PXylem

By Rishikesh Sinha

Life can become full of experiments with all possible hits and trials, especially if it is involve one-year stay in the US. This is the central theme of Anurag Mathur’s humorous novel ‘The Inscrutable Americans’. The story in the book is a life spent in the US by an Indian student and his trials and tribulations in the new world.

Gopal whose identification in India is that he belongs to the small town called ‘the Paris of Madhya Pradesh’ and his family is in the hair-oil business, staying in America comes as a learning curve in his life.

His English is comical (I am hoping all is well and wealth…I am fine at my end. Hoping your end is fine too) and his Indian perspective about America, and about American people is bizarre (I think Americans are hating vegetarians…They are playing game which they are calling football in which they are beating each other without any mercies for no reason…I am feeling that they should do more beating each other then at least they are not beating rest of world), like many of the Indians have about America.

Especially the 4-letters (which shortens in its length with his long stay) that he wrote to his brother describing his feelings comes as a creamy froth in the whole novel. The letters written by him are as such that it will surely trickle a person with no funny bones. I would say the letters are gems in the whole book.

Leafing through the book, readers would find that they are discovering America not limited to the jovial but embarrassing experiences that any person of Indian DNA would have, but parallel to it they would be unfolding America in a different perspective. They do have problems; there are parts in the country which doesn’t look like America, “there is so much dirt” and “it is too poor”.

About the book ‘The Inscrutable Americans’ written by Anurag Mathur, I would share the same thought that the Times of India wrote about it, “There is no self-contempt or post-colonial anguish in it (‘The Inscrutable Americans’), instead there is a boisterous, if comical celebration of both India and America ”.

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To create a crime free world for the future generations is the central theme of the Mario Puzo’s novel ‘The Last Don’. Irony is that the urge of the mafia-free world comes from non other than the ‘Don’, whose hand is soaked in blood, killing that he perpetrated on his enemies and on his own family members! The novel ‘The Last Don’ by the writer Mario Puzo, if someone had read his previous novel ‘The Godfather’, is the pure sequel of the first. Readers will definitely enjoy ‘The Last Don’ as much they have liked ‘The Godfather’.

The plots of both the stories are same; the mafia world underlies ‘The Godfather’ and ‘The Last Don’. The law of omerta (silence) is maintained in both the world. There is a touch of Hollywood in both the novels. Despite its many similarities both the novels are completely divergent to each other. In ‘The Godfather’ where the Don Corleone aspiration to sync with the democratic world remains a chimera, in the ‘The Last Don’, Don Domencio Clerizuio is successful, but with a price.

The price involves killing of his grandchild Dante Clerizuio and Croccifixio De Lena, the son of Don’s nephew Joseph “Pippi” De Lena. The Don loved Pippi as much as he did his sons, for in addition to blood – Pippi being his dead sister’s son – he was the great general who had savagely conquered the Don’s enemy.

The story begins with the celebration of the christening of two infants (Dante Clerizuio and of Croccifixio De Lena). Here, the most powerful Mafia Family in America, Don Domencio Clerizuio planned to relinquish his power. And he had to do it with the most skillful benignity and with personal goodwill. He wants to see the coming generation to live in a world devoid of fear.

The Don declares, “Twenty, thirty years from now, we will disappear into the lawful world and enjoy our wealth without fear…We are rich, we no longer have to risk our lives to earn our daily bread”. However, he had a plan for the future; they would be serving others families at political front and would be meditating their quarrels, protect their money, for which they have to wet their beaks.

The declaration of the twenty, thirty years by the Don takes the reader to an engrossing path: the two infants becoming adults, Dante harbouring revenge of his father’s death, Croccifixio De Lena or Cross falling in love with a hot and sexy Hollywood babe. The story takes a sour turn when Dante murders Cross’s father Pippi. Consequently, Cross hatch a plot to kill Dante knowing that murdering Dante would risk his life, from the decree that would be authenticated by non other than the Don. But, he carries out the act meticulously and silenced Dante forever.

Till this, to the last page, readers would be thinking that the events that were unfolding were natural. But in the last page, while the Don was at his death bed, a secret is revealed that the revenge game was all part of the grand master plan dreamt by Don himself to be the part of the society.

“During the last five years he had seen Dante as the great danger to his master plan. Dante would resist the folding of Cluricuzio Family into society. And yet, what could he himself, the Don, do? Order the killing of his daughter’s son, his own grandson? Would Giogio, Vincent, and Petie (Don’s son) obey such an order? And if they did, would they think him some kind monster? Would they fear him more than they loved him? …But when Pippi De Lena was killed, the die was cast. The Don immediately knew the truth of the matter, investigated Dante’s relationship with Losey (cop who supported Dante to kill Pippi) and made his judgment….And then to forewarn Cross, told him the story of the Santadio War (where Cross’s father Pippi murdered Dante father).”

While reading the novel one finds that the philosophies of life apply similar to the mafia world: 1) “What’s past is past. Never go back Not for excuses. Not for justification, not for happiness. You are what you are, the world is what it is.” 2) “People must earn a living, that comes first.” 3) “Love is not a reliable emotion no matter how deep. Love does not ensure gratitude, does not ensure obedience, does not provide harmony is so difficult a world. To inspire true love, one also had to be feared. Love alone was contemptible, it was nothing if it did not also include trust and obedience. What good was love to him if it did not acknowledge his rule?” 4 ) “Be aware. The world is what it is. And you are what you are.”

I would say Mario Puzo’s novel is excellent, gripping and engaging in nature. You will never miss something that is missing from the beginning to the end. The writer has been able to keep his readers on their toes. Unless, they have read “The Godfather”.

Next Book Review: The Inscrutable Americans