Janice Pariat was in Shillong last Friday reading excerpts from her new novel The Nine Chambered Heart at Dylan’s Café. Since the book is not yet out in the market, I caught up with her to have a chat revisiting her Hindu Literary Prize shortlisted novel Seahorse which was released back in 2014.
The Nine Chambered Heart, however, is a shift in plot structure as nine characters recall their relationship with a young woman — the same woman — whom they have loved. It is a piecing together of perspectives in incomplete but illuminating slivers.
In Pariat’s collection Boats on Land, there were two short stories that dealt with lesbianism theme. In her debut novel Seahorse, Pariat penned a story of love in homosexual and bisexual relationships.
Retelling the Greek myth of Poseidon and his youthful male devotee Pelops, the novel is about Nehemiah, who in his relationship with Nicholas (an enigmatic art historian) discovers the world of art.
Nehemiah is a student of English Literature at Delhi University. He is from a northeastern town. He misses his deceased friend Lenny (who is from his hometown).Already, the theme of the novel is made clear-the feeling of “incompleteness” that Nehemiah feels without Lenny. This is because he was in love with Lenny. In Delhi, Nehemiah cannot stop thinking of him when he attends classes or goes to small parties. The fact that we feel incomplete when we are not with the one we love, is the main theme of the novel. Nehemiah feels an emptiness inside his heart as he feels he is whole by being with Lenny.
When Nehemiah meets Nicholas, a British art historian doing research in Delhi University, he falls in love with him. Nicholas fills the void inside Nehemiah’s heart. He heals the pain of loss that Nehemiah goes through. There are beautiful restrained descriptions of their lovemaking.
Nehemiah learns many facts of Buddhist art from Nicholas, which after some years, leads and inspires him to study art in London. Nehemiah finds happiness in being with Nicholas. Almost every day, he would leave the university to go to the bungalow of Nicholas. They would sit in the garden and have tea, they would drink wine in the kitchen. Other times, they would slowly engage in lovemaking.
The happiness that Nehemiah feels reaches a proportionate degree. Then one day, Myra an adopted sister, as Nicholas introduces her to Nehemiah, visits the bungalow to spend Christmas with Nicholas. And, at the end of the month, she goes back to Europe. And then, after some months, Nicholas disappears. The theme of the novel again pervades through as Nehemiah misses Nicholas.
Nehemiah graduates. He works as an art reviewer for a cultural journal in Delhi. Throughout the many years that continue, he feels the same incompleteness inside similar to the incompleteness he felt when Lenny passed away.
When he is awarded a fellowship to London, a note leads him to search for Nicholas. But instead, he meets Myra. And learns that Nicholas lied to him — Nicholas was in a relationship with Myra and she tells him that she is not his adopted sister. Myra also tells Nehemiah that her child Elliot is Nicholas’s.
When I read the book in 2014, I had found that Pariat did not describe the pain that Nehemiah would feel as a lover. Nehemiah, on knowing this, shows no feeling of hurt or sadness.The things I had felt, and still feel, should be praised about Seahorse were the non-linear narrative and Pariat’s knowledge of Buddhist, Indian and other schools of art.
Myra’s father, Philip, a grumpy old man whom Nehemiah learns is gay, I believe is the most excellently created character. His tragic death leads the reader to sympathise Myra.
I had discovered an abundance of metaphors and quotable lines that were like proverbs in the novel. Pariat continued to stay with the LGBT theme in her debut. It is an accessible read with complexities in the relationships between the characters.
Pariat’s style in her previous collection of short stories — Boats on Land — had replications of the Canadian writer Alice Munro. With Seahorse, stylistically, she avoided all quixotic elements that defined Boats on Land. She was trying to make her descriptions and narrative more on the path of realism.
The infusion of a lot of poetry in certain lines, I felt, made some paragraphs tedious. There were long descriptions of places, for example when Pariat decribes London streets and sidewalks, which were also tedious like the poetry. The narrative’s good quality was that the lines were short and succinct with an effeminate voice, pausing with a full stop every time.
On being asked why Nehemiah showed no sadness when Myra told him the truth, Pariat said after the reading session, “Knowing the truth was a relief as Nehemiah gets some closure. He realises he just has to move on.”
Pariat further explained that it was Nicholas who rescued Nehemiah at a difficult time. “Nehemiah was feeling a void inside his heart with the passing away of Lenny, and Nicholas helped him.”
When asked why Nicholas was the domineering one in the relationship, the writer said, “Yes Nicholas was domineering but Nehemiah accepted this because he loved him deeply.”
Asked about the first setting in Seahorse, Pariat smiled saying, “Shillong remains close to my heart, and will always feature in my novels like now in The Nine Chambered Heart.”
The non-linear narrative in the novel represented fleeting memories. On this, Pariat said, “In our heads, time doesn’t move in a linear manner as our memories tend to skip and slip. So the non-linear technique represents this.”
Reading suggestions for the week:
1. Chronicles by Bob Dylan
2. The Motocycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara
