Book Review
By Ganesh Saili
Chicanery – by Timeri N Murari; Soft Cover; Pages 418; Niyogi Books; Rs 695
Chicanery means trickery or deception by quibbling or sophistry. As a title, it’s a bit way out and seems to be part of a test of a reader’s vocabulary. This novel swings between being a crime thriller and a political allegory, with a quick ‘dip’ into a bowl of romance. Our hero lives in self-imposed exile, as he becomes a persona non grata in his homeland and will soon be executed as an enemy of the state if he ever dares to return home. The book is set in the present time, and the main protagonist has been forced to leave almost two decades ago.
It is set in a fictional country, and that could be any country in our troubled times. Cleverly the book ties up abstract political and social commentary, setting the tone of satire tinged with a melancholic state of affairs. In the book, as in life, all’s well that ends well.
You could say that this holds for the planet we live on. Even as we move through parallels elsewhere in that country, the reader cannot help but wonder if the author has in mind neighbouring Mexico. After twenty years in exile, Richard Richelieu returns home. It could be almost anywhere in the USA… or maybe even a USSR fragment, the happenings are so eerily contemporary and familiar, that possibly any reader in any country today will relate to it. At the border, the Artificial Intelligence cameras identify him as Cryomared, the ex-Prime Minister of a once-democratic nation: ‘He stopped the car at the first border post and got out as a border security guard in military fatigues came out of the office, stifling a yawn, rubbing sleep from his eyes… “American? One day I would like to move there. I have cousins in Santa Fe.” He checked the visa and looked across the other border post. ‘You really want to go there?’
‘It’s a dangerous place, I tell you. It was a democracy once but then a populist party won the election twenty years ago, I read they executed the old prime minister. He was a good man, they said. People live like sheep now, in their stone pens.’ He laughed, a dry one. ‘In a few days they will have an election and the same party will win again. There is no opposition.’
Sounds familiar? It could be any country given the simple plot that is so evocative of modern thrillers. The story is pithy, focused and has a moral compass, but does not try to get too self-righteous. The suspense is tight and paced perfectly: neither lagging nor hurried. The language, simple while the tenor of the tale flows like a river. All you have to do is sit back and enjoy the boat ride.
The characters are not too far-fetched. Indeed, they feel so much like you and me. After all, when the day is done, we all think and feel and desire the simple things in life. The characters are written in a focused way, with emphasis on the values that they stand for. To me, the book is parable-like as the characters go beyond their identity turning as if by sleight of hand into you and me.
The book leaves the readers satisfied. Here’s an allegory of our troubled times.
(Ganesh Saili born and home-grown in the hills belongs to those select few whose words are illustrated by their own pictures. Author of two dozen books; some translated into twenty languages, his work has found recognition world-wide.)
