The Distaste of the Earth by Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih - Book Review

Publication Date: 20th May 2024

Genre: Historical Fantasy

3.5 Stars

One Liner: Informative but missing something vital

A loose retelling of the love story of Manik Raitong and Lieng Makaw acts as the central point to weave a multitude of tales about people, community, culture, and nature in the Khasi region.

Set in the past, the book brings together various socio-cultural, interpersonal, and earthly elements woven with an array of emotions.

The story comes in the third-person POV.

My Thoughts:

Unfortunately, not many of us know a lot about the cultural history and lore of the Northeastern part of India. So, when I saw this was based on a real story from the region, I searched for the original (links at the end). The actual story is quite small, so the 400+ page count here resulted in many questions.

The author’s note at the beginning establishes the expectations from the book. He mentions that the book is more of a presentation of the ancient Khasi world with people and nature at its center. This helped adjust my expectations. I realized it would read like a collection of interconnected stories that make sense only when together.

The omnipresent third-person POV acts as the storyteller’s voice, providing information about the local customs, rituals, conditions, etc. For someone who knew almost nothing about the setting (those 3-4 episodes of food shows don’t count), this detailing provided a wealth of knowledge. There are a few triggers, but none of these events are detailed.

There’s a liberal use of local terms and phrases, and translation provided alongside. This may or may not work for everyone. I like it since it brings authenticity to the English narrative. (It’s only in recent times I realized how hard it is to present regional stories in English. The feeling is just not the same without the presence of native words.)

However, the dialogues are a bit jarring. They are a strange combination of modern-day terms, semi-translation, and a sort of ancient vibe. It took more than a while to get used to this blend.

The beginning is slow as expected. There is a lot to know and new characters are introduced often. Moreover, the main lead is nothing more than a random character until the first 150+ pages (part one). We spend all our time reading about others.

The setting, Hima Mokkhiew, is a village in Nongboh of Ri Bhoi. The geographical elements are described on the first page. However, a map would have done a better job. All those routes, hills, forest lands, and flat lands in different directions can get confusing without a visual representation. [The Khasi lands are spread over Meghalaya and a part of Assam as well as Bangladesh (the neighboring country).]

We finally get to our MMC’s story, and it presents a range of social and political situations. However, right when the plot thickens, we end up with ~60 pages of stories about animals by animals. I didn’t mind the first two or three stories but then my interest level crashed to the lowest. These went on for too long and pulled me out of the mood. I’d have preferred for the tales to be spread across the book instead of being dumped together. That way, we would have also seen the MMC’s past in tiny flashbacks.

At last, the core love story begins… but ends up in a few pages! While I appreciate the backstories provided for the characters and the foundation for their love, I wanted more. We see two or three scenes of the couple interacting before there’s a time jump and drama begins. The actual part of their ‘love’ is not even shown. If only the other stories were trimmed to make space for at least another 10 pages of their interactions!

The ending brings the different threads together and provides the necessary conclusions for each track. A little more about Nem would have helped.

To summarize, The Distaste of the Earth has much to teach about the ancient Khasi culture while exploring the basic human traits and the power of love. However, I cannot help but wish for a better focus on the true and tragic love story that inspired this book.

Thank you, Blogchatter and Penguin, for a copy of the book. This review is powered by the Blogchatter Book Review Program and contains my honest opinion about the book. 

You can buy the paperback of The Distaste of the Earth from Amazon.

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More about the Original:

The love story of Manik and Lieng is famous in the Khasi Lands even today. A movie was made on this (Manik Raitong, 1984) and was the first color film in Khasi. Speak Your Roots has shared a post about the original story with pictures of the book (Ka Liengmakaw da Jespil Syiem).

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TW: Battle, plague, death, mentions of rape, beheadings, and alcoholism