Hub of excitement

Tram 83
Fiston Mwanza
Mujila
Speaking Tiger
2016, pp 210, Rs 350

Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s Tram 83 was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize this year, but it lost to The Vegetarian by Han Kang. Nevertheless, that does not take away its unique story-telling style. The translation by Roland Glasser imbues the tale with the flavour the author intended to in the original.

Set in an imaginary city-state in Congo, Tram 83 narrates the story of two childhood friends grown apart over the years. Lucien and Requiem tread entirely different paths, in real life as well as metaphorically. Lucien is the sensitive, gentle soul — a professional writer, while Requiem is the quintessential bad boy. Requiem nurtures a grudge against Lucien as he believes, wrongly though, that his friend has lured his wife away in his absence. The city-state is run by a dictatorial General who is busy stripping the area dry of its natural mineral resources. Sheer lawlessness prevails and, like in the days of the Gold Rush in America, prospectors from all over the world make the city-state their home to exploit its mineral wealth and to make their fortune.

The action takes place mostly in Tram 83, a bar-cum-nightclub-cum-brothel, every evening. It is where everyone who is someone in the city meets. It is where connections are made, networks are revived, women are picked up, threats are issued, drinks are downed, and brawls happen.

Riffs of jazz and salsa and blues and rumbas form the background, as do the women of various ages — from nubile baby-chicks in their early teens to single-mamas, and ageless-women with silicone breasts, not wanting to “gain a single day” and who “administer massage sessions, cuddles, and other ingredients of the night.” The competition for customers is stiff, making these ladies of the night employ extremely in-your-face tactics to lure clients. “Do you have the time?” is their standard opening line to prospective seekers of their bed. It is also the underlying refrain in the book, much as a chorus in stage musicals.

Indeed, Tram 83 is a stage of sorts for all its players: be it Lucien, Requiem, rebels, gunrunners, tourists, drug peddlers, railroad workers, bounty hunters, adventurers, musicians, explorers, those seeking political asylum, pimps, miners, dancers, lawyers, you-name-it. It is the setting where drama begins every evening and goes on till the early hours of the morning.

Lucien is back from Europe, hoping to write a new work to be performed on stage in France. Requiem gives him shelter but, at the same time, tries not to let him succeed in order to extract his revenge for the supposed slight. Lucien, the idealistic soul, does not catch on to his machinations until late. The parallel lines run along at a frenetic pace till the denouement.

The tale is mainly about the relationship between the two, but manages to fit in enough characters with a life of their own. The edgy style of the author brings out the pathos, noisiness and sleaze of the vibrant underbelly of the fictional city.

Mujila creates sentences that are pages long, and his paragraphs are occasionally constructed with a few repetitive words, but they end up sounding poetic and lyrical while imparting the prevailing sense of urgency of the setting and in the characters. The expressive and elegiac prose makes the seediness so palpable, the poverty so tangible, the darkness and debauchery so intense, yet it does not reach the point of despair. There drifts a sense of optimism and joy despite the crumminess and covert violence.

It’s a pleasure to read a story that is set in a land that few write or read about. The author’s well-crafted work enhances the senses and brings alive the exploitation of Congo and Africa as a whole. Not for nothing was this novel listed for many prestigious awards when it made its debut in 2014. Fiston Mwanza Mujila is a writer to watch out for.