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2.25

This is a Book with a Missing Story. The blurb reads much better than the plot, which is meandering at its best. The book has a lot of elements:

�� Forbidden love with religious discord (Greek Christian and Turk Muslim)
�� Forbidden love (gay couple)
�� Clashes between Greeks and Turks in Cypriot (civil wars)
�� Life as a first-gen immigrant
�� Life of a second-gen teen immigrant cut off from her roots
�� Signs of global warming
�� Mass deaths and mass graves
�� Mosquitoes and malaria
�� Trees and types and emotions��
�� Lessons in botany with a bit of zoology thrown in
�� Lessons in history
�� Lessons in feminism and progressive whatever
�� Philosophical musings and excessive preaching
�� Translated proverbs (will talk about it later)
�� Food and culture, rituals and culture, superstitions and culture
�� Alcoholism and mental health issues
�� Bullying at school
�� Colonialism and the British role in the conflict

No phew here, as I’m sure I missed a few others. Imagine packing all of this into a 360+ page book. It could still work. But what do we get here? A philosophical encyclopedia, aka the fig tree. Remembering the themes in the book was akin to searching for a tiny drumstick (not your chicken) in a bucket of sambar. Yeah, almost impossible.

The book is filled with lyrical prose, which does nothing for the plot or the characters. There is no character arc. Some questions are never answered. And to top it all, we have Meryem to do the typical Turkish ‘superstitious�� and ‘outdated�� rituals.

One thing I hate about Indian authors writing for a global audience is how they stereotype and make fun of their own culture. While things aren’t that bad here (or maybe they are), I couldn’t ignore finding similarities. I still fail to understand why the scenes with Djinn and Djinn master were necessary except to add something exotic and present a progressive next-gen teen. As if the scenes until then didn’t establish this very detail.

Dafne’s depression and alcoholism are brushed under the carpet. Ada’s viral video and bullying get resolved without them doing anything about it. Meryem waltzes in and out, repeating how Ada looks just like her mother. Just when I thought her character was gaining depth, it goes off track and disappears.

And, I really want to know which genius came up with the idea to fling translated proverbs at unsuspecting readers. There’s a reason proverbs are native to each culture and language. They come from cultural history and have significance within the context. The language fits a meter and has a natural rhythm. Translating them to English is like eating fig pizza (please don’t tell me it’s a thing!).

Now, the saddest part is that I love the premise. I also learned about the conflict in Cypriot and its painful history. BUT�� I don’t want to read pages and pages that read like Wikipedia. I love my plants, but I don’t want to read about them when I’m looking for a story about people. I’d rather read non-fiction (some of it would be more interesting, I’m sure).

There is NO magic realism in this book. A fig tree talking to the readers is not magic. A fig tree talking to birds, mosquitoes, and ants is not really magic when the sole purpose is to share the information with the reader. An omnipresent narrator would do the same without ramblings and unnecessary fluff. And that ending. Ugh!

Finally, I’m not sure about this as I have zero knowledge, but something about the entire presentation of the conflict feels off. It doesn’t appear as impartial or balanced as it looks. It’s more of an instinct at this point.

I know I’m a minority here, but I have to say it. The book needed to be pruned and pruned to get rid of all the moral preaching and musings of the fig tree to focus on human characters. Oh, I had to speed-read to survive the book.