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BOOKS
Geoff Dyer's new novel perplexes me. There's little narrative tension let alone follow-through on events. The author also lacks emotional commitment to his narrator, exuding neither sympathy nor disdain or anything in between.
And yet this talented author drew me in with his witty commentary, imparting good-life bad-life enlightenment. He achieves this with an out-of-sorts, middle-aged British narrator whose self-confessed lack of ambition and purpose compel him to absorb himself in whatever comes his way.
That's exactly what he does in the book's first section, Jeff in Venice. The narrator, Jeff Atman, attends the world renowned Biennale, Venice's major international contemporary art exhibition. He's a reporter on assignment yet when he meets the gorgeous young Laura from America, she becomes his focus for the week, not his work.
There's not much to their relationship other than sharing parties, sex, cocaine and alcohol. When the week comes to an end, they part ways, and we turn the page, never to hear of Laura again or of what happened with Jeff's flubbed assignment.
Here we enter the book's second section - Death in Varanasi – where the narrator is unnamed. Considering he's a free-lance writer with the same characteristics as Jeff Atwood in Venice, it's an easy assumption that party-animal Jeff is now on assignment in India's sacred city.
In Varanasi, he strives to live the spiritual life. He exists in poverty, wanders the streets, gazes with holy men and baths in the River Ganges. He's obviously still a man absorbing himself in whatever comes his way. And clearly he's cleansing his sordid soul, riding it of desire, as we turn each undramatic page.
Death in Varanasi verges on being a bore, but it's saved by Dyer's occasional hilarious line and engaging witty portraits of people and events.
Such writerly talent is ultimately the appeal of all of this odd book rendering it mildly entertaining in Venice and surprisingly tolerable in Varanasi. Hence my perplexity – I found the book interesting, sometimes enjoyable, but it was not a book I was eager to read.
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer is published by Pantheon Books. I'm Kassie Rose.
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