This is a little bit more complicated of a rerun post; I initially did this as a Reedsy review, back when I was still doing those! I ended up leaving Reedsy for a few reasons, one of which being that I didn’t feel comfortable doing free reviews when the authors were paying for them. Still, I encountered books I never would have run into otherwise, and I’ll be moving the full reviews over here as part of my reruns! (Besides, everyone has different moral stances on this — I have no issues if you don’t agree with me on this one, it’s just about my personal comfort.)
Link: https://elliottdunstan.com/2020/01/18/icymi-reedsy-review-devolution-by-ami-j-sanghvi/
Gorgeously wrought prose poetry – sometimes overcomplicated – that challenges religious assumptions with tragic fury
Synopsis
It was upon the poetic pages of his renowned Divine Comedy that Dante Alighieri ascended. He famously commenced his journey in Inferno, and later reached Paradiso. The speaker in Devolution, however, is on a slightly different journey. Rather than drawing nearer to Paradiso, she can only journey further away from bliss. It is by God’s design that our tragic heroine continues to slip and fall, and it is by His will that she descends. Will she find redemption before the pages run inkless, or will she be doomed to the depraved depths of Inferno forevermore? Only Time will tell.
Ami J. Sanghvi’s ‘Devolution’ is a rare beast; a collection of prose poetry with the fire and bite of 20- and 21st century confessional and political literature, and the linguistic mastery and complexity of the 18th-19th century classics. ‘Devolution’ is an intertextual work – like fanfiction, it engages with a prior text, in this case Dante’s Inferno, and challenges its ideas. ‘Devolution’ does an absolutely beautiful job of this. It pulls out a lot of Inferno’s assumptions, challenges notions about the Christian God himself, and beneath it all is an anger that many of us can understand if not directly share. I also really appreciate that the author of this collection – a direct response to Dante and a criticism of Christianity’s historical doctrines – is a queer, Indian woman.
Particularly of note is how hard it is to have writing this complex and flowery carry an emotional punch. Often, writers have to choose between emotional weight and ‘artistic’ prose. Sanghvi disposes with this choice entirely and just does both – it takes a while to unwind the sentences, but the effort is worth it when the impact hits.
I personally really, really enjoyed ‘Devolution’ – that said, it’s for a niche audience. The writing is gorgeous, but hard to follow if you’re not practiced with reading very dense, very high register work (think John Donne, Nathaniel Hawthorne, etc.) It’s very deliberately done, but definitely something to go in knowing. Additionally, while you don’t have to have read Dante’s Inferno, it’s best to go in with at least a beginner’s knowledge of Inferno and the criticisms of Christian doctrine involved. I also wish ‘Devolution’ was longer – there’s so much opportunity to examine specific circles of hell – but the author’s prelude mentions that this was written during specific circumstances, which makes that understandable.
Four stars to ‘Devolution’, and I’m excited to see more of Sanghvi’s work!
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Elliott Dunstan 