There’s an intellectual idiom in Japanese: A book that deals with people and places is a book that go places. So very true. Malay Chatterjee’s The Drunk Bird Chronicles is one such book that vindicates and validates the aforementioned aphorism.
Written in the style of Carlos Fuentes and Juan Carlos Onetti, two titans of Latin American Literature, Malay has a proclivity to explore exotic and outlandish. This cerebral knack enables him to traverse through places, people and peculiarities that life throws up.
Browsing through a few pages of this book is enough to provide a peek into the mental make-up of the writer, who seems to have understood the landscapes with an uncanny ability.
The Dutch word ‘Droxin’ for a writer’s caprice and capers will be appropriate to define the quiddity of Malay’s sparkling literary endeavour. The ‘Drunk Bird’ is actually a metaphorical phrase used by a writer who witnesses the vicissitudes of life and cavalcade of history as an insouciant observer.
The Objective Co-relativity of Thomas Stearns Eliot becomes obvious when you flip through the book and identify with the characters. All characters have a kind of liveliness that doesn't let the book appear vapid.
The novel falls in the glance through genre of a new-age novel-writing. The 19th century Calcutta and Shillong have been well depicted as well as juxtaposed to re-enact the English social milieu of that era.
Recreating the aura of a particular era is no less than a challenge. The novelist has succeeded in taking his readers back to those times without sounding artificial.
The genuineness of intent, the correctness of time recreated and the robustness of the characters make it a novel worth-reading. The charm of Victorian Era Calcutta, the most anglicized city, and The Scotland of the East, Shillong captivates the readers.
The book is Colin Gantzer's journeys and jottings through India. The style is racy, the presentation is eye-catching and the outcome is magnificent. All in all, a fantabulous book for those who look for novel and newfangled plots, woven into a braid of a book.
