Author:
Jerry Pinto
Publisher:
Aleph
Pages:
235
Price:
Rs. 295
Jerry Pinto’s novel deals with
much less talked about topic – Depression. It is the story of Imelda Mendes,
‘Em’ to her children who is a manic depressive. Her innumerable suicide
attempts get her into Ward 33 (Psychiatric), Sir J. J. Hospital. The story begins
in media res, as all great pieces of
epic writing begin. But it is not an epic. It is rather a testimony of the
narrator who remains unmanned throughout the novel. It is his quest in order to
understand his eccentric mother and get to the bottom of her personality before
and after depression.
Pinto is a ubiquitous figure in
the Mumbai literary scene. He has managed to weave together a neat semi-memoir
disguised as a piece of fiction which is painstakingly heartbreaking and darkly
humorous. The novel is quite a bit funny at times. The comic reliefs which are
usually a bit scandalizing provide light moments in the course of the novel. It
perfectly captures the depressive lows and ephemeral highs of someone who is
afflicted with mental illness.
Mental illness is something that
causes agony, pain, sympathy and a myriad range of emotions which keep us away
from entering the realm of understanding of what it is to be in that
predicament. Pinto writes with a lot of ease about a topic which is not openly
discussed. Writing about something like depression is not easy. One needs to be
articulate with thoughts and ideas. There is an underlying coherence in the
novel which permeates the psyche of the reader. The novel is made up of
anecdotes which are unfolded through the eyes of the narrator. The narrator
tends to be a figure that attracts our sympathy as well as scorn.
The character of Em is central
and most important in the novel. The entire story revolves around her. She is a
quintessential Goan-Catholic living with her family in a
one-bedroom-hall-kitchen flat in Mahim. The locale itself gives the reader a
slight idea of the community to which Em belongs. It adds to the
characterization. Before her marriage to the ‘Big Hoom’, her husband
(Augustine), Em was perfectly alright. It is only after the birth of the
narrator she begins to start experiencing depression. The way Pinto has
described depression leaves the reader speechless. “After you were born,
someone turned on a tap. At first it was only a drip, a black drip, and I felt
sadness.”
The novel makes use of old
letters and certain anecdotes. The semi-epistolary form and an interview like
form of the novel enable the reader to witness vivid events that have occurred
in the past. One tends to get engrossed in the story. The characterization of
Em is moving in the sense that it is highly detailed and peculiar. Pinto draws
an intricate portrait of the narrator who is filled with anguish, who wants to
empathize with his mother and at times is absolutely fed up because of a
dysfunctional manic depressive. It is hard for him to make peace with his
mother’s condition. Through this novel it becomes clear that the opposite of
depression in not happiness but vitality. It is the loss of vitality that
sabotages Em’s life.
The cover art of the book is
rather interesting. It has snippets from Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai and Amitav
Ghosh about what they have to say regarding the novel. This book is highly
moving and shows depression in a completely different light. It is a touching
narrative of a family which is held together by the woman who is flamboyant. It
is a detailed study of a mental illness and also a deeply moving story about
love and family relationships. It won’t disappoint you one bit and will leave
you spellbound with its poignancy.
PS – I was fortunate to meet
Jerry Pinto at Shivaji Park. My friend, Mohima, contacted him and he invited us
to meet him at Barista. I was very delighted at the thought of meeting him
considering that how much I loved the book. I also got my book signed by him.