Skip to main content

Book Review: River God by Wilbur Smith

River God by Wilbur Smith is a masterpiece. Perhaps, no other writer knows and writes about Africa the way Mr. Smith does. River God is an epic historical saga through the eyes of a very talented eunuch slave - Taita. The story of the novel hails from the ancient Egypt, around 1780 BC. Wilbur Smith asserts that the story in River God is real and based on the found scrolls at the Temple of Karnak in 1988. The river Nile plays a crucial role in providing major climaxes in this sweeping story. Thus, the title ‘River God’ is veracious.

The novel opens with knowledge that Taita is a trusted slave of Grand Vizier, Lord Intef, father of queen Lostris and an enemy to Tanus, the lover of Lostris. When Taita is young the ancient Egypt (during the tenure of Pharaoh Mamose) sets on a decline. Taita being a doctor, advisor and future-teller witnesses a long stretch of time with many events such as marriage of Lostris to Pharaoh; comeback of Lord Tanus to the kingdom; end to Lord Intef’s brutalities and the invasion of Hyksos on Egypt. Under Tanus’ leadership, half of the Egypt is lost to Hyksos. Then, after 20 years, Pharaoh Memnon (the illegitimate son of Tanus and Queen Lostris) makes a princely comeback and seizes back the Egyptian Kingdom from the clutches of Hyksos.

The novel achieves an emotional grip when Lord Tanus dies in an attempt to seize a Blue Sword, and following his death Queen Lostris slips in the hands of death. Throughout the story Lostris and Tanus remain lover, at times distant ones, but they could never come together officially. The only knower is the slave, Taita. Queen Lostris has strong liking for Taita and she knows he loves her but he's only a slave, after all. So, she says before dying, “Perhaps in the next life, the gods will treat our love more kindly.” 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r