A Disobedient Girl: A Novel

Skillfully, gently, Freeman brings together the tales of two women that at first seem unrelated until a revelation near the end, which signals the doom of Biso and the powerlessness of Latha who grows up most her life a servant in the Vithanage household in Sri Lanka.

Biso’s journey from an abusive husband begins with such hope but ends in tragedy when she trusts her life to strangers who betray her and take two of her children. There is nothing left for her but to abandon her youngest at the doorsteps of a Catholic orphanage before lighting herself on fire and walking in front of an on-coming train.

In a parallel plot a young girl, Latha, forgets her mother after she’s “rescued” from an orphanage by Mr. Vithanage, a mid-level bureaucrat, to become his daughter, Thara’s, life-long friend despite the mistreatment she experiences from Thara’s mother. The young upper class boys in their lives become Latah’s lovers but she never becomes their equals. And it is the calamity of rivalry, betrayal, and classism that she suffers. Her own pregnancy in unwed state makes her an outcast, and leads her to return to the same Catholic orphanage of her past where she must abandon her daughter to the nuns. The Hindu cyclical construction of the novel reasserts its setting.

Freeman’s novel tells us about class distinction, prejudice, powerlessness, heartbreak, and resilience in modern Sri Lanka. Freeman’s skill is in manipulating chronology so that the relationship between Biso and Latha is hidden until the climax of the novel. ( )

This is a novel about status and how people are born into either a life of luxury or a life of servitude. The story opens in Sri Lanka with Thara, a spoiled little rich girl and her servant, Latha. Latha thinks Thara is her friend, but Thara and her mother definetly do not treat Latha like a friend. They boss her around, parade their fancy clothes and shoes in front of her, deny her even the smallest luxuries like bar soap, make her bathe in a well, and sleep on the floor. Latha is treated like a slave. The novel follows this household as the girls grow up with Thara getting everything and Latha getting nothing. Latha has sexual relations with Thara's childhood crush, resulting in a baby and a scandal that changes the entire household's life forever. After being sent to a convent where she gives up her baby she (for some crazy reason that I cannot yet understand!), goes back to be Thara's servant again. Now Thara has her own household, but except for having a different "master" and "mistress" Latha is treated much the same. She proceeds to raise Thara's children while at the same time pining for the one she herself gave away and aborting another. Except for agreeing to sleep with a man here and there, Latha never makes any decisions of her own and never tries to better herself or change her life in any way. She is simply a servant. The most courageous thing she does is slap and spit on the "master's" mother.

Meanwhile, every alternating chapter is about a woman named Biso that lived ten years earlier. (NOTE: The actual years are never identified. You must either have a familiarity with Sri Lanka's political history or Princess Diana's to figure out what time zone this takes place in.) Biso is running away from her abusive husband that murdered her lover. While we learn Latha's entire life history, Biso spends most of the entire novel on a train. Between reminscing about her past, watching her three children, and purchasing food from miscellaneous vendors every other page, bad things happen to Biso. There is a connection to Biso of ten years previous and to the current Latha. I had it figured out halfway into the book. ( )

Sri Lanka is located in Southern Asia, an island which lies in the Indian Ocean south of India. The war between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists began in 1983 and the resulting ethnic conflict has contributed to thousands of deaths. Despite a cease-fire negotiated by Norway in 2002 between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), renewed violence occurred in 2006. It is against this political backdrop, spanning a 30 year period, that Ru Freeman’s debut novel unfolds.

A Disobedient Girl begins as two parallel stories. Biso, a mother of three who is fleeing her abusive husband, envisions a future of hope and new beginnings but her journey quickly becomes disastrous. As one unpredictable event after another occurs, Biso must make decisions which will have a lasting impact on those closest to her.

Latha (a servant girl) and her mistress Thara (the daughter of high caste parents) grow up together as friends. But when Latha makes a fateful decision to seek revenge against Thara’s mother, the girls’ friendship and Latha’s future is threatened. Latha is sent to a convent, then two years later returns to Thara’s home where she must deal with her own personal desires and the hope for a better future despite the limitations of class and prejudice.

The novel is narrated in alternating viewpoints: first through the third person limited point of view of Latha over a 30 year span of time; and then through the first person point of view of Biso over the course of a few days. This unique technique is effective in building tension and setting the stage for a surprising twist at the end.

A Disobedient Girl examines the destructive power of secrets, betrayal, loss, and domestic violence, and the power of love to overcome tragedy. Sri Lanka is not only a source, but a destination country for the trafficking of men and women for the purposes of involuntary servitude and commercial sexual exploitation…and in Freeman’s debut novel, this aspect of Sri Lanka is revealed through the eyes of her characters who experience these dangers first hand.

Ru Freeman’s writing is stunning, beautifully crafted and powerful. She carefully reveals her characters’ desires, motivations and flaws…and in so doing, draws the reader into their stories. I found myself marking passage after passage of this extraordinary novel. One passage reads:

All my children grab my body, pressing close to me, screaming with fake terror. I listen to the echoes of other children’s voices from compartments to either side of ours. These shrieks that I have heard each time we pass through a tunnel lift my spirits. They are the sounds of childhood and innocence. When we are out of the tunnel and my children let go of me, I feel unmoored. - from A Disobedient Girl, page 123 -

Indeed, I felt unmoored at times while reading A Disobedient Girl – transported to another time and place, experiencing things which most Americans can only imagine, and feeling moved and haunted by the book’s characters…who although fictional, could be almost any woman living under such circumstances. Freeman does not spare her readers from the raw emotions of fear, anger, or desperation. But, she also allows for the hope of redemption and salvation.

Like the train which Biso boards, A Disobedient Girl moves relentlessly forward towards its heartbreaking, yet hopeful conclusion. When I turned the final page I felt awed by the power of the human spirit which is able to survive the worst of tragedies; and the strength of people to continue on in the face of loss and overwhelming odds.

Readers who love literary fiction and who want to be wowed by a writer’s talent, should look no further.

Highly recommended. ( )

Sri Lanka is located in South East Asia, an island country just south of India. It is a beautiful country that has been mired in conflict for over 40 years. Cultural and religious differences are at the forefront of the civil unrest and terrorist acts by extremists. Ru Freeman's novel, A Disobedient Girl, is set during these tumultuous times. Biso is the mother of three young children. In the early morning hours, she prepares her children for travel. After years of abuse, she has finally decided to leave her husband. They travel by train to the north, hoping to take refuge with Biso's mother's sister. The long train ride allows Biso time to reflect on her life, about her affair with the love of her life, his death at her husband's hands and the continuing abuse she suffered. Her children are her life, especially her youngest, the product of her affair.

This is also Latha's story. Latha works as a servant for the Vithanages, a wealthy family in Colombo. She and the daughter of the house, Thara, become friends although Latha is never allowed to forget her lower status. Latha has never taken easily to her role as servant. She feels she deserves better in life and often lands in trouble for going after what she wants. Her choices in life are not always the wisest, and, while still a teen, she becomes pregnant by her friend and mistress' love interest.

Biso's story is told over the course of a few days in first person; while Latha's is in third person and spans many years. It is an interesting technique that the author balances well as she alternates between characters with each chapter. The stories of the two women are connected in such a way that makes the ending all the more bittersweet.

I was drawn to both stories equally. Both Latha and Biso are flawed characters and strong women. My heart instantly went out to Biso and her children. While I may not approve of extramarital affairs, I do understand on some level why and how they come about. It becomes more complicated when cultural issues are thrown into the mix. Biso had lost her own mother at a young age and was married to a man not of her choosing. That marriage quickly became a violent one. Biso longed for love and to feel wanted. She found that in Siri. All that ended when he died, and Biso had to begin making other choices.

It took longer for me to warm to Latha. Latha is a passionate character. As the novel opens, she is young and naive and often impulsive. She carries with her a sense of entitlement and does not seem to know her place. The treatment of child servants was appalling and a part of me cheered for Latha for knowing she deserved better even while knowing her life would have been easier had she played along like the good little servant girl. I have read several other reviews that berate the fact that that Latha does not evolve as a character over the course of the novel. She never does seem to fully take responsibility for her actions, always seeming to lay the blame at others' feet. At the same time, I think she did grow as a character in other ways, eventually coming into her own.

Ru Freeman captured the hearts of her characters and the country about which she wrote. Through her characters, readers get a feel for the political unrest, the caste and class struggles, and the inner turmoil and sacrifices of both Latha and Biso. It took me about 76 pages or so to really get into A Disobedient Girl and while I wanted to shake the characters at times for the decisions they made, I enjoyed it just the same. ( )