Hooked and Booked - India NonFiction Festival ›› India Nonfiction

22
the guide BOOKS
JUNE 16, 2013. SUNDAY MiD DAY
A MAN
OF MANY
WORDS
In his new novel, Spanish author Javier Marias takes
chance encounters and seemingly mundane events on
masterful, philosophical detours, writes
KAREENA N GIANANI
IS ANYTHING what it seems to be? Is
there anything like a chance
encounter, and if there is, what are
the chances that it does not have the
power to change the course of lives of
all those involved?
In Spanish author Javier Marías’
universe, at least, the possibilities are
ample. The Infatuations (translated
from the Spanish novel, El
Enamoramientos, by Margaret Jull
Costa), is the latest novel by one of
Spain’s most celebrated contemporary writers. Slot it as a murder
mystery if you will, but don’t expect
bloodshed or a knuckle-biting plot
which races ahead of itself to make
you dizzy. What Marías does, instead,
and does so well, is suck the reader
into myriad ruminations on love, life,
death and the human mind.
Maria Dolz, an editor at a publishing house in Madrid, has a curious
morning routine which involves a
dapper middle-aged couple, whom
she calls the ‘Perfect Couple’. For a
few years, Dolz watches Miguel
Javier Marias’ new book begins with an editor’s chance encounter with a handsome couple at a Madrid cafe
Hooked and
booked!
Deverne and his wife Luisa eat breakfast at a local café. Without having
exchanged a word with the handsome couple, Dolz is quite drawn to
the Devernes because “the nicest
thing about them was seeing how
much they enjoyed each other’s company.” She notices the little things
that make Miguel endearing — the
respectful manner in which he
addresses the waiters and his evertrusting eyes, for instance. Under
Marías’ pen, Dolz is a most discerning, if voyeuristic, observer. Take, for
instance, her thoughts on Miguel’s
chin — “He had a cleft chin, which
reminded me of a film starring
Robert Mitchum, or Cary Grant or
Kirk Douglas…and in which an
actress places one finger on the
actor’s dimpled chin and asks how he
manages to shave in there every
morning. Every morning, it made me
feel like getting up from my table,
going over to Deverne and asking him
the same question, and, in turn, gently prodding his chin with my thumb
or forefinger. He was very wellshaven, dimple included.”
Life and numerous breakfasts go
on until, one day, the couple stops
coming to the café. Dolz finds that,
strangely, the interruption in routine
has left her quite bereft. She does not
even make the connection between
the couple and the photograph of a
man in the local newspaper who was
stabbed violently on the street. She
soon finds out that Miguel has been
murdered by a madman who actually
mistook him for someone else. After
much trepidation, she musters the
courage to walk up to Miguel’s
widow, Luisa, and is inadvertently
sucked into a life which takes her on
an affair with Miguel’s best friend,
Javier Díaz-Varela. He, however, has
his own secrets and Dolz soon finds
herself walking into an unexpectedly
twisted situation.
Marías is a man of many words,
indeed. He experiments with feelings, of course, but what jumps out of
the pages is the way he teases language and grammar. The Infatuations
really is a craft by itself. And
I’m glad that somebody is putting it centrestage,” says
Fernandes, who will be moderating a discussion between
writers Meena Menon and
Harish Nambiar at the festival.
Kumar Bagrodia, festival
director, says that the idea
behind the event stemmed
from two main factors. “We all
agree that we’re living in comStimulating discussions and all things
plex times, whether it’s jobs,
politics, career, social adminisbookish will form the core of the
tration among other things.
India Non- Fiction Festival next week
The question we asked ourselves was, what is it that
bothers the average person? If
Author Naresh Fernandes is one
it’s somebody who’s started his
Fernandes is extremely happy of the speakers at the festival
DEEPALI DHINGRA
career, then it’s things like prothat somebody has finally
[email protected]
decided to put the spotlight on Nehru Centre in Worli, will gressing in his career or health
SOME of the best books that this particular genre and come deal primarily with non-fiction and fitness. If it’s somebody
have come out from India in up with ‘India Non Fiction fes- writing and will see experts who’s at the top of the ladder,
the past few years belong to tival’. Centered around the across sectors come together to then it’s things like leadership,
the non-fiction genre. And theme, Be Bold Stay Real, the disseminate their wisdom and consumer behaviour and phithat’s one of the reasons jour- festival that will take place insights. “I’ve been a great fan lanthropy. If it’s a homemaker,
nalist and author Naresh between June 21 and 23 at the of the non-fiction genre, which then things like parenting,
is full of incredibly long sentences,
held together by multiple commas
and clauses. One train of thought
leads to another, and another, and
this often goes on for a couple of
pages. Yet, not once does Marías lose
the reader. You cotton on, nodding to
ideas
both
simple,
candid
and bizarre.
There is no thought — be it about
love, loss, death, or about a decision
Dolz must make (for instance,
whether she must wear a bra before
walks into a room with a stranger in it)
— which is not speculated at length.
And there, right there, lies Marías’
biggest strength as a storyteller. His
understanding of human failings is as
deep as of human achievement, and
he is not afraid to wonder about it at
length. No event is isolated or without consequence, and Marías
manages this feat even by allowing
something to happen only once in
four to five pages. The rest has characters pontificating and taking one of
those delicious detours.
One of the high points of the novel
is when Díaz-Varela reads out Honoré
de Balzac’s 1832 novella, Le Colonel
Chabert, to Dolz. Here, Marías
explores the difficult circumstance of
a man returning from the dead, and
draws a parallel to the way Miguel
occupies Luisa’s mind and, thus, in a
matter of saying, ‘returns from the
dead’ from time to time and haunts
her. Marías plays with ideas that few
acknowledge — that, sometimes, the
dead are better off dead, and that
“there is no death that is not also, in
some way, a relief that does not offer
some advantage.”
In The Infatuations, even the mundane is philosophical and nothing is
what it seems to be.
[email protected]
relationships, cuisines are
what concern him or her. All
these things are actually genres of non-fiction and that’s
what people are reading,” he
explains. The other factor
deals with the aspirational
nature of the people of this
country. “We’re a hungry
nation,” explains Bagrodia,
“We need a certain amount of
boldness to go to the next level.
There is a realism in every facet
and we need to discuss and
debate these issues. And all
this is best served under the
umbrella of non-fiction.”
According to Bagrodia, the
speakers at the festival represent the best in their
sub-genres. Some of the people
speaking at the three-day festival include Dr Radhakrishnan
Pillai, Gregory David Roberts,
Mini Menon, Rahul Akerkar,
Rinky Bhattacharya, Santosh
Desai, Tavleen Singh, R
The Infatuations
Javier Marías
R550
Published by
Penguin
Sridhar, Indrajit Gupta among
many others. “Not all speakers
are authors but they are thinking minds, who can speak on
specific subjects,” he adds.
There will be parallel sessions
consisting of engaging panel
discussions,
interesting
keynotes and one-on-one conversation
with
eminent
authors. There will also be
books on sale and book-signing
sessions.
It does not end there. The
festival will also see the launch
of books such as My Stroke of
Luck
by
author
Vijay
Santhanam and Directors Cut:
50 Major Filmmakers of the
Modern Era by author K
Raghavendra.
A treat for bookworms, you
say? We couldn’t agree more.
The India Non-Fiction Festival will
be held between June 21-23 at
Nehru Centre, Worli