A book review by Modhura Banerjee
Incandescence
Author: Mehreen Ahmed
No. of pages: 406
Published on June 7th, 2022
Incandescence written by Mehreen Ahmed is a parallel exploration into the conflicts and stasis of liberation offered by eternal love and sluggish boundaries of nuptial domesticity. Mila, Rahim, Papri, and Irfaan are Mehreen’s own versions of Tagore’s Labanya, Amit, Ketaki, and Shovonlal from his pathbreaking novel Sesher Kobita (The Last Poem) that has inspired the author in different phases of her adulting. Rahim And Mila, much like Tagore’s Amit and Labanya are star-crossed lovers, who redefine love by freeing it from the shackles of carnal domestic fulfillment which would in turn corrupt the purity, intensity, and incandescence of what they possessed. Their love was their only chance at eternal, infinite, rejuvenation within their limited mortal existence which they did not want to soil through matrimony. Therefore, they chose to marry different partners Papri and Irfaan, who were prosaic alternations of their poetic love. Papri, a sad orphan, victim to her own circumstance, having little choice but to accept the second position in her husband’s life, and Irfaan hopelessly trying to domesticate and match up to an undaunted spirit like Mila, both inevitably ending up in tragic isolation.
Mila is as strikingly iconoclastic as Labanya yet at times so fragile, vulnerable, and confused about her choice between accepting her love for Rahim or abiding by her duty as a wife to Irfaan, questioning the ethical boundaries that societal hegemony has taught her or accepting them stoically. Every choice and slip had its consequences, ensuing its own trail of tragedy, adding to the essence of Mila, taking her world by storm. Mila is guilt-ridden for her affection for Rahim due to her empathy for Papri, yet she indulges in his letters and finds validation in his love. Mila is terrified of waking up late and displeasing her in-laws yet somehow fathoms the courage to break away from a failing marriage that refuses to accept her individuality. It is the quirky women characters like Mrs. Chowdhury, Saima, and Rabeya that light up the world of Incandescence.
However, lines like, “She loved her life, she hated her life, she just didn’t know what to do with her life, her suffering purpled like the blooming jacarandas under silent, grey sky”— are where the true treasure of the book lies. It brilliantly demonstrates the skillful art of Mehreen Ahmed, her dexterity with rhetoric, her craftsmanship of language, and her fondness and familiarity with the soil of Dacca. Such beautiful and powerful expressions to communicate complex human emotions are indeed a rare find. The novel is strewn with poetical diction often used to depict the raw interplay of the human world with the nature-both in its vernal tides and withering winters. The trees, the sound of the azaan, the aroma of coffee, the fallen branches, the lakes, the rotting grass, and the changing seasons affect and predict the emotional landscape of humans.
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