Good as Bad, or Bad as Good as Bad as ...

This was one of those books. I started it, put it down, started it... I don't know - somehow I had a hard time getting started. The title of this book is the tale of the book also! The story is disguised as a pretty chick story, maybe even a story for teenagers, but Rajeev Balasubramanyam weaves a poignant tale that left me thinking about the turns my own life has taken, and left me wanting to know how our heroine's life turned out! In my mind's eye, I see Balasubramanyam sitting in his study reading Frost's The Road Less Taken and finding himself writing a story of a young girl following her own roads. Hmmm, sounds a little corney, but I suppose it works. Anyway...

In Beautiful Disguises is an odd, open-ended book. The narrator describes events and conversations, but she remains mystified by most of what goes on around her. She lets herself be carried along, come what may. Only with the first arranged marriage does she put her foot down, refusing to accept what others have decided for her. (Given what is later learned about her intended it proves to be a very wise choice, though she gets little credit for that.)

The narrator experiences life almost by happenstance. Guileless, she is also peculiarly empty. Her longings are unclear, and rarely does she act purposefully or with much determination. Her first attempt to run away is feeble, and only when everything is done for her (by the kindly grandfather) is there any hope of at least short-lived success. Even becoming an actress seems only a hazy dream, not a true ambition.

The tone of the novel is also an odd one, as she recounts almost whatever seems to come to mind. Ultimately, however, it does ring true as the voice of this peculiar character.

In Beautiful Disguises also presents an odd picture of India. It is, in part, satire. The overbearing Mrs. Marceau is almost entirely a caricature, while some of the other characters are finely drawn and sympathetic. Some of the things that happen are too exaggerated, but by and large Balasubramanyam can get away with them. Still, In Beautiful Disguises seems largely the work of someone not intimately familiar with India -- a book by an outsider, with only a selective experience of it. Which actually doesn't work all that badly, given the narrator, who also is not quite grounded in the reality of that particular (or any) world.

I just read what I wrote above and it may sound like I didn't care too much for the book, but that just isn't the case. SEE! Even my review is a disguise! This book is artfully deceptive and is a curious and an oddly winning fiction, frustrating at times - especially in its aimlessness (culminating in a wide open ending) -- but seen simply as a novel (and not, say, specifically as a commentary on life in India) it is an interesting, thought-provoking effort - or is it?