Yangchen; A book Review

A simple story revolving around the life of a simple yet relatable character. This is what I thought of the book titled 'Yangchen' by Tshering Wangchuk, the author of 'A thousand footprints' which is on my reading list and currently sitting on my bookshelf.

This book takes us along the life of Yangchen, the protagonist as she goes through all that life has to offer to her. It all seems to be going well for her for most part of the story but towards the final quarter of the book, things start looking gloomy for our protagonist.  This is as far as I can talk about the story without revealing any plot lines. The following paragraphs may reveal a bit about the plot so I do recommend that you read the book first if you do not want to find out anything about the story.

The book is written in a simple language which makes it an easy to read and an easy to understand story. The reader need not try and read between the lines to understand what is happening as the story goes along making this book appropriate for both children and adults alike who want to enjoy a simple read or for someone like me who wanted to complete one last book in a short span of a couple of days to beat my own record of 15 books the previous year. 

The author in his note in the beginning says that he has not used a linear sequence of storytelling which is  evident from the use of flashbacks from time to time and shifting the narrative from the perspective of the other characters here and there but  the story overall seemed a bit linear for my taste. Everything seems to be going well for our protagonist through most of the book. Although she has trouble from time to time with decisions to make and fears to face she manages to lead what most of us would call a content life. And then suddenly in the last quarter of the book she is diagnosed with a terminal illness. She has a hard time coming to terms with life after that but with the support of her loving family and friends and also with the help of the counsellor she manages to accept her fate. I personally felt that the story was lacking a build up of the main plot and maybe a little more turbulence after her diagnosis. It's funny how we want to have simple lives ourselves but when it comes to consuming stories in different forms like books and movies we want all the trials and tribulations life has to offer.

One thing I did not enjoy about this book or rather the story was that from time to time the story seemed to focus on the lives of the side characters for a short chapter or half. The title suggests that the story is about Yangchen so I didn't quite enjoy how Tashi's parents got married, how Dema's father started drinking and beating her mom and her siblings, what the counsellor talked to her mentor about and things like that. The narrative seemed to keep shifting between that characters and although the book isn't too complicated in terms of language it can get a bit tiring to keep up with the shifting narrative. I understand that what happens to the others characters is important to how the story is shaped around the main character but I felt like this book was doing it one too many times. 

Something I have noticed about books by Bhutanese authors is that the books seem to be targeted towards readers outside Bhutan or at least that is the sense I get when reading them. The reason I say that is because even though the stories are relatable to us Bhutanese the stories tend to be more focused on world building during most of the earlier chapters of the book. I know that it is important to build up the setting where the story is taking place but I feel like most of our books focus too much on explaining the setting. For example (not from this book), if the story is taking place in Bumthang, the chapters in the beginning of the book will talk mostly about how it is one of the Dzongkhags or districts of central Bhutan or when a local person speaks in the local dialect it will be explained that this language is the local dialect. For Bhutanese readers I find it unnecessary. They may be only a line or two explaining these things but when they appear time and again throughout the story it disturbs the flow of the story for me. And as a someone who likes reading I don't enjoy the story too much when everything is being explained to me which is a personal preference. I like thinking over what I have read and try to make sense of the story in my own way from whatever information is provided to me in the books and piecing them together. And a full on 'show not tell' style of writing is also not something I want in every book I read. As a reader I want a 'show and tell when necessary' style.