Recently, I read
Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil.
I've known who he is through his band,
Sridhar/Thayil. Around last year or so, I read a Rolling Stone India interview they did, and it was mentioned that Thayil had just written a book, and he was asked about it. He said that it was written about his experiences in opium dens in Bombay, in the 70s and 80s. I was intrigued, because I'd never heard of that sorta stuff by an Indian writer. I was further intrigued when I heard that it was selected for a Booker Prize (but didn't win).
I looked for it for a while, and couldn't find it. I forgot about it. But then, like last month or so, I saw it at an Odyssey store. I got a copy and read it.
It opens with a sura from the Qu'ran. I found it that sorta curious. Why from there? Anyway. The book begins with a very flow-y stream of consciousness style - 1 single sentence over whole pages - that you'd associate with late evening chats, maybe over food, maybe drunk, maybe intoxicated. It goes here and there, from asides to descriptions.
The book is based in a Bombay that to people of this generation would probably seem sorta surreal, far away from the technology and (uneven) development.
It's divided into four books. The first one has four chapters, each describing a different character. From the strangely familiar hijra/chakka/transexual Dimple, to the druggie Rumi, to Rashid the businessman, to the ominously talked about painter Newton Xavier, to Mr. Lee, the mysterious Chinese gentleman. The narrator doesn't talk about himself too much.
Dimple is familiar - She seems like a stock character at times. Rumi is outlandish and entertaining, but we don't get enough. Rashid is menacing and you mentally note to keep an eye on him. Xavier, is sorta unreal yet real, but disappears as suddenly as he appears. Mr. Lee is portrayed as very mysterious.
The introduction being done, we move to book two. The chapters about Mr. Lee, and delving into his family history and the Chinese government, seemed sorta pointless to me. It took away from the main, Bombay based story, and left me waiting for it to return. Ironically, this the second biggest book out of the four, and I didn't get the point of it. Surely it could have been done in a few chapters instead of so many? It's written well and has a nice story, but it's very out of place story wise, in the sense it doesn't relate to the rest of the book at all. Mr. Lee dies quickly anyway, there is no need for this elaborate backstory. This was the hardest part to read, because I kept thinking, where's this going, how's it relevant? It turned out it really wasn't.
The third book - the biggest - continues where the second left off, but focuses more on Rumi, Rashid and Dimple. It talks about Dimple's transformation from hooker to concubine and further, her spirititual awakening, her self awareness of her attractiveness and as a sex symbol, Rashid's losses both personally and financially due to the introduction of 'garad' (dirt in Urdu) or heroin into the market by his 'Muslim brothers' in Pakistan supplanting his own opium, Rashid's struggle with his Muslim-ness, Rumi's family problems, his 'escapades' and brush with jail and addiction.
It's set in a increasingly 'communal' background, with the Bombay riots featuring, and the Muslims self-identifying more and more with their religious identity. This is probably the best book of the four, and is the best read of them all. There's a sense of the story getting somewhere, it has interesting stuff happening, and unlike the second part, it's more solidly connected to the the story presented in book one.
Book four is sorta an epilogue, and in this, Dom visits Bombay to meet his old friends. He meets with Jamal, Rashid's son, who is a right wing Muslim, bordering on extremist, using every opportunity he can to talk about his religion. Rashid, is just a shadow of himself, predictably. The ending of the main story is pretty predictable, yet nonetheless not forced or abrupt- it seems natural.
However, there is a sort of second ending with Jamal, which is very different and genuinely disturbing to think about, involving his radical beliefs. It seems like a warning about the Islamic radicalism in the country at present.
On the whole, the book was a good read, especially since I could feel a Beat-y vibe/influence (William S. Burroughs specifically) and it dealt with something that you always suspected existed, but never could hear/read about, and maybe because the voyeur in me enjoys 'grit'. I loved the music references, with Hendrix, Miles Davis and R.D Burman being mentioned and talked about, something I've not read in Indian writing before. I really liked the anecdote of
Kind of Blue being in 'heroin time' rather than musical time. The writing suited the content, but at times could get too abstract.
Having said that, I did not get the point of the Chinese story at all. Also, the characters were fleshed out only to the point that the reader becomes acquainted to them and no more, except for Dimple, but who she is and what happens to her is pretty predictable anyway so it didn't matter. The narrator is almost absent for most of the book, and I cannot get over why the Chinese story was given so much importance. Also, not being Muslim, a lot of the Islamic references were totally alien/unrelatable to me, I don't get why there are so many, including the sura at the start.
A decent debut novel, but could use less abstraction in the writing/anecdotes/side stories, more relatable characters, more fleshed out characters, and a more coherent story. And no random Chinese story that takes up a quarter of the book. (Sorry, couldn't help it.)
Still, since it's urban Indian it has a good sense of relatability (as opposed to small town/village stuff - totally alien lifestyles), and it doesn't overdo or exaggerate its grit for effect (I'm thinking of you,
White Tiger!) but has just the right amount - feels realistic for the most part - and thanks to nice, flowing writing, it's a good read... I'd give it a 16/20.
