I dedicated this review to Dr. Wilailuck Saraithong, my first mother in my country
I name the title of this review "old is precious" because the repetitions about something people won’t give up are made many in this books like "America is new like a heart breath", "Ravin’s native american ancestors and his longing to retain the sense of the utterance from his grandfather", or the the old First mother.
The reason why I turn to the book after the movie is that my former teacher always blames us, the young generation of not taking book seriously.
It is partly true that the young people like me will look for a book after watching the movie. It might simply because we like to consume something real quick and (something that has already been reduced and digested.
I consider my teacher my" First mother". I think she would say" Some learned little, but thought they have learned more", the same thing the first mother told tilo. What I am trying to say and connect my teacher with the old mother is that the old one knows more than what it taste like!!!!
They render things to the next generation. However, things change in the diffent context of time and space....The book is somewhat different from the movie. For example, tilo pick the name of the most beautiful angel. Then, the movie overlooked some violent part of the story, like the guy who lost his eyes and had to go back to India. Doug was actually Raven.
I don’t think the movie showed enough mystery.This text somewhat blames immigrant of never have enough, always need more from the world. To read it as a women’s text ( other novels of Banerjee are also focused on Women) , I feel that America is a place where women can transform themselve and express themselve more. Tilo herself was always afraid of breaking rules, at the end she still follows the rule of being a mistress, I don’t know if we could say that this text cannot escape from the same old structure or not.
The way she depicted is that Women’s identity is a secondary Identity, that’s why she said Mr...’s wife, not the name of the girl herself. Another thing, the girls remained nameless while they were on training in the Island.Tilo has a power complex, I guess.....To gain the power to see and use the magic, Tilo lost her own desires...
Whenever she choose to follow her desires, she lost the power.....It’s strange that the Young Tilo enjoy being the head of the pirate and continued being a pirate for years. Another thing is that this mistress is obsessed with "whiteness" ( but anyway, Raven is not completely white). the way she narrated how pale the baby is....
I think Tilo changes after she stepped outside the store and she let the people that the First mother would consider to step in her store...Comparing the the real life in the Bay Area, people are atually quite open with the immigrants but you know American people always believe in the neigborhood stuff, that’s why BART cannot go to the rich people’s area as they believe that BART train brings poor people in....
What people do is trying to negotiate and compromise what should be an "Identity", Geeta remains virgin and not moving out until her grandpa tried to marry her off to India..
I felt that the way Tilo burnt herself is somewhat like the purification of old Indian epict, to prove that she has a pure heart, that’s why the main ideology of the story is " Old is precious"....
Next time, I would write about " Wife" from the same novelist...^_^