The Elsewhereans talks about a rollercoaster ride called Life. The people in it. The experiences thereof. But, as they say, the sum is a leap more than the parts.
This is Jeet Thayil’s story about his own life, his parents, cousins and uncles, his native place, which keeps reappearing to assume an entity of its own, an intertwining of his own life with his father’s, and yet not strictly an autobiography as we understand it. We begin with being ringside spectators, and soon are caught in the whirlpool. We are gobsmacked by the new places, the newer characters. And before we know, we’re going back and forth to put timelines and new names in perspective.
The Elsewhereans is a heady cocktail. Of people. Of emotions. Of far-flung places melded to tell a story. Of contexts. And some wondrous protagonists who loiter in and out, complete with their idiosyncrasies. They are varied, yet reassuring. The French speaking uncle who loves Baudelaire and translates French to Malayalam, the cousin jilted by her lady love opts for a bad marriage only to roam half the world with him, the aunt who insists on putting on her Ethiopian habeesha kemiz for an evening walk somewhere near Mamalassery, another aunt who actually builds her own church.
The journey is long, but never tedious. It begins about a decade after Independence, complete with a colonial hangover, sepia-pretty in its innocence. A couple’s early days in marriage, the trials of a challenging job, the leftist leanings, incarcerations. The nomadic travels follow — Bombay, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Shanghai, Paris, New York. And somewhere in between we have Mao, Stalin, the horrors and futility of the Vietnam war, the Cu Chi tunnels with their endless stories and a wild search for a Vietnamese woman after 45 years. Wistfulness, wonder and wisps of romance fill the air.
Thayil is honest in his approach, touches upon his days of addiction in the dark alleys of Berlin, his abiding pain at having lost his wife and his struggles with setting up his own life. He admits to being a “bad son most of my life”, yet pays his best tribute on his mother’s passing, that the river where he immerses her is the water which will always remind him of her.
The Elsewhereans is poetry in prose, with consistent and evocative imagery. It talks to you all the while, with its rich tapestry of episodes and emotions. A wry humour, often tongue in cheek, induces the occasional chuckle, and the language is tight and layered. Jeet Thayil has a lot to say, and you want to listen.
Moyna Sen is a senior journalist
The Elsewhereans
By Jeet Thayil
Fourth Estate
pp. 240; Rs 699