‘The Children of this Madness’: A saga of a son of the soil who goes from Bangladesh to USA

In Gemini Wahhaj’s novel The Children of this Madness, the protagonist is Nasir Uddin, an “everyman” whose life is portrayed in the novel from the point of view of his daughter Beena, through his own words, and, in some chapters, through a third-person narrative. All the other characters in the novel unfold the life of the central focus of the book, Nasir Uddin.

From the village to the world

Nasir Uddin, “Ketu” to his parents, uncles and aunts, and childhood friends, was born and raised in an agrarian village called Dari Binni in the Jessore district of Bangladesh. Alongside Uddin, Dari Binni is also a main character in Wahhaj’s storyline. This is where the protagonist grows up, and the novel ends in the same village.

The rural Bengal portrayed through the description of the village can only be compared to the rural Bengal I have seen (as a person born and brought up in a small Bangladesh town) through the pens of the three Bandyopadhyays: Bibhutibhushan, Tarashankar and Manik. While reading Wahhaj’s description of the village in English, I wonder at her successful portrayal of a Bangladeshi village in a foreign tongue. Wahhaj’s observant eyes and her command of the language are immensely helpful here, and her narrative...

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