The classic legend of Faust, of the man who sells his soul to the devil, has an appeal that is timeless and mythical. More than half a millennium after its first literary efflorescence in early German literature this mesmerising myth is mined once again, this time for Malayali readers by P.F. Mathews in his latest novel Iruttil Oru Punyalan .
The ancient port town of Cochin, with its magic of the mesmerising sea and a material history of endless waves of colonial invasions, forms the backdrop for the story in which unfolds the tale of a small Latin American community. As tales, myths and legends that travelled the seven seas as part of a colonial legacy mingle with native fables and folklore what results is a haunting blend of magical realism and social realism where the miraculous and the marvellous become part of the ordinary, of the material and the rational. It is a richly evocative colloquial language that the novel can boast of as another one of its strengths. It is interesting to note that the epic revelations in the novel are essentially feminine intuitions. The razor sharpness of some of the observations of the female protagonists regarding a raging evil around them adds to creating an atmosphere of menacing horror. However, it could also reflect a particularly female fear of giving birth to all evil in this world. The tale works at multiple levels, as a psychological thriller, a supernatural thriller, a diabolical family saga, a simple allegorical story or moral fable.
The novel is brilliant for its narrative innovations. With a church at its centre, one narrator after another from a tiny Latin American community that live in the fringes Kochi, opens up to a tale, with each narrative revealing another turn in the screw of a bewitching story whose roots run into a distant colonial past of the Dutch and the Portuguese. As the living and dead, and souls unable to recognise their deadness, all come and narrate their individual tales, the Church and the Bible, and the concept of the innate goodness of humanity attain new dimensions. One of the most brilliant strategies of narration is the yet unwritten chapter of the handbook of Satan wherein one hears from the devil’s own mouth his core philosophy that both god and devil are not external entities but projections of each individual’s personal self, benevolent or malevolent according to personal choice.
This novel is a perfect metaphor for our own times. Of ordinary men and women who are willing to sell their souls for the sake of endless desires and unending consumption. Thus Iruttil Oru Punyalan unveils a turbulent mindscape in which the reader is relentlessly forced to search for his or her own personal meaning. Dabbling in magic realism and invoking the ghosts of the past are only literary devices to play with the eternal themes of good and evil, of damnation and salvation. But with each page one is reminded of the contemporariness of the Faustian myth, the eternal present which demands that we sell our souls and fix a price tag for our integrity. This bizarre tale, borrowing from the demonic Legion of the New Testament, taps into the most enduring horror stories of all times, a theme repeatedly plumbed by Hollywood in the numerous sequels of the Exorcist , as also by popular literature across all ages and languages. As a pre-modern tale unfolds in intensity in the minds of numerous characters, it attains a post-modern play that proclaims the open ended-ness of God and Satan.
Iruttil Oru Punyalan
P.F. Mathews
DC Books
Rs. 120
