Love in a Dead Language (Paperback)

The first dedication is from Lee Siegel, a professor of Indian religions at the University of Hawaii, the author of this very unusual book. The second is from the Hindu sage Vatsyayana, author the classic (and silly) treatise on love, the Kamasutra. Then there are also dedications from the novel's own cast of characters: Leopold Roth, a fictional professor of linguistics who attempted to translate the Kamasutra; Pralayananga Lilaraja, a medieval scholar; and Anang Saighal, and Indo-Jewish graduate student, who, according to this story, has just put the entire volume together.

After this rather unorthodox beginning, Love in a Dead Language just keeps getting better and better and more and more inventive. It is, reportedly, Roth's failed attempt at translation, along with his commentary. Together they form, not his own view of the Kamasutra, but rather his obsession with, and seduction of, a beautiful Indo-American girl, Lalita Gupta. (Yes, this is an allusion to Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, and it is not the only Nabokov allusion in this novel, all to the good.)

These two texts are accompanied by comments and footnotes from Pralayananga, also autobiographical, and Saighal, who completes the narrative after Roth is murdered when an unknown assailant hurls a Sanskrit-English dictionary squarely at his head.

Interspersed among this madness are extracts of Hollywood movie scripts about India, posters of Mira Nair's film, Kamasutra, a term paper complete with the teacher's notes and pages from a comic book Kamasutra (as if the original isn't comic enough). Then we have the real and imagined quotes from the real and imagined writers on India from various centuries, letters, including one from Siegel, and, most hilarious of all, bits and pieces from the memoirs of a ninety-five year old movie star which are, amazingly, dedicated to a porn actress. The above are already more surprises than almost any book packs, but Love in a Dead Language packs even more. A little more than halfway through, we must turn the book upside down, since one of the chapters is printed that way. Deliberately, of course.

Siegel's inventiveness and originality of style are not the only thing that distinguishes this book. His use of language is nothing if it is not brilliant and creative. Siegel masters so many styles and voices it's difficult to believe he created them all. There is the erudite academic, the barely-literate jock, the silly campus newspaper, the just-average student. Amazingly, Siegel writes parodic Hinglish, American slang and flowery Victoriana with equal style, wit and aplomb. The result is both hilarious and hysterical.

The book ends with a bibliography that is so convincing you will be tempted to take it seriously. Don't. It would only spoil the fun. And fun, above all else, is what this book is about. There are more jokes, puns, asides and riddles in this book than any one person can possibly mine. It is virtuoso feat of the highest order. A sweet, methodical madness that will leave you laughing so hard you'll find it difficult to keep on reading.

The novel's format is rather ingenious; each chapter consists of a portion of character Leopold Roth's somewhat strange translation of the Kama Sutra, followed by a section of commentary, which is where the novel's real story occurs. All of this, however is footnoted, sometimes sarcastically, sometimes seriously, by one of Roth's assistants. It reads pleasantly and humorously, like a very strange, rather messed up academic collaboration. The story? Well, no problems with that either. Roth, an unappreciated professor of Indian religions, with a loving wife, and stable existence, also has a great obsession with India itself, which translates itself into a huge infatuation with one of his students, a beautiful, but decidedly sullen and uninteresting Lalita Gupta. Roth contrives and succeeds in getting her to go to India with him (long story), where he intends to seduce her. This is where the fun begins plot-wise, and I could go on for pages about Siegel's wonderful depictions of the beautiful contradictoriness of India and its people, and how it transforms the characters. Siegel's insight into human nature goes so far beyond what the clever humon of the book would allow its reader to believe, that I was stunned.

I won't give away how the book ends, but most reading this review already know that it ends somewhat tragically. But don't expect to be weeping at the turn of events: the book carries on with just the same hutzpah and humor, right until the very end. In fact, as I said before, it's only afterward that one starts to consider the depth behind the words, Roth's great disappointments, and the sadness of people who can never quite connect with each other. This can be enjoyed on many levels.