A novel with a profound sense of serenity, grace

Upamanyu Chatterjee's 'Lorenzo Searches For The Meaning Of Life' is a cleverly self-reflexive novel that wears its scholarship lightly

- Somak Ghoshal

If there's a common theme that runs through the novels of Upamanyu Chatterjee, it is his enduring, some would say endearing, interest in the lives of social misfits. Starting with the unforgettable Agastya Sen of English, August (1988), his debut novel, each of Chatterjee's protagonists, all men, is a study in eccentricity, twisted appetites, and an insatiable capacity for Rabelaisian humour.

Between Jamun in The Last Burden (2000) and Way To Go (2010), Bhola in Weight Loss (2006), Nirip in Fairy Tales At Fifty (2015), and Parmatma in Villainy (2022), Chatterjee has covered the whole gamut of human experience, all the seven deadly sins and every unspeakable horror that lies beyond. For his heroes (or anti-heroes, if you prefer), no fantasy is beyond the pale, every weakness of the flesh is to be indulged in, and the rulebook of morality exists only to be violated, in word and deed.

It is for this reason that Chatterjee's new novel, Lorenzo Searches For The Meaning Of Life, comes to readers, especially his long-term admirers, as a bit of shock. Based on the true story of Fabrizio Senesi, who, Chatterjee claims, is "a good friend" of his, it is his most sober book by far. Instead of Chatterjee's trademark acerbic wit, we encounter a gentle soul in the omniscient narrator, who speaks in a prissily measured tone. Is it softness that's been wrought by time (Chatterjee turns 65 this year), or a masterly Houdini act by one of the most original voices of his generation? Either way, Lorenzo is a delight to read, especially the first half, which is set in Trieste, Italy. As the story begins, the eponymous protagonist is a youth of 21, earnest and serious, but scarred by the wounds of a road accident that has left him with a steel plate in one of his limbs. As with any nearfatal trauma, Lorenzo is led to reflect on the Big Questions of existence as he lies recuperating.