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| Edited By: Latha Srinivasan |Source: DNA |Updated: Dec 05, 2017, 02:09 PM IST
Canadian author Yann Martel will forever be associated with Life of Pi, the bestseller which won the Man Booker in 2002 and was made into an Oscar-bagging film by Ang Lee. The High Mountains of Portugal comes 15 years after that novel and is quite different, save for the fact that Martel embarks on yet another journey with this book.
As the title suggests, Martel's latest is set in Portugal, but it is not a single story like Life of Pi. This one is divided into three parts, with three stories taking you on a spiritual and philosophical journey.
In the first, a young museum curator named Tomás discovers an old diary of Father Ulisses in 1904 in Lisbon. At around this time, his father, lover Dora and son Gaspar all succumb to diphtheria within the span of a week and Tomás' world collapses. He then sets off in search of a mysterious crucifix in one of the earliest automobiles in Europe, which he borrows from his uncle. As he travels to the "high mountains of Portugal" in the automobile through villages, people look at it as if he's riding with the devil. Writes Martel: "A group of old women make the sign of the cross, and stare. Men stop their talking, and stare. Women stop their shopping, and stare."
At key moments in the story, the protagonist walks backwards. "When one is walking backwards," Martel explains, "one's more delicate parts – the face, the chest, the attractive details of one's clothing – are sheltered from the cruel world ahead and displayed only when and to whom one wants with a simple voluntary turn that shatters one's anonymity."
The story ends with a comical twist that makes Tomás' anger with god for all he's lost turn to sadness. This is when he truly grieves.
The second part of the book is set in 1938 and is about Esbesio, a pathologist, and his wife Maria Lozora. Religion is a central theme here too, with Lozora obsessed with books and religion. Agatha Christie is the couple's favourite author and Lozora views the life of Jesus as a murder mystery. "The sad fact is that there are no natural deaths, despite what doctors say. Every death is felt by someone as a murder, as the unjust taking of a loved being," she states. This story too revolves around death and grief; curiously, there's a chimpanzee running through as a common motif in all three stories.
We meet Peter Tovey, a Canadian senator, in the third part of the book. Set in 1981, it follows the senator as he heads to Oklahoma after his wife's death and ends up in a chimpanzee sanctuary where he starts spending time with the apes. He develops a special relationship with one of them, Odo, and his sister accuses him of being in love with the animal. Tovey then heads to the "high mountains of Portugal" with Odo, who has become human for him.
Unlike Life of Pi, The High Mountains... is no simple, straightforward read. It has many layers, which not everyone may take a liking to. The stories here are abstract and deal with death and religion for the most part. The relationship between man and animal (in this case, the chimpanzee) is explored by Martel in all three stories. In the end, you realise how man and animal need to co-exist and the impact they have on each other – emotionally and spiritually.
