If Melville's Moby Dick can be regarded as a whale of books in context of the Whale it describes, A River Sutra has several sutras to lead to myriad interpretations. It can be explored in terms of narrative technique, psychological insight in probing the unconscious/sub-conscious as well as the racial consciousness; sociological, archaeological, mythological explorations could also be fascinating. Equally fascinating would be the philosophy of music as enunciated in two separate tales.

From the narrative point of view the fifteen chapters flow from the origin to its final destination in a natural gush with frequent detours yet returning again and again to the main current: flowing placid sometimes but quite often with gusto.

While the narration by Narrator-1 is removed once from the actual participants, those by Narrator- 2 (Tariq Mia) are distanced twice from the actual actors.

This paper, after such lengthy digression, seeks to...