JOIN USIt’s complicated... his life... his relationships... his thoughts. The protagonist of Tanuj Solanki’s debut novel Neon Noon, who is introduced to the reader as just T, is a wandering soul. Is he the author’s alter ego? Or maybe this piece of fiction is inspired by the life of Solanki! Is it possible that T is echoing his creator when he says: “I’m a compulsive archivist of myself”? It does feel like it when the author seemingly talks to the reader, much as one would exchange confidences with a friend.
T is an aspiring author, struggling to write as well as get over a broken relationship with Anne Marie, his French-speaking Swiss girlfriend whom he met at business school. They have been in a comfortable compatible live-in arrangement in the tiny suburb of Bandra in Mumbai, both busy with their respective careers, leading a life of companionable bliss. So in love is he with his woman that he even attempts to teach himself French by reading Madame Bovary in the original, and the translation! That does get him brownie points from the lady, but does not prevent the break-up. There does not seem to be any one particular tangible reason for the break. Is it the mishmash of his creative energy (insurance job plus wannabe writer) that puts her off, or the longing for a son he wants them to create in the future? Whatever the reason, Anne Marie returns to Switzerland, leaving him emotionally bereft. So distraught is he that one bedroom in his apartment becomes practically a shrine for his ex where no one is allowed to enter; it is “a room set by a woman and upset by a man”, a room full of memories for him despite her empty cupboard.
A while later, she invites him for a holiday to Interlaken, but strictly on a friendship basis. Our man debates with himself and chooses to go on a solo holiday to Pattaya instead, that hot-bed of sin, hoping to purge his grief and pain and angst in paid sex and debauchery. Amid the frenzied frantic neon lights of the rushed town, he comes across Noon, a woman who ekes out a living doing what women in Pattaya are known for. The homely plain lady of the night becomes his succour and saviour and helps him get over Anne Marie and mend his achy-breaky heart.
Solanki’s voice is one that is unique and promising among the many new talents in Indian English writing. Neon Noon is a tale that does not need footnotes to explain the exotic Orient. The emotions expressed are universal. The bordering-on-maudlin self-pity, the moodiness, the nostalgic memory trips, the self-indulgent melancholia, all make the narrative of this strange love story very human.
The story teeters towards fantasy when T runs into Orhan in Pattaya. Orhan could be the unborn longed-for son he wanted to have with Anne Marie. Their interactions turn the tale, for a while at least, into the equivalent of arthouse experimental esoteric cinema in prose. His thought processes, guilt, love, heartache: all come to the fore in an attempt to start afresh. And he succeeds! In her own simplistic way, Noon plays a vital role in helping him come to terms with his angst.
The structure and disjointed style of the narrative is unusual and lends freshness to the story. It had its origins as a short story, according to the author, that “can be a sprawling mess”, but here, the rambling and disjointedness come together efficiently. What’s more, it holds the reader’s interest too in a skilful manner.
Usage of words seems to be Solanki’s forte, and makes this work quite extraordinary despite it seeming to be somewhat fragmented at the start, what with the jumping from Janata bars to expensive breads and jams from upmarket Mumbai bakeries to treks in Nepal to the sleaze of Pattaya. However, all the pieces of the puzzle fit in together gradually. Tanuj Solanki has a way with words that express emotions not many writers may find easy to do. For instance: “We kissed not like two people in love, but like two people in love with the possibility of love.” Ah! The poetry! And the thought! The story is strewn with many such nuggets that are a pleasure to read. Some have a delicious underlying tongue-in-cheek wit. Example: a place where “mid-sized capital and mid-sized enterprise waltz together to present the world’s oldest value proposition in glitzy red, inescapable allure”. That’s Solanki’s description of a whorehouse in Pattaya! It’s his usage of words and construction of skilful beautiful sentences that lifts this tale of a failed love story to raised heights.
Solanki, who has been a runner-up in fiction contests and has had his work appear in mainstream magazines, is a promising talent to look out for.
Neon Noon
Tanuj Solanki
Harper Collins
2016, pp 215
Rs 499