I rate The Covenant of Water 1.8/5 ⭐ This one is on me, really. From the start, I didn't like it really, wasn’t engaged, but I kept reading, hoping it would improve or ||delve deeper into the cultural and societal norms that appeared in Parts 1 and 2. Instead, it turned into a slow, romanticized account of a 12-year-old girl’s marriage to a man more than three times her age-bleh. The pacing was sluggish, and each hint of an interesting theme, like the caste system, political movements, or the Condition, was brushed over. Religion was everywhere, overshadowing the actual medical achievements. I’ve read that Verghese mentioned in interviews he wasn’t aiming to engage these topics on a political level but rather to “tell a good story.” For me, though, that story didn’t work, it just wasn't good. . Look at other amazing family sagas (Pachinko, Homegoing and many more). I didn’t connect with any character, was chaotic, long and boring and overall, it was just not for me.
I appreciate that Digby did end up playing a role, and that his moving back to the leprosarium ended up being explained and made sense. Elsie's fate is very sad and not at all what I had expected. There were a couple places near the end of the book where the writing got a bit heavy-handed with "look! this is the theme! here it is! the covenant of water, see!" . In reading this book, I learned about myself that I prefer books with narrower scopes, where we spend more time with just one character and see their growth or change over the course of a few key events. But that's just a me thing, and it's a useful thing to know about my reading preferences.
Thinking about this a bit more, I'm honestly not sure how Elsie developing leprosy fits into the themes or events of the novel. The novel is about this family and their relationship with water, the way water both gives life and takes it, and the way the flowing of water symbolizes the inevitable passing of time. It's also about medical advancements and the way our knowledge of our physiology can change our understandings of ourselves and our families.
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