Book Review: The Gaze by Elif Shafak
This novel is written by one of the finest writers of the
world. Her other novels such as ‘The Forty Rules of Love’ based on the life of
Shams of Tabraiz, and ‘The bastard of Istanbul’ based on the two Turkish and
Armenian families have attained worldwide fame. The latter also became the
source of bitterness between the author and the government of Turkey. For that
reason, she had to face prosecution. This novel, ‘The Gaze’, is based on some unnoticed phenomena happening around our surroundings. Most of the time,
we take those happenings for granted; nonetheless, they leave a very impactful
mark on our lives. In this novel, Elif makes a point of how damage can be
inflicted upon us by our simple desire of looking at others.
Basically, the theme of the novel is that our lives are
based on seeing and being seen. And this world is simply a collection of
spectacles. A simple desire to look at other things initiate a chain reaction,
and subsequently, our life keeps on unfolding events after events, tragedy
after tragedy, and so on.
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She narrates the story of an obese woman and her lover who
happened to be Dwarf. Both are very allergic to being seen by others, primarily
because of their body features. Together they become a sight to be beholden,
and a source of amusement for others. Therefore, they decide to wander
separately in order to escape the eyes of the people. For this reason too, they
both sometimes disguise themselves in order to wander about the streets of
Istanbul and not to be recognized by anyone else. The dwarf is busy writing, ‘The
Dictionary of Gaze’, which consists of his observation of the outer world.
In parallel, the author also describes the tale of cranky
freak-show of the 1880s, occurring at the top hill in the cherry-colored tent.
Of this show, two main characters are the source of amusement for the audience.
One character is the ugliest of ugly, a sable-girl; and the other is the most
beautiful of beautiful, La Belle Annabelle. However, both these characters are
the result of the events that could easily be avoided in the past by a simple
decision of not looking at some things. But at the moment, both are living
characters.
To finish the novel in a style, the author adopts a
crescendo tone, rewinding to those events from where these said characters- a
sable-girl and La Belle Annabelle- were born.
And eventually concludes on the note that it is not necessary to see
everything. It is better that some things remain well out of sight.
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