Book Review: Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih, The Distaste of the Earth (2024) | Jobeth Ann Warjri

Named by The Conversation as one of the best books of 2024, Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih’s The Distaste of the Earth (2024) combines the mytho-poetic folk narrative of U Manik Raitong with contemporary reflections on love, politics, and society. In the context of Khasi folklore, U Manik Raitong is the archetypal figure of the muse, particularly of music and poetry and the creative arts.

Like the bard of Asterix fame, Cacofonix, Manik Raitong is at once a figure who is derided as well as one that is anachronistic—what he represents seems out of time for a world that is mired in greed, corruption, and anthropocentric views about nature and the environment (See Fig. 1). But while the figure of Cacofonix elicits laughter (even if in a wry, ironic fashion), U Manik Raitong evokes the opposite, steeped as his story is in tragedy. This is, however, unlike Greek tragedy, in which the hero’s unfortunate end is usually one that is destined through divine will.

Fig. 1: Cacofonix singing in Asterix the Gladiator (1988, 2004)

Nongkynrih has gone to great lengths to provide a fictional backstory to the story of U Manik Raitong. What becomes evident in the course of the narrative is that much of Manik’s suffering—save for the deaths of his mother, brothers, and father—has been caused by humans who have strayed away from the path of virtue, what the Khasis call ka hok. In doing so, the society that punishes Manik for his sin of loving the queen, is itself one that the Supreme Being or God has abandoned. Manik himself shares in this sense of spiritual and divine separation:

He cursed his destiny; he cursed his God; he cried out for vengeance and justice. All his family—gone! All his property—gone! God has taken away all his loved ones; man had taken away all he possessed. God was battering his soul, man his flesh! How would he seek vengeance against God, that unknown  and unknowable monster of a being? Or even against man? (Nongkynrih, Distaste 253).

And

God knew how I tried to save my sister! He knew how I rushed here and there looking for a cure, looking for a healer. But not a finger did he lift to save her. Futile were my efforts; futile were my prayers! Oh, the hard-heartedness of God!

And man? If God is indifferent and uncaring, man is active in his own evil. No sooner had my clan been wiped out than the syiem [king] and his myntris [nobles] started casting greedy and wicked glances at our wealth and possessions (Nongkynrih, Distaste 257-258).

A society that has lost the wherewithal to care for the destitute—Manik and his then-living sister being orphans—is one that lives without divine protection, as Manik himself knows. Atheism is the way out for Manik as divine intervention seems only to work on behalf of his adversaries. But while the protagonist is firm in his unbelief, Nongkynrih hints that Manik’s loss of faith might not be reflective of universal truths.

Nongkynrih frames Manik’s predicament against the larger society in which he lives. The novel itself begins with scenes from a pata kyiad or a drinking house/establishment. It is in the pata that we meet characters like Siewdor and Sapho who, as the author observes, drink because they need to drown their sorrows and the hardships they face in life. Siewdor, in particular, had lost a woman he loved to the callousness of his fellow soldiers while they were away on an expedition for the former king (Nongkynrih, Distaste 122-147). It is through these characters, who are pariahs like Manik, that divine retribution is carried out. They are the ones who keep the story of U Manik Raitong and Ka Lieng Makaw alive long after they are dead. Nongkynrih deftly explores the tension between unbelief (Manik’s) and divine will by making the folk a mouthpiece for the latter. As such, Nongkynrih’s novel comments on the power of quotidian remembrance in the face of forgetting and state oppression (Manik’s story is, in the novel, prevented from being told by order of the king).

Nongkynrih’s novel testifies to the power of storytelling to retrieve what has been lost. It speaks in the register of the man who swallowed the lost script, thereby giving birth to Khasi storytelling, philosophy, and worldview ever since the Khasis, as a community, have existed (Nongkynrih 2007: 16-20). Much of the details surrounding Manik’s “wretched” life have been lost. But his figure remains an inspiration for many who take up the pen to write and who choose to be remembered if only in songs.

Works Cited

Goscinny, René and Albert Underzo. Asterix the Gladiator. Trans. Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge, 2004.

Nongkynrih, Kynpham Sing. Around the Hearth: Khasi Legends. Penguin Books, 2007.

_. The Distaste of the Earth. Penguin Books, 2024.

The Conversation. “Best Books of 2024”. December 2024 https://theconversation.com/best-books-of-2024-our-experts-share-their-standout-reads-244149

Header Image: Penguin Random House India