Customer Reviews

The Elephanta Suite: Three Novellas

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Reading "The Elephanta Suite" by Paul Theroux, was a pure delight--virtual nonstop literary pleasure! Each novella transported me on an exotic sensual journey through an India few get an opportunity to observe. Everything about these stories was unexpected and new. This was one rollicking armchair adventure ride.

In three, roughly 80-page mininovels, Theroux doesn't give us the sanitized Merchant-and-Ivory India. He doesn't give us the tidy India of best-selling contemporary novels. Rather, he exposes us to the real underbelly of Indian culture. This is an India of pleading beggars, teenage prostitutes, weirdly comic salesmen, and people so pompous they are like parodies. Most of all, this is an India where poor people are as abundant as fleas and virtually every one will do almost anything to get one tiny step ahead.

Each of the novellas deals with American travelers. The stories are superficially interlaced. These travelers are in India at approximately the same time. In odd ways, their paths cross. It is amusing to discover these completely unimportant connections, so I won't say any more. If you discover them, pat yourself on the back and know that you are a careful reader. If you miss them, don't worry: these connections are of absolutely no importance.

The first novella, "Monkey Hill," tells the tale of a wealthy American couple who vacation in India at a luxury retreat. They only see the real India from the window of their limousine as they are rushed from the airport to their lush hilltop health-spa retreat. Through brief sexual encounters with two startlingly beautiful young people working at the resort, the wife and husband are each introduced separately to the other India--the hovel of a small rural village located completely out-of-sight within walking distance from the resort. Little do they realize that the village is currently a hotbed of Hindu-Muslim cultural and religious strife, a power-keg just waiting to go off.

The second novella, "The Gateway of India," is about one of those American businessmen who give global business and America travelers a well-deserved bad reputation. This man is everything an American in India shouldn't be. At first completely terrified by India's alien culture, the businessman hides in his hotel eating canned food and drinking purified water. By chance he is catapulted into the other India, and falls in love with the new, sexually liberated person he becomes. In the end, this story has an interesting twist that you won't see coming.

The last novella, "The Elephant God," deals with a young female Ivy-League backpacker. Idealistically, she ends up living in a religious retreat, loving every moment of it. She thinks it's free, and plays with the idea of living there forever. Her Indian roommates subtly make it known to her that she needs to donate a substantial sum of money each month to help pay for her living costs. So she finds a job at a global call center training workers to mimic an everyday American accent and style of speech. All goes well until a call-center worker takes an unwanted interest in her and starts stalking her.

I am an outrageously prolific reader, but this is the first set of novellas that I have every purchased. I was surprised at how delighted I was with these three mininovels. If this were a novel, I might have read it in one day--the experience was that compelling. But because these were novellas, I purposefully stopped myself after each one and thought about the tale for a day or two before going on to the next. These stories have intellectual depth that makes it easy to think about them long after you've finished the tale.

I highly recommend this work. In fact, I can't wait to pack up my copy and send it to my brother. He was the one who enthusiastically recommended Theroux's "The Mosquito Coast" to me some 25 years ago. Now I can earnestly return the favor!

It isn't often that a novella is anchored to a backdrop of economic globalization. Put that together with Theroux's consummate ability to weave one wonderfully descriptive tale after another and you've got magic.

For years, Theroux has been castigated by a variety of critics who've claimed that he is everything from a racist to a crank engaged in creating stylized and unflattering caricatures of peoples in far-off lands. "Elephanta Suite" proves that the author is an equal opportunity character assassin, as adept at exposing the self-deceptions of an American dealmaker in Mumbai as he is the boorish Indian with a newly-formed American accent feeding off of an Electronics City call center. Theroux is damning or sympathetic to all walks of life throughout this breezy read, which once again highlights his ability to create a genuine, almost palpable impression of a given moment, whether it be the claptrap Indian motorcoach rambling through the countryside or the too-quiet alley at dusk where a crisply uniformed young girl permits herself to be exploited.

Of the three tales that Theroux masterfully weaves, "The Gateway to India" is by far the most moving, and thought-provoking. I happened to read much of it while in Manila, and, experiencing the stark contrast between the gleaming shopping meccas and financial district of Makati and the street urchins hawking their wares vehicle-by-vehicle during rush hour, the undercurrent of the unfair bargain and sometimes mutual unease between contractor and contractee in globalization (see Theroux's vivid juxtaposition of the word "spat" at the top and bottom of page 100) made this story's central character all the more distasteful. Yet Theroux takes us from that emotional spot and transports us to another part of India - both geographically and spiritually - where comfort can be found under the stars and reverie envelops the reader. "The Gateway to India" walks us through an expatriate's metamorphosis in heart-wrenching and ultimately, somewhat sympathetic fashion, with rich prose and ironies to be savored.

Theroux has not lost his touch.

I enjoy reading fiction that depicts modern day India. This group of three novellas is right up there with the cream of the crop. There's nothing romanticized about the India depicted here. As you read, you really get the feeling, "This is probably the way India really is." There were many times when I wondered to myself, "How does someone become such a sharp observer as Theroux is?"

I was amazed both at Theroux's command of the language, and how extremely sharp he is at bringing out the telling detail that really gives you the feel of the place and the person described. There are a lot of unsavory characters here. And yet Theroux describes them so well that I always felt their humanity and got a clear sense of why they were doing what they were doing. That put me in touch with their humanity and created a sense of sympathy, in most cases. Though there were one or two slime bags that I could never like, though, thanks to Theroux's genius, I could understand them.

I was amazed by this book. If you are interested in modern day India as well as enjoy just plain masterful writing, then you will treasure this book.

"If India had a human face, it was that of a hungry skinny girl, starved for love, famished for money."

Or so a divorced American businessman believes when he ventures out of the Elephanta Suite and experiences the misery and availability of women in modern India (if you could call much in India "modern").

Americans in a strange land, the loss of identity, the authentic voice of not only someone who's been there but also one of intimate experience--these have always been the strengths of Paul Theroux's best writing, and "The Elephanta Suite" does not disappoint.

"The Indian novels she'd read in the States had not prepared her for what she saw here. Where were the big fruitful families from these novels? Where were the jokes, the love affairs, the lavish marriage ceremonies, the solemn pieties, the virtuous peasants, the environmentalists, the musicians, the magic, the plausible young men? They seemed concocted her now, and besieged in up-close India, all she thought of was Hieronymus Bosch, turtle-face crones, stumpy men, deformed children."

Whether it's a businessman who (temporarily) loses himself in the girls for sale, a middle-aged couple of Western consumerism who treat every aspect of an Indian spa as part of their menu, or, in my favorite story, the young American girl whose spiritual quest becomes an ugly fight for justice against entrenched intimidation, Theroux not only weaves compelling tales but gives the reader a honest, warts-and-all look at India. I have read almost all of his books and can attest to his observations on places I've been, so he can be trusted (to put it mildly!).

"Not a journey anymore, not an outing or an interlude, but seeing the world; not taking a trip, not travel with a start and finish, but living her life. Life was movement."

Be prepared: this is a great and illuminating read!

Another phenomenal feat by Theroux with many others to his credit, the last full novel, Blinding Light being one of his best. This short set fulfills all the usual expectations from one of my favorite authors, the masterful, understated literary touches, the exquisite detail of human foibles, the ironic surprise result of life's hopes, dreams, and desire. And the stories confirmed everything I thought about India, the back-stabbing, the incestuous social infrastructure, the mystery, the filth and degradation, and of course the smell of the teeming masses subsisting at the barest level of abject poverty where hunger, desperation, and prostitution of all kinds abound. Written in his inimitable style another little masterpiece by our favorite traveler.

I am an avid reader of Indian novels --both those that take place in India (like Rohinton Mistry's wonderful books) or The Death of Vishnu, etc. and those that take place in the US or the UK like Ms. Lamhri's The Namesake and Interpretation of Maladies and Monica Ali's Brick Lane to name a few.

Thus, I found this book quite refreshing and compelling --particularly the first two stories that concern themselves with seduction and willingness to succumb to temptation --it is, as someone said, reminiscient of some of Somerset Maughm and Graham Greene's work -- the idea of the westerner being drawn into this seemingly compliant and subservient culture with all the downside implications of this debauchery and immorality.

All three stories are wonderful reads and I loved the way Theroux very subtly provides a thread or a link from one story to another.
I highly recommend this boook!

Three clever stories; very real characters. Excellent writing and illustration of India. Though I wish the first two mini-stories had more definitive endings; only the final story offered a solid and satisfactory conclusion.

Though Theroux is not a top novelist, he certainly is the best observer. I have been living in India now for 3 years, and I can assure you: what he talks about is extremely well observed and told. Excellent job! I couldn't stop nodding my head. If you want a good background understanding about India and the Indians, his book will be a fantastic intro. Then book the flight and see for yourself.
Thanks, Mr. Paul, even my Indian boyfriend enjoyed it immensely, especially the episode with elephant gone "MUST"!

The Elephanta Suite encompasses three novellas; two are good and the middle one (Gateway to India) is masterful. This is not a book for those with politically-correct attitudes who want to see the best in every locale and who feel uneasy with references that other countries may include the bad and the ugly along with the good.

But I suspect, Theroux knows whereof he speaks. His Indian characters are sometimes sly, obsequious, jaded, and insular. Sometimes they shine above their American counterparts. But, as his Boston lawyer -- Huntinger -- mulls, "There is always an Indian surprise." In other words, visits to India -- the REAL India, not the glossed over ones in some fictional endeavors -- WILL change the visitor, getting them in touch with a more authentic self and in some cases, introducing serenity.

Theroux implies that we Americans may be creating a monster, through our passion for outsourcing (which creates an entire subculture of manipulation), and the "English lessons" which take away the particular politeness and charm of those who live in India. (Compare: "What is your good name?" with "Who are you?") Our desire to promote change may very well change us in the process.

You'll meet some fascinating characters in these novellas -- the Jain Indian lawyer (the Jain don't believe in killing, including fleas and fungi) who may not be who he appears; the stalking InfoTech man who gets what's coming to him; the wealthy Americans who would rather remain in their spa environment than discover India as it is. You won't easily forget these characters. And you, too, may be changed by a careful reading.

A new Paul Theroux book is always an occasion to me. This is my Fifth of his. Theroux never fails to entertain and enlighten even if these stories are somewhat diappointing in the end. It's the trip, not necessarily the ending that is the enjoynment. India is in vogue now and Theroux is on the job as he was in Hong Kong when it reverted to China in the Ninties. Strongly recommended!!