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Ashes for the Elephant God |
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 Ashes for the Elephant God byVijaya Schartz Blue Planet Books 328 pages, February 2000 ISBN1930501005 Reviewed by Morgan Ann Adams A series of eerie coincidences leads Fabienne to leave France for India, where she will fulfill her brother's dying wish by scattering his ashes over the Narmada River. Plagued her entire life with fiery dreams of passion and death, Fabienne finds solace in Hindu monastic life. When Fabienne meets Mukunda, an American engineer working in India, she realizes her dreams are simply memories of a past life with Mukunda. The couple is haunted by the reincarnated form of the Queen who murdered them in their previous existence. This combined with a dangerous flood, a jungle fire, and a reincarnated elephant create a complicated web of existence, spanning centuries. Schartz has crafted a passionate novel exploring the differences between love and lust, faith and deception. In the world created by Ashes for the Elephant God, time is a fluid concept, trading scenes of Fabienne's present existence with exerpts of her past life. The author eases the complexity of the story by presenting only two of the surely hundreds of lives led by Fabienne and Mukunda. Schartz's writing prowess is best exemplified by the scenes portraying the couple's previous life. In those portions, the Indian jungle comes alive through fantastic third person narration. The characters existing in the present day are given greater depth and meaning through the portrayal of their past selves. Often I was disheartened to return to the present, where Fabienne's modern life is described in the first person. This change of narration was sometimes jarring, showing off Schartz's better grasp of descriptive writing rather than following Fabienne's thoughts. Though sexually charged, the modern day story offered less appeal than the murderous, jungle saturated story of the past. Very much the Western approach to the Indian experience, Ashes for the Elephant God offers an unusual perspective on this fascinating culture. All three of the main characters are from Western cultures (France, America and Australia) in their present reality, creating a scenario where each character desperately searches for belonging in the culture of a past life. It is an interesting concept, successfully harnessing the power that the Indian culture seems to have on many Westerners. This novel is as much a love story between Schartz and India as it is between Fabienne and Mukunda. Ashes for the Elephant God is an artful, magnificent offering to the world of fiction, deserving of a loyal audience. |
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