Can’t is Shinie Antony’s latest offering. The story is set in a series of unnamed small towns which could be anywhere in India. One of the two main protagonists, Nena, is both rustic and polished, knowledgeable as well as naïve, a virgin as well as one extremely knowledgeable about men, in particular her unfaithful husband, someone who attends glamorous soirees with her husband when she is not at home, waiting for her husband to return. An experienced Antonian, I was only mildly startled whenever Antony threw a googly, such as when Nena says that she’s allergic to water and swallows water capsules instead of drinking water.
Tata, not his real name, is the other protagonist. A perfect counterfoil to Nena, Tata is as silent as Nena is loud, young unlike Nena who is in her seventies. After the initial pleasantries for the reader have been concluded, Nena, who derives masochistic pleasure in describing her husband’s voyeurisms to her friends, decides to track down all of her late husband’s past lovers and takes Tata along with her. They travel from place to place, meet various kinds of people and have many unrealistic adventures along the way. Towards the end, Tata finds out what can’t be. I’ll let you read Can’t and figure it out for yourself.
The best thing about Antony’s world is that it is non-judgemental, but, like any other world-class raconteur, Antony keeps observing and observing, making sharp and incisive comments all the while. We are told that ‘Nena’s tales of her husband’s adultery affected women two ways-one type of woman who sees herself as the wife and takes sides, one type of woman identifies with the other woman and stays to hear how it ends.’ Tata tells us that his ‘own mother was neither; all she wanted to do was to borrow a bit of Nena’s sass, her boldness, bask in her rebellion.’ In Antony-land, conversations are always kept on an even keel even when the topic of discussion isn’t from one from a run-of-the mill living room. For example, when her unfaithful husband tells Nena that a girl he knows has got herself pregnant, she doesn’t ask who the girl is. The husband goes on to tell her that the girl is from a conservative family and ‘the boy who plucked her like a ripe grape’ wont marry her and the girl’s parents would kill her if they found out. So, Nena delivers the girl to an airless ultra-bright chamber, places thick bundles of cash on the doctor’s desk and waits for the job to be done so that she can get the girl home. When things don’t go as planned, Nena finds herself worrying about her husband, his blood pressure and nerves, mentally noting that ‘girls who danced too close to the flames would be moth sooner or later.’
Antony is an acquired taste, one definitely worth acquiring. And as a seasoned Antonian, I’ve learnt to expect the unexpected, to enjoy the sudden drop and to even enjoy the somersault. I found in Can’t most of the things that I have learnt to expect from Antony and some more. For all Antony fans out there, Can’t is a must-read and for those who haven’t read Antony before, it’s definitely a taste worth acquiring. Go on, have your first pint and you will learn to enjoy Antony.
Here are my reviews of Shinie Antony’s previous books:
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