Hari Kunzru's formidable debut, The Impressionist , came out nine years ago, and since then, this master storyteller has lived up to his early promise, retaining the energy that was so palpable in his debut novel and combining it with a depth that is both acute and precise. His latest book, Gods Without Men , is an example of his acute understanding of the human experience. Kunzru's fiction is layered and populated with characters you want to know, and stories you want to hear, often driven forward by the coincidence of plotlines entangling in curious, exciting ways.
The word out there is that this novel was originally a short story? And yet, the narrative in Gods without men is intense, multi-layered and deeply questioning. How did a short story develop into a novel as intricate as this?
It was actually quite by accident. I was working in New York on a novel that wasn't going anywhere. There I was, sitting in my office with every resource that can be available to an author but not being able to come up with anything. A friend called me up to accompany him and some other friends on a trip to the California desert. I decided to go, hoping a break would clear my mind and give me a new perspective. Infact, the couple I went with had a small son about the same age as the boy in the novel. The landscape affected me deeply, and I began a short story about a couple in the desert motel, just to take my mind off the book that wasn't coming together. Before long, I knew I had a novel on my hand, because the story just took off. So I just let it.
There are so many characters in this book. Is there a reason for each of their presence?
I didn't plan any of the characters, the story simply unfolded. I decided to sit back and let it go where it would. I suppose my experience in the desert has something to do with the fact that each character in the book is looking for something, whether it is their young autistic son, or the larger metaphysical truths of life. The desert had a sort of mystical appeal for me, and it made me want to explore the human relationship and equation with the unknown and the unknowable. All the characters out on the desert are having experiences that sort of echo each other and maybe connect them in some way. There is a yearning for meaning and explanations in every character, whether it is the utopian society set by the UFO worshippers, or the parents trying to come to terms with loving a child who is unable to reciprocate or display his love for them.
You've chosen to set the novel in a landscape that inspires many interpretations. Tell us a little about choosing this particular background.
I first visited the Mojave in 2001, in the wake of 9/11, when my outgoing flight from Los Angeles was cancelled. That's when I hired a car and drove to death valley. In 2008, after the road trip with my friends, I visited the desert alone more than eight times. The barren, silent landscape of the desert, with its countless histories, left a mark. It's the stronghold of many spiritual traditions, the birthplace of religions; it's used as the base for the air force, military and marine operations. It's a place of many secrets. Everything has a quality of the mystical, the unknown. It becomes a place of self-exploration, of questioning humanity, spirituality. The Pinnacles, the fictitious three-fingered rocky outcrop is the centre point towards which the characters are being drawn. Everyone is somehow linked to the Pinnacles, right from the Native American drawings made on these rocks to the Utopian community set up near them by the UFO cult. It is just another way in which the characters are linked.
Like you said, the characters appear to be linked despite the huge gap in time, plotlines and identities. What do you think is that common thread that runs throughout the book and brings it all together?
Essentially, this book is about outsiders, which is one thing that brings them together. Both Jaz, the Sikh born US resident and his Jewish wife Lisa, the couple who form the central plotline of the book as they look for their son, are both outsiders. There is also this striking sense of a loss of spirituality and meaning that is felt by each character, while some are more obvious than the others. A deep sense of dissatisfaction, an idea very central to humanity that perpetuates every storyline. I wanted to write something that wouldn't offer you a neatly tied up storyline with clean answers. Instead, I wanted to explore the very idea of human existence against the backdrop of this bleak landscape where you feel so close to mystery.
There is an almost dystopian feel to the book, a feeling that there is a sort of crumbling at thecentre, both physically and spiritually. Was that a deliberate move on your part or did the idea seep into the book unknowingly?
I think that the sense of underlying cruelty that people are shown capable of incites that feeling of dystopia. The very utopian society set up by the UFO cult starts breaking down and results in something quite opposite to what it wanted to create. The media witch hunt that lashes out on the Jaz and Lisa is equally horrific. But I wouldn't really call the book dystopic for one reason, that the breakdown is not linear or chronological. The human condition, with all its cruelty and brutality, remains the same in every era. Time sort of collapses in itself, and there is no real beginning or end to the experience.
The multi-layered narrative style of your book has been compared to David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. What would you say to that?
David is actually a really good friend. I see where the comparison is coming from, but his narrative I think is neater, and a lot of loose ends are tied up. While in my book, a lot is left to the reader to figure out for themselves. The questions the book raises don't really have definitive answers. It's an attempt to understand human suffering and condition.
How do you think your work has changed since your debut novel, The Impressionist?
The idea of dealing with time and crossing of borders has become the prime subject of my works. I see that now after having worked on four novels, that the complexities of identity is there is each of my works. I'm always interested in the mind, and through this book, I've tried harder to understand what lies within each one of us, the yearning and desire for self-transformation that is the driving force.
