The Mystic Masseur
Reeks: Vintage International
V. S. Naipaul
- **The
- Nobel
- Prize-winning
- author
- delivers
- a
- Dickensian
- novel
- that
- traces
- the
- unlikely
- career
- of
- a
- failed
- schoolteacher
- and
- village
- masseur
- who
- becomes
- a
- revered
- mystic,
- a
- thriving
- entrepreneur,
- and
- the
- most
- beloved
- politician
- in
- Trinidad.“No
- one
- else
- …
- seems
- able
- to
- employ
- prose
- fiction
- so
- deeply
- as
- the
- very
- voice
- of
- exile.”
- —The
- New
- York
- Review
- of
- Books**In
- this
- slyly
- funny
- and
- lavishly
- inventive
- novel—his
- first—V.
- S.
- Naipaul
- chronicles
- the
- ascent
- of
- the
- impecunious
- village
- masseur
- Ganesh
- Ramsumair.
- To
- understand
- a
- little
- better,
- one
- has
- to
- realize
- that
- in
- the
- 1940s
- masseurs
- were
- the
- island’s
- medical
- practitioners
- of
- choice.
- As
- one
- character
- observes,
- “I
- know
- the
- sort
- of
- doctors
- they
- have
- in
- Trinidad.
- They
- think
- nothing
- of
- killing
- two,
- three
- people
- before
- breakfast.”Ganesh’s
- journey
- is
- variously
- aided
- and
- impeded
- by
- a
- Dickensian
- cast
- of
- rogues
- and
- eccentrics.
- There’s
- his
- skeptical
- wife,
- Leela,
- whose
- schooling
- has
- made
- her
- excessively,
- fond.
- of;
- punctuation:
- marks!;
- and
- Leela’s
- father,
- Ramlogan,
- a
- man
- of
- startling
- mood
- changes
- and
- an
- ever-ready
- cutlass.
- There’s
- the
- aunt
- known
- as
- The
- Great
- Belcher.
- There
- are
- patients
- pursued
- by
- malign
- clouds
- or
- afflicted
- with
- an
- amorous
- fascination
- with
- bicycles.
- Witty,
- tender,
- filled
- with
- the
- sights,
- sounds,
- and
- smells
- of
- Trinidad’s
- dusty
- Indian
- villages,
- The
- Mystic
- Masseur
- is
- Naipaul
- at
- his
- most
- expansive
- and evocative.
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