Part parable, part commentary, fully readable. ( )

ஒரு பிரச்சனையின் பல்வேறுகோணங்களை ஆராய்வதே படைப்பு என்பது இதற்கு முற்றிலும்மாகப் பொருந்தும். பெருமாள்முருகனின் ஏழாம் நாவல் இது ( )

I have no idea why I requested this book from the library; apparently I read some glowing review. It is just that: the story of a very small black female goat given in a poor man by a giant. The goat is named Poonachi and is cared for by the man's wife. She is always small, grows some, gets in heat, has seven kids, falls in love, has more kids, dies. I guess it's some fable for life but truly totally escaped me. ( )

I originally gave this a lower rating because it left me with a strong sense of futility. I decided that was killing the messenger.

An impoverished couple is given a doe goat, the runt of a litter of seven, whom they name Poonachi, and with great effort keep alive. The area where they live is in the midst of a multi-year drought, and conditions deteriorate from year to year. Poonachi the goat is one of the point-of-view characters. There were times when I felt I had learned more than enough about goats. Poonachi is a black goat, which have been rather rare -- the government is suspected of exterminating them. I assume that this is an allusion to the pressures that indigenous and minority population are under. The author himself has been attacked, physically and verbally, by right-way castes and Hindu nationalists.

The villagers, and sometimes Poonachi are harassed by petty, arrogant and touchy, government officials.
some of the villagers console themselves by arguing that the government must have some good reason for treating them so badly -- that one day this endurance will come in handy. Poonachi dislikes the sheep, who are docile and walk with their faces down, whereas goats hold their heads up and struggle to be free of their tetherings.

On the couple's trips to their daughter's house, Poonachi has a taste of freedom, which she both fears and rejoices in, and falls in love. Alas, the ram belongs to the daughter, and they are separated.

One analysis I saw blamed the couple for Poonachi's sufferings, which in most cases is unfair, except that some decisions are made because the people consider the goats to be more expendable than themselves. I leave the reader to decide how they feel about that; the couple is too poor to keep pets. At the same time, couple go to great efforts to feed the infant goat and are fond of her. Their own poverty forces them to make decisions they don't want to -- when Poonachi, like her mother, produces seven kids at once, and what might seem like a blessing of fertility is instead a problem. She cannot feed all the kids, and neither can the couple, especially in the deteriorating climate conditions. They are sold when a stranger offers to buy them all. He also wants Poonachi, and perhaps it would have been kinder to sell her to him, but the couple are unwilling to part with her They sell fewer of her next litter, but as things get worse, it becomes harder and harder to manage.

No, there is not a miraculous happy ending. ( )

This was a cute idea, and in the beginning I really enjoyed it, but it got less and less believable as the book went on. The goat's inner thoughts just didn't work for me. Even such a short book was hard to finish. ( )