Bound
to Tradition: The Separation by A P von K’Ory
Amazon
KDP, 2013
Businessman
Erik Lindqvist – nicknamed “Viking” - has problems with women.
He doesn’t trust them; fundamentally he believes they are all
untrustworthy sluts who exist only to be used and discarded. That’s
how he treated all his many lovers, until he met Khira, the brilliant
and beautiful sixteen year old from the Kenyan Luo tribe who stole
his heart. Despite her youth, Khira seems to have tamed the beast in
Erik. Her upbringing as a Luo woman has given her a unique
perspective on men and sex. Men are “muscled infants” who must be
indulged but also guided by the women, who are goddesses on earth.
Khira and Erik have a rather unconventional marriage in which Erik is
still free to expiate his lust with other women. At the same time,
they are deeply devoted to one another and to their beautiful and
talented children.
When
Khira secretly takes their pubescent daughter Loyana back to her
tribe to be initiated into the mysteries of goddesshood, and Loyana
falls ill as a result, all Erik’s rage against women rises to the
surface. He brutally assaults his beloved Khira, sending her into a
coma. Coming to himself, he realizes that he may well have killed the
person he loves most in the world. Both Khira and his children
desperately need him, but he can’t cope with the guilt and the
responsibility. Despite his mostly happy marriage, he still hasn’t
resolved his mistrust of the female of the species.
The
Separation is the third and final book in A P von K’Ory’s
dramatic Bound to Tradition trilogy. The second volume ends with
Erik’s attack on Khira, and his subsequent desperate attempts to
get her out of the African bush and into medical treatment before she
dies. As the third book opens, Khira has been unconscious and
unresponsive for days. Erik is half-insane with grief and guilt.
Their five children are traumatized, especially Loyana who witnessed
Erik’s attack on her mother, and who feels that she is at fault for
agreeing to the initiation. Khira’s closest friend Joyce arrives
from Kenya to help care for the family during the emergency. Standing
in for Khira, she’s willing to confront to Erik and force him to
accept what he’s done.
This
book was not what I expected. From the title, I thought that Khira
would recover, but that she’d break away from the unpredictable and
violent husband who almost killed her, living separately from him
despite their mutual love. Instead, Khira remains in a coma
throughout most of this novel. The “separation” relates to the
fact that she and Erik cannot communicate at all.
However,
despite her outward passivity, Khira’s mind is still active. A P
von K’Ory is very convincing in her portrayal of Khira’s inner
life, as she struggles to understand what has happened, to remember who
she is, and to recognize the people around her. She can hear; she can
form intentions. However, she cannot, especially at first, command
her body to act on those intentions – even something as simple as
moving a finger. These visits to Khira’s mind are devastating.
Much
of the novel is dedicated to Erik’s attempts to run away from
himself and his responsibility for Khira’s condition. I have to say
that I found him infuriating. Despite the almost supernatural
connection between him and his wife, he just can’t manage to face
his own flaws. One can’t help but believe that Khira would be
better off without him.
In
the end, love triumphs, though I sense there will always be scars
that won’t fully heal. Khira fights her way back to consciousness
and to her family. Erik finally begins to work on his deep-seated
emotional issues. The book concludes with an event full of hope for
the future – an event that sets the stage for A P von K’Ory’s
second series, Golden Shana.
As
hard as it was to read about Erik’s behavior, I enjoyed The
Separation. Like the previous books, it is full of vivid
descriptions and intense emotion. It does not focus as much on the
conflict between Erik’s and Khira’s worlds as the first two
volumes of the trilogy, but that tension always exists under the
surface. You can’t help wondering when it’s going to explode once
more and fracture their lives.
