Everything the Light Touches-Janice Pariat

Book: Everything the Light Touches
Author: Janice Pariat
Publisher: HarperCollins India

Have you come across a story that blurs the line between genres?

In Everything the Light Touches, we meet many travellers: Shai, a young Indian woman who journeys to India's northeast and rediscovers, through her encounters with indigenous communities, ways of living that realign and renew her. Evelyn, an Edwardian student at Cambridge who, inspired by Goethe's botanical writings, embarks on a journey seeking out the sacred forests of the Lower Himalayas. Linnaeus, botanist and taxonomist, who famously declared "God creates; Linnaeus organizes" and led an expedition to Lapland in 1732. And Goethe himself, who travelled through Italy in the 1780s, formulating his ideas for a revelatory text that called for a re-examination of our propensity to reduce plants - and the world - into immutable parts. Drawing richly from scientific ideas, the novel plunges into a whirl of ever-expanding themes, and the contrasts between modern India and its colonial past, urban life and the countryside, capitalism and centuries-old traditions of generosity and gratitude, script and "song and stone." At the heart of the book lies a tussle between different ways of seeing - those that fix and categorize, and those that free and unify. Everything the Light Touches brings together, with startling and playful novelty, people and places that seem, at first, removed from each other in time and place. Yet all is resonance, we discover; all is connection.

There are very few stories that can make you think beyond the book and see a world from a different lens, and this one does just that. The 4 stories are set across time and places and present a picture that is unique yet intimately connected through the thread of the idea of the world we live in. As I started reading the book and encountered Shai’s story, my mind started forming a notion of what the book could be, and then as I moved on to Evelyn’s story, it was a completely different frame, and that was something I really loved about the book, the fact that it tells you a story which is the characters’ own and uninhibited story of their being and their reason for following the light. Focusing on the aspect of nature and the quest of finding an enigma, each of the characters ultimately lead a journey that puts them on a journey where they rediscover themselves.

Janice’s storytelling is powerful and immersive, and even for a person who is not a botanist, the book would resonate in multiple places. There are snippets from the story that teach and some of them are so wonderful that will compel you to mark them, for some of them might just become a part of your life. The story is fluid and draws itself from the local stories to the writings of Linnaeus and Goethe and weaves something that stuns you. Another aspect of the book is that like a plant which has various visual differences, this story has incorporated in itself poetry, verse, folk tales, travelogues and other literary components which make it seem so alive. From Evie’s story, I loved the way Janice charts her journey and her quest to find something mythical, and the way the story ends with that question that puts her on a crossroad was something I fell in love with. Shai’s journey was equally wonderful and the manner in which we saw her story unfolds is interesting, and the last time we see her, it is quite hard to let go of her, and really had a hard time doing that. Goethe’s journey for me was full of emotions and the second time he comes back to Rome was the highlight for me. Carl’s part in the story is a free verse describing the journey of a botanist that is the middle part of the book, and is something that is truly central to the other three stories.

The message that Janice puts forth in this book is important, specially in the times we live in. The idea of taking only what we need is something we really need to imbibe in ourselves and our lives. Another concept I loved was that of leaving something behind when you take something from the nature. The idea of conservation and the concept of ownership explored in the story really grips you. The story with the Rooster was something I have never heard and that is one that made me smile, especially the way it unfolded. Another one that stood out for me was that of when they talk about contracts and how keeping one’s word is considered sacred.

The characters Janice brings to life in this book have a purpose and despite there being many, each of the character leaves their mark on your mind. So be it Shai in the contemporary times, or Evie in the Edwardian era, or Goethe and Carl before them, each of them charts their own path, and curiously the shift in the time is understood as the story is told and the years not expressly indicated.

I would really recommend the book to everyone and while it might seem like a big book, the story moves like a river, and once you are in it, you go where the flow takes you. While I really don’t have more than 5/5 to give to the book, this is the first book that inspired me and compelled me to use tabs to highlight my favorite sections, and that is I would recommend-keep something to highlight the pages, for they are magnetic and deserve to be highlighted and noted and reread.

Get a copy of the book on Amazon India or your nearest bookstore!