Page 61 - English Tehelka Issue 7 - April 15, 2018

Book review

Thayil brings out Jeet Thayil tries to pull the nitely not an attempt at an autobiog- secretly from his wife of eighteen flourished in that era. Who wouldn’t
hidden glories of unclaimed
raphy but seems to be a mirror which years to be with Goody Lol, his muse have recognised Kamala Das’s explic-
outlandish souls artists from the potholes of allows Thayil to comprehend some (another character loosely borrowed it words on women’s actual desire?
of the points in his life. However, it is from Souza’s personal life). Indeed, Or does Thayil just recognise artists
their times in his second novel
difficult to say whether Thayil wants Xavier is married thrice and has a to be desirous, damaged and aloof
from the fragments that manages to capture the to juxtapose them against the west- plethora of women in his life, with- men in whose lives women can’t
ern artistic culture (by presenting out being explicitly able to claim his claim to be more than stage props?
reader’s attention at every sen-
a veiled satirical picture) or wants love for any one of them. One thing
However, one still cannot unsee
tence either through shock or
of desperate times awe, thanks to its unrestrained to plaster the final confirmation of that the book points out now and Xavier’s carnivorous mind, steal-
the western imposition on their art. again, is that the only identity Xavier ing his inspirations from the com-
Whatever is it, one thing that Thayil has been able to build for women monplace market of facts. It is as if
volatility, Bedasree das writes
definitely wants to portray is the in- in his life is that of beauty. What he Xavier’s personalities dual with each
herent madness in each of these art- seems to need and pine for is a muse other. He is addicted to the emotions
ists which makes them loners of the for his art project till the painting is of his art but callous in his approach
same eclectic club. A club in which complete. And by the time, a project to relationship which does not limit
drunken, sexually violent and ad- is over, Xavier would have already itself to romantic liaisons. He even
dicted and, most importantly, forgot- seen enough through the emotional leaves his young daughter without
ten geniuses have together closed the peephole of the muse for it to appear much of a hint of remorse. He is mag-
door to the world. Like Thayil says, nanimous and outlandish but cow-
“poets who had been forgotten by ard and laden with the insecurities.
everyone except the odd scholar or Most of the protagonist’s tale is
barkeep to whom they owed money” The author could told through interview excerpts of
At the centre of the book is New- have paid tributes Dismas Bambai, Xavier’s biographer.
ton Frances Xavier, a Goan painter, Throughout of the length of the in-
poet and drunkard who lives in to at least some terviews it becomes increasingly
New York but leaves a post-9/11 city women poets who clear that Xavier is himself trying to
wrecked in fearful thoughts. A quick escape the finality of his artistic abili-
analysis of the character reveals that flourished in that ties. “You understand that thought is
he himself is a blend of two major in- era. Who wouldn’t the enemy, the source of all lesions,
fluences of Thayil’s life - Dom Moraes tumours and sarcomas; then thought
and painter Francis Newton Souza. have recognised becomes flesh becomes the emblem
Interestingly, the author seems of Kamala Das’s of your shame,” this quote by Xavier
have borrowed chunks out of Souza’s almost exposes the poignant gamble
life to fill in Xavier’s childhood. Like explicit words on of thoughts in the painter’s mind.
that part where Xavier is expelled Thayil manages to divide the
from his school for drawing a graf- women’s desire? reader’s mind. One half that shivers
fiti on the wall of his school’s toilet in the cruelty of the painter and the
is directly taken from Souza’s expe- other half that sympathizes with him.
o vigils left to keep, No out his elusive life. rience as a school student in Goa. lacklustre. In fact, women in the nov- There is also this other part which
enemies left to slaugh- It would be true to say that Thayil’s However, readers who are familiar el or per se Xavier’s life hardly have a has to admire the artist despite the
ter. Dom Moraes, in second novel is an ambitious read. with Thayil’s work would know that say in the way the protagonist whirls person in the artist.
his 1983 poem Ab- More than just a novel, it can be said Newton Frances Xavier was already around them and at best assure and The unrestrained volatility in The
sences, perhaps best to be a homage to the potpourri of introduced in Narcopolis, the author’s reassure Xavier of his sexual abili- Book of Chocolate Saints is one of the
N describes what he artists and poets who cramped the first novel which was also shortlist- ties. Like the model Glory Pande, who main reasons why you read this book.
would not know then to be his own creative scene of the 1980’s Bombay. ed for the Man Booker Prize. In The recounts how her enlarged breasts Both the language and the characters
fictional reincarnate. Like the poem, For those initiated with the times, it Book of Chocolate Saints, the author’s were a confirmation of Xavier’s sexu- are unabashed and Thayil manages
the protagonist of Jeet Thayil’s novel, would not be surprising to find some second novel, Thayil takes the liberty al prowess. At certain points, it seems to capture the reader’s attention at
The Book of Chocolate Saints, Newton renowned artists at almost every to explore Xavier through the latter’s like Thayil almost gives Xavier a free- every sentence either through shock
Frances Xavier lives in the dilemma Book of ChoCo- turn of the page. Eunice De Souza, same perpetual weaknesses - booze, hand over women, making it almost or awe. The novel will leave you
of conflict, much in the aftermath of late SaintS Arun Kolatkar and most prominent- broads and beauty. Xavier’s tenden- justifiable for an artist, whose love for aghast but also satisfied. At best, it
it. Only in this case, the conflict does by Jeet thayilr ly, Dom Moraes, to whom the book is cy for broads is only reflected in his his art is above all mortal beings. Also, tries to pull the desperate and hidden
not appear to be in the face of a di- aleph dedicated. Fiction only enters in the repeated drunken stupors and fre- if the author was inspired by a host glories of the unclaimed artists from
rect confrontation but the lack of it. 512 pages; 799 fragments tying the story together. quent need to untangle himself from of artists lighting the poetry scene in the potholes of their times.
In fact, it lies in the connected dots of In fact, there are even glimpses of the the demands of a relationship. In the Bombay, he could have paid tributes
the characters Xavier faces through- author himself. No, the book is defi- first page itself, Xavier is seen fleeing to at least some women poets who letters@tehelka.com

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