After reading John Berges inspiration book on art and design 'Ways of seeing.' I thought I would give his fictional book 'To the Wedding a go.
I liked the way it was written; a blind man at the begging seems to become a narrator. However amongst the narration, there is a lot of first person with a lot of the characters. This made it slightly confusing at the begging of the book but I quickly got used to know who was talking. The style actually made it a sharply modern read.
The story is based upon the serious issue of HIV/AIDS. A separated couple travel separately towards their daughters wedding who recently discovered she has HIV. Before the story begins we discover the story is a tragedy. The narrating blind man sells Ninon's father a 'Tamata'. This is a piece of tin, silver or gold the size of a 'credit card' which is used as an oath or promise. The idea behind a Tamata is 'If something bad happens to somebody, it maybe an illness of accident. Those who love the person who is in danger make an oath before God that they will perform a good act if there loved one recovers.' In some ways this prevents the story form being a tragedy, but rather a test of relationships, and a love story.
The story is set in rural Europe is create a contrast between the environment and a raw modern reality. I like the different cultural terminology is insightful, it shows a balance of all human survival and love instincts and feelings, and we are the same in many ways.
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