eight generations. With many characters spanning the time frame and so i had to write the pitch as above.
ReplyDeleteIt is 1749, in the tenth year of French colonial rule in the small enclave of Karaikal located on the south eastern Indian coast. Marudhamma Rudhira is told that her father who worked for the French was killed. Thereafter, a series of events catapults her through this narrative until she dies aged 103. However, she is the POV character in only a few early chapters. Many others play major roles, soon moving to the side-lines or going offstage. Early in the narration, Vanangamudi Andavar rapes Marudhamma and her teenage son kills him. The Rudhira and Andavar families take prominent roles in this saga.
After Marudhamma’s son kills Vanangamudi, they escape to Tharangambadi, the nearby Danish settlement, where they live for the next 26 years. Her son travels to the Nicobar Islands, colonised by Denmark. It is from Nicobar that his grandson reaches Karaikal in 1810. Forced to kill Tipu Sultan’s general this grandson (who becomes a family legend) flees Karaikal, never to return, except to send a letter in 1833.
The upper caste Iyer family are landlords and lawyers. One such lawyer suffers ignominy, drawn to defend a member of Marudhamma’s family.
The Portuguese-Indian Gomez family appear next on the scene. Unlike the Eurasians in British India, the mixed races in the French territories played prominent roles in governance.
In 1854, Marudhamma’s progeny Boominathan is shanghaied onto a labour ship to La Réunion. A descendent of his returns to Karaikal exactly a hundred years later, just as the French prepare to leave India.
The returning progeny and the reoccurrence of artefacts like a rudhraksha rosary, a flintlock pistol, as well as references to couple of banyan and neem trees, and three houses all weave the narrative together. Throughout the narrative, a demolished temple that made way for a church prompts dark deeds and darker thoughts amongst a section of the Andavars. This continues, until one of them in 1875 reconsiders these thoughts, while listening to the secular discourse of a French scholar. He decides to build a temple to assuage the long standing Andavar angst. The clan members fulfil this wish only in 1954.
While the trading Muslim Marrakayars feature early in the saga, the upper caste Pillais appear much later in the narration. Amidst these six families, Christians show up amongst all castes. All of these people pull and tug within the fabric of Karaikal society, while learning to live peaceably, as they go through the happenings of the times.
This narrative is peppered with cultural motifs and activities, historical events and some real-life characters. This saga is also an account of Karaikal where six rivers and the sea play prominent roles in much of the happenings through more than two hundred years of French rule.
What’s the main conflict running through all generations? Focus on that, because right now it doesn’t have stakes or goals. Just details.
ReplyDeleteThank you DawnRaeMiller. Here are changes made, as pointed by you:
ReplyDeleteIt is 1749, in the tenth year of French colonial rule in the small enclave of Karaikal located on the south eastern Indian coast. Fifteen-year-old Marudhamma Rudhira finds out about the death of her father who worked for the French. Thereafter, a series of events catapults her through the account until she dies aged 103.
Early in the story, we see Marudhamma’s son kill Vanangamudi Andavar for raping her. The Rudhira and Andavar families are the two prominent families in this saga. In the course of the story, an innocuous demolition of a temple making way for a church prompts dark deeds and darker thoughts of revenge among a section of the Andavars.
After Marudhamma’s son kills Vanangamudi, they escape to Tharangambadi, the Danish settlement near by, where they live for the next 26 years. Her son travels to the Nicobar Islands, colonised by Denmark. It is from Nicobar that his grandson reaches Karaikal in 1810. Forced to kill Tipu Sultan’s general, this grandson (who becomes a family legend) flees Karaikal never to return, except to send a letter in 1833.
The upper caste Iyer family are landlords and lawyers. One such lawyer suffers ignominy, drawn to defend a member of Marudhamma’s family.
The Portuguese-Indian Gomez family appear next on the scene. Unlike the Eurasians in British India, the mixed races in the French territories play prominent roles in governance.
While the trading Muslim Marrakayars feature early in the story, the upper caste Pillais appear much later. Amidst these six families, Christians show up amongst all castes. All of these people pull and tug within the fabric of Karaikal society.
To better deal with the 205-year narrative span featuring six families and eight generations, this saga is told in episodic chapters.
Shanghaied onto a labour ship in 1854, Boominathan a progeny of Marudhamma reaches La Réunion in the Indian Ocean. A descendent of Boominathan’s returns to Karaikal exactly a hundred years later, just as the French prepare to leave India.
Returning progeny, appearance of a letter from the runaway grandson and the re-occurrence of artefacts like a rudhraksha (Hindu rosary), a flintlock pistol, as well as references to banyan and neem trees, and three houses all weave together the various strands of this account.
Fulminations about the demolished temple continue, until in 1875, one of the Andavars, while listening to a secular discourse of a French scholar, reconsiders these thoughts. He decides to build a temple to assuage the long standing Andavar angst. Due to many hindrances, building of the temple only takes place 79 years later, just as the French are about to leave India in 1954.
Cultural motifs and activities, historical events and some real-life characters pepper the whole narrative. This account is also about Karaikal too; the place where six rivers and the sea play prominent roles in much of the happenings through more than two hundred years of French rule.