The Mystic Masseur

Rating:
Summary: Comedy and Pathos...and a Little Anger
Review: THE MYSTIC MASSEUR is often seen as V.S. Naipaul's "lightest" book, and I suppose it is, but don't let the temptation to take it too lightly let you overlook its inherent seriousness and pathos.

Ganesh Ramsumair is a schoolteacher whose love for books borders on the insane. When he's convinced to do some writing of his own, he quits the city and retires to a rural area where he becomes known for his profundity of thought and his extraordinary philosophical bent. In fact, Ganesh believes that his destiny in life is to be "great." Part of the charm of the book is in knowing that Ganesh is far from the greatness he believes has been thrust upon him.

One of the best scenes in the book takes place during Ganesh's marriage to Leela. There is rich humor (and satisfaction) in watching the naive and lovable Ganesh outwit his greedy father-in-law, Ramlogan.

The best thing about THE MYSTIC MASSEUR isn't its plot (though that's quite good), but its characters. Ganesh, in particular, is a man with whom to fall in love. He's never arrogant about his fame. Instead, he's polite, sincere, good-hearted and warm. As the more business-minded Leela takes charge of Ganesh's affairs, he becomes more and more widely known until, finally, he's thrust into a situation he simply can't handle. Rural Trinidad let Ganesh shine; the Trinidadian Parliament shows him show very naive he really is.

It's Ganesh's relative insignificance, as opposed to his significance, that makes this book so important. This is a book filled with comedy, sure, but it's also a book filled with anger and sadness, something I think it might be easy to overlook. And, just as Gabriel Garcia Marquez inserted himself into one scene in ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, Naipaul has inserted himself into a scene in The MYSTIC MASSEUR. What happens to Ganesh in the end of the book is very enlightening and, I think, it strips away a lot of the book's gentle comedy and replaces it with sadness instead.

THE MYSTIC MASSEUR is very early V.S. Naipaul and while the book isn't infused with the greatness of A HOUSE FOR MR. BISWAS, it is indicative of Naipaul's need to write about displaced Indians, most particularly Trinidadian Indians. This is an accessible and entertaining book as well as one that is very important. It should interest both fans of V.S. Naipaul as well as those who are simply looking for a really superlative book to read. In fact, if you've never read any of Naipaul's works, this would be a good place to begin, but don't make the mistake of thinking all of his books are this comedic or this "light." They're not.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Two-Day Read
Review: This is a charming novel. And this is his first work, to boot. A literary debut like this has got to make a few would-be writers wince. At least it's hard for me to imagine how writers could paint characters with even less brushstrokes than Naipaul and still succeed in making them so warm and lively.

The magic of this novel is that, even though the setting is in remotely foreign Trinidad-Tobago, it will still secure any reader's attention from the very first page, the idiosyncratic conjugation of the verbs 'to be' and 'to have' in the native patois notwithstanding. What helps is the abundant humor largely of two types: one where you laugh along with the characters in the sheer fortuitous turn of events, the other where you smile at their forgivably human foibles and the narrator's wry observations.

The plot itself is humorous. A bookish student named Ganesh Ramsumair is wedded to the plucky Leela through the machination of a crafty penny-pincher named Ramlogan. Having found out prior to the wedding that Ramlogan is charging him for his relatives' food without his consent, Ganesh proceeds to swindle his father-in-law, during an elaborate Hindu marriage ritual - details of which are hard to explain. Having realized that he must now make a living, he tries a few odd jobs, before he hits by luck on the one profession that his island needed most: a mystic. A mystic? Even Ganesh himself is half-incredulous, but sooner or later people flock from all over the country, wanting his help in driving some demon out of someone or other. From there on, his fortune never wanes. The final metamorphosis converts Ganesh into a democratic politician (hah!), a destiny that culminates in his transformation into the thoroughly anglicized "G. Ramsay Muir OBE".

What supports this edifice is a wonderful cast of characters, quasi-cartoonish in their presentation, but still very human. To take an example, the Great Belcher is thus named because of her unfortunate habit of eructation. But she redeems herself to the reader through a string of remarkably level-headed advice. Ramlogan is almost a cardboard cut-out villain, but his fluctuation from resentment to respect for Ganesh is so transparently tied to his greed that it's almost understandable.

The exchanges between the characters are also wonderful. One morning Ganesh decides that he and his neighbor should speak grammatically correct English. Neither Ganesh nor Suruj Poopa, his accomplice in literary endeavors, can suppress a smile at their ridiculously polite English. When his wife Leela chides him at night for forfeiting his resolution so quickly, the terse response is that she "cook food good". The stuff is classic.

But the irony of it is that he will end up speaking impeccably correct English and irony is where this novel truly shines. The matter-of-factly narration (peppered with a few general observations) remains fairly detached from his subject, the end result being innocent pokes and wry fun. The sign at his house welcomes the customer with suitably mystic overtones in Hindi, but in English the message is harshly business-like. His "election" is hardly democratic, and very corrupt. His abrupt transformation from a leftish politician to a right one comes not from conviction but from petty affront.

In the end, it would be endless to point out this novel's charms and witty sides. Anyone looking for a fun book should find it for themselves. I can't see how any reader could go wrong with this provided they are not looking for serious profundity. But you can't be reading Dostoevsky all the time. So take a breather.

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Summary: Una Historia Post-colonial
Review: V. S. Naipaul nació en Trinidad y Tobago pero a los 18 años viajó a Inglaterra con una beca de estudios. Sin embargo, el tiempo que permaneció en aquel lugar doblemente colonizado -primero por los hindúes y luego por la Corona Británica- fue suficiente para absorber toda la información que luego inyectaría en sus novelas con esa pluma maestra que le haría ganar con merecida justicia - algo que aparentemente ocurre una vez cada equinoccio - el Premio Nóbel de Literatura en el 2001.

"El Sanador Místico" es la primera novela publicada por Naipaul. El tema central: El Post-colonialismo, ya se vislumbra claramente como uno de los puntos que pulularían tenazmente sobre sus obras postreras . En esta novela en particular el autor no intenta impresionarnos con técnicas complicadas que nos escondan a los personajes o trastoque los tiempos; por lo contrario, a través de un estilo sencillo y sin artilugios nos lleva a conocer la vida de Ganesh, El Sanador Místico; su familia (Leela, su esposa, y Ramlogan, su suegro); sus vecinos (Beharry y la Mooma de Suruj) y su pueblo (Fuente Groove). La época, obviamente, es el post-colonialismo. Trinidad y Tobago era un país poblado principalmente por Hindúes y que recientemente había dejado de ser una colonia Inglesa. Es de esta manera que Naipaul nos muestras un mundo post-colonial con todo lo que eso conlleva: conflictos interculturales, conflictos de identidad cultural, transculturización y desarraigos costumbristas.

Una historia interesante proporcionada por el escritor más brillante en lengua inglesa cuya mente a pesar de haber sido cultivada en Inglaterra siempre estará -irónicamente- colonizada por esa pequeña isla que lo vio dar sus primeros pasos: Trinidad y Tobago.

Víctor Gonzaga