[Urbanstudy] book review

[jhelum biswas]

Dear All,
This is a review of a book based on Calcutta...one of the main texts for my research. I have reviewed this book for The Telegraph and its avaiable on their website too.
If you wish to read more novels based on calcutta you may then read the ones like
The Shadow Line - Amitav Ghosh 
The Calcutta Chromosome- Amitav Ghosh
If you are afraid of Heights - Raj Kamal Jha 
You may also like reading
Calcutta: The Living City - edited by Sukanta Chowdhuri
EXTRAORDINARY LIVES  
The Garden of Earthly Delights By Indrajit Hazra,IndiaInk, Rs 395


Indrajit Hazra’s The Garden Of Earthly Delights is the rare book that you can judge by its cover — the contents of this fairly slim novel are fiery as its match-box-like cover. 

The novel has two narratives. One of them centres around Hironmoy Bose, whose story is told in the first person, while the other is that of Manik Basu and is a third person narrative. Their stories alternate in chapters called Hiren and Manik. Their two lives run parallel; only at the end is the connection made — they are the subjects of two major news reports of the same day.

Hironmoy Bose, or Hiren, is apparently an ordinary man who lives with his girlfriend and runs a telephone booth. The only thing that sets him apart is his insomnia — Hiren stays awake for six days at a stretch and then sleeps for ten hours — and, of course, his fire fetish. 

Fire arouses Hiren; it gives him immense pleasure to see things burn. He is responsible for major fires in Calcutta like the one at the Book Fair, New Market, Firpo’s and so on. Hazra draws characters from fiction and blends them with real-life incidents, treading “the shimmering line between fiction and reality”, as the book’s cover claims.

Manik Basu’s story, in comparison, is not as intriguing. Basu, a famous novelist, is bound by contract to Kutir Publication. But his creative muse fails him and he is unable to produce the novel his publisher wants. Things come to such a pass that Manik is abducted and forced to finish the novel within ten days. 

Hazra’s novel may sound like a thriller, but he also grapples with themes like reality versus illusion and its bearing on the problems of modern life. Individuals are but puppets in a web of strategies and can only ask, “why me?” Hazra chooses to resolve the problem with a moral — “trust no one”. 

In a way, this is a novel about a novel, about Hiren’s story being written by Manik. Its title is taken from Hieronymus Bosch’s famous painting. For readers who don’t get it, the allusion is underlined by the similarity of the name Hironmoy Bose to that of the painter.

Hazra’s novel may hold a special appeal for Bengalis because it is set in Calcutta, and refers to Bengali fiction and cuisine. As for Hazra’s style, while it may be criticized for being stilted, it is also fast-paced. This book has the unique quality of lulling the reader for a while, then there is a sudden twist which snaps him back to attention.
 
JHELUM BISWAS 
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