{"id":104091,"date":"2025-08-23T11:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T11:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/104091\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T11:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T11:04:10","slug":"burns-boy-by-krupa-ge-observes-the-debilitating-effects-of-time-and-ageing-on-familial-discord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/104091\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Burns Boy\u2019 by Krupa Ge observes the debilitating effects of time and ageing on familial discord"},"content":{"rendered":"

Krupa Ge\u2019s newest novel, Burns Boy<\/a>, starts on a sinister note \u2013 a 15-year-old boy lies all wound up in a hospital burns ward. He\u2019s the only male in a female-dominated room \u2013 women burnt because of dowry harassments, or by jilted lovers, or those who have who set themselves on fire to end their miserable lives. It creates a rip in the universe when Guru ends up there. How did a boy, so young at that, get licked by the flame?<\/p>\n

Guru\u2019s angst, which at first feels like a symptom of his teenage, is thoroughly directed at his mother. He\u2019s angry with her for not saving him in time, for \u201cshowing off\u201d her good health, and blames her for the father who\u2019s never home. His mother claims she\u2019s always at the hospital, but he barely sees her either. \u201cShe was overly friendly with everyone but her children,\u201d grumbles Guru. And now, he\u2019s convinced that his mother wants him dead \u2013 the fire could not kill him, but her apathy just might.<\/p>\n

His younger sister Aparna is more of a roommate than a confidante. She drops in with her mother, but there is no real camaraderie between the siblings. Each seems to hanker for the mother\u2019s attention while resenting her in their own unique ways.<\/p>\n

With or without<\/p>\n

What of the mother, then? An assistant clerk, she prides herself on having a government job. She can look after herself, her children, and her elderly mother. She is always hot and bothered \u2013 the blistering heat of Chennai and two surly children make matters worse. She\u2019s not blind to their resentment: \u201cIf you cannot bear the thought of someone hating you for some time, if not most times, I suggest not having kids at all.\u201d <\/p>\n

She recalls the early days with her babies, a time of great suffering and reluctant sacrifices. But unlike babies who have no memory, the mother bears her in silence, broken and beaten by circumstances that simply seem beyond control. The absence of these memories, Ge writes, is \u201cthe [mother\u2019s] curse and the [child\u2019s] blessing.\u201d When the mother relives memories of wanting to be run over by a bus so that she could slip into \u201ceternal sleep\u201d, one suspects that this is more than just postpartum exhaustion.<\/p>\n

The mother\u2019s route to this moment has been long, convoluted, and extraordinary. The stuff of royal scandals for any Indian town, she matter-of-factly recalls how she met her \u201chusband\u201d and the conventions she defied to have the life she wanted. There is something to be said about her own mother, who, though privately disapproving, stood by her daughter when no one else did. However, what the mother considers a happy marriage, the couple comfortable with the silence and distance between them, is judged harshly by the children. <\/p>\n

At 15, Guru is somewhat wise to the ways of the world \u2013 he lashes out at his sister for discovering his secrets and spares no opportunity to insult his mother. In his eyes, his mother is his father\u2019s \u201csecond something\u201d, and she has forced him into a \u201cgross, indecent arrangement.\u201d Both times he brings up the women\u2019s \u201chonour\u201d, fully aware of the word\u2019s loadedness, and in the process, budding into a misogynist.<\/p>\n

In this house<\/p>\n

While Guru burns in anger and bitterness, his sister stews in neglect. She is \u201cstranded\u201d with nobody on her side \u2013 her mother has her absent father, and Guru has their ever-present grandmother. Love and acceptance are scarce in their house. The grandmother is fearful of the father abandoning them, the mother does not know her children, and the two young siblings live in a constant state of shame. This arrangement, which helps nobody, imposes on the children that they are \u201cweird\u201d and certainly \u201cimmoral\u201d, and definitively concluding that the father was the \u201coriginator\u201d of the group\u2019s shame.<\/p>\n

The mother too exists in a dual state \u2013 harassed by her children yet fiercely independent in her desires. A prolific writer, everything in life finds its way into her stories. Not cowed down by age or her judgmental children, she decides to mend things with her past \u2013 resulting in monumental consequences.<\/p>\n

Burns Boy observes the debilitating effects of time and ageing on familial discord. Adulthood does little to salvage Guru and Aparna\u2019s pains, nor does it make them sympathetic to their mother\u2019s hardship. The antipathy is deeply set by the time they leave home, carrying with them memories of shame, neglect, and heartache. In this house, there is neither forgiveness nor reconciliation.<\/p>\n

Ge is fierce in her construction of a family hurtling at a dangerous speed to end up where it should strictly avoid going. The mother\u2019s revelation is discomfiting, the boy\u2019s anger is unsettling, and the girl\u2019s indifference is worrying. Every moment, something threatens to break, for the harshest words to tumble out. Ge precisely depicts the cruelty of children \u2013 their painfully unforgiving scrutiny and blistering castigation. <\/p>\n

In addition to the suffering of children in broken homes and unhappy marriages, Burns Boy also tries to understand how children, often unforgiving of mistakes, are indifferent to the parents\u2019 grief. The fall of the authority figure also disrupts a child\u2019s understanding of the family unit, its hierarchy \u2013 and instead of allowing the child to see the parent as an equal (which is possible in happy circumstances), creates a chasm that can neither be filled by filial love nor duty. So, when the mother cannot discipline her children into loving her and when the children do not fear hating the mother, what then remains of this essential bond? Burns Boy, with great nuance, attempts to answer this difficult question.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Burns Boy, Krupa Ge, Context\/Westland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Krupa Ge\u2019s newest novel, Burns Boy, starts on a sinister note \u2013 a 15-year-old boy lies all wound…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[24349,223,52929,69319,69320,69325,69322,88,69323,69324,69321],"class_list":["post-104091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-book-review","tag-books","tag-books-and-ideas","tag-burns-boy","tag-burns-boy-krupa-ge","tag-burns-boy-krupa-ge-review","tag-burns-boy-review","tag-entertainment","tag-krupa-ge","tag-krupa-ge-books","tag-krupa-ge-burns-boy-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}