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...topic,Freedom Songinvestigates the complex relationships of two families whose patriarchs are brothers. Chaudhuri's snapshot technique works against him in his attempt to create art from this cobweb of genealogical entanglements. He jumps from character to character without ever presenting the full picture. This confuses an already befuddled reader who has enough trouble sorting out the foreign names of the members of the families. Unlike the first novel where Chaudhuri acts as a benevolent guide, this story assumes a knowledge of Indian marriage matchmaking rituals and cultural customs that the lay reader simply does not possess...
While Chaudhuri's lyrical, descriptive passages are a refreshing change from the ready-made, movie script-like popular fiction of Elmore Leonard or Sidney Sheldon, he overstays his welcome by dragging out this style for over 400 pages. The reader becomes bewildered by the barrage of foreign names of the characters, especially in the last story where relationships amongst them are never clearly explicated. Even more puzzling is the reason for stringing the three novels in one giant volume in the first place. No solid connection among the stories is ever made, despite the obvious presence of an Indian protagonist...
From the start one expects something impressive: written by a Romanian-born poet, essayist and English professor whose last novel,The Blood Countess,was a national bestseller, Messiah promises to stun the reader. The dust jacket insists that "mordant social commentary and incandescent characters" lie within. A short plot summary instantly intrigues. And so one has every reason to expect a marvel between the covers of Messiah. Unfortunately, one has just as many reasons to be disappointed...
...characters. Each is drawn with complexity, such that each of their actions creates further dept. None are either wholly likable or wholly unlikable, and as Fear switches from viewpoint to viewpoint and situation to situation characters become more and then less appealing. Much of the time, for example, the reader is likely to sympathize with Anna. Yet when Spanidou's narrative takes on Val's, the mother's or the father's perspective, it is more difficult to sympathize with Anna...
This creates a sense of distance between the reader and the characters as characters are more fully revealed, their perspectives seem increasingly separated, and the reader's viewpoint becomes even more remote...