BOOK REVIEW : THE RED TIN ROOF BY NIRMAL VERMA 

The novel  ‘The Red Tin Roof ’ is a very creative idea to express the feelings which a particular age group people have. The author focuses on a particular  time of life of a person in this novel. It’s age when one transits from childhood to teen age. The novel beautifully describes the location(Shimla) which author  takes as a choice of location  which creates a realistic impression and make closer to our imagination.

        Set in Shimla , verma’s novel the Red tin roof tells of a young girl growing into adolescence in the company of mostly older woman and a trailing  younger brother. This is a story of a teenage girl Kaya. She visits her Uncle’s house occasionally once a year which is in Shimla. The script depicts the process of puberty kaya undergoes. Kaya made herself as a company and discovers the path from a child to an adult. In this process she always got her unrepaired thoughts and desires, unsolved queries. She finds alone herself in this journey with her difficulties. She is lost in loneliness of her soul and herself . this novel mainly describes the struggle of kaya to come out from this shield of her thoughts and imaginations and discover herself as a individual .  Her endless thoughts comes to a halt when she feels her first menstrual bleeding.

         Kaya wander in different places in her , alone winter holiday. She unfolds her past dreamed memories. Now she has entered a strange part of life besides childhood , this life is full of new sign and secrets. The coming time is full of symbols and the indications of the mysteries which lie ahead in her life.

 This novel is not just about Kaya, its more about sensation and feeling one person have in this teenage. The binding  of anyone to his/her childhood , fear of losing the dreams that were looks nice in childhood about adult age. This story reveals the truth of life that we don’t always get what we wished for. Sometimes we are lost like a stranger in a new place in this life. The whole novel depicts the confusions, feelings in age of puberty which everyone feels in personal ways.

            The novels has three main part, the first two parts are in third person narrative with seven chapters each, while the third part is in first person narrative and has a single chapter. In the third part kaya discovers herself . The story has a brooding tone. Nirmal verma explores an inner world of a person. The world of dreams, the world of imagination, the world of thoughts and also feeling  about  that  world. The characters are simple. The first part is the mainly introduction of the characters. The main character development is in second part of novel and a symbolic ending in the third part. The translated novel retains some Hindi terms which give some Indian flavour to the text and making more comfortable and appealing to local readers.

       But the title of the novel “THE RED TIN ROOF”   has not much important impact on this novel.  this is like the part of the surroundings as all things in this novel. the main reason for this title may be that whole story lies in the sort location Shimla and all the characters lies mainly a single house. So the ROOF signifies that the story has not much location movement in itself. So the title of the story is acceptable.