The Mystic Masseur

by V.S. Naipaul

The Mystic Masseur

300 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2022

About the author

V. S. Naipaul was a British writer of Indo-Trinidadian descent known for his sharp, often controversial explorations of postcolonial societies, identity, and displacement. His works, which include both fiction and nonfiction, often depict themes of exile, cultural alienation, and the lingering effects of colonialism.
He gained early recognition with A House for Mr Biswas, a novel inspired by his father’s struggles in Trinidad. His later works, such as The Mimic Men, In a Free State, and A Bend in the River, cemented his reputation as a masterful and incisive writer. Beyond fiction, his travelogues and essays, including Among the Believers and India: A Million Mutinies Now, reflected his critical perspective on societies in transition.
Naipaul received numerous accolades throughout his career, including the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded for his ability to blend deep observation with literary artistry. While praised for his prose, his often unsparing portrayals of postcolonial nations and controversial statements sparked both admiration and criticism.

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 - a glimpse of Hindus in colonial Trinidad, small villages, local gossip, politics, some really quirky characters! I liked some of his other works better, but this engages with wry humor, and surprising developments as the hero moves up the food chain. Reminder that Naipaul won Nobel Prize 2001.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel articulates the tale of a man called Ganesh Ramsumair belonging to Trinidad.

Ganesh has been ceremoniously educated to only a low level; but he has read extensively and, by making use of this eclectic reading, he is able to inaugurate himself first as a masseur, and to end with as a religious and psychological adviser, or a pundit. His fame spreads over the whole of Trinidad and, in 1946, when the first elections are held on this island; he manages to bank on his status and gets elected as a member of the Legislative Council. In his new role, he shows himself a great patriot and a defender of the rights of the people of Trinidad; and he refuses even to participate in the rituals of the British rulers of the island. He even supports a strike of the sugar-workers, voicing some nebulous Marxist ideas. However, when he is roughly handled by the crowd, his sympathies turn in the opposite direction and, as a consequence, he adopts the clothes and attitudes of the Britishers. When he is no longer an elected member of the Legislative Council, he is norainated to that body, and afterwards receives the title of M.B.E. Finally, he appears in England under the name of G. Ramsay Muir. In each step of this career, the author is satirizing the rise to power of a representative of the people in a country which is about to achieve its independence from British rule.

In the character of Ganesh, the author presents the dilemma to which the author often returns in his novels. The dilemma consists in the problem of reconciling two conflicting views of life. During Ganesh's early career, events happen to him, and he makes no effort to direct or control them. He even marries Leela Ramlogan because her father has decided upon this match.

Ganesh's attitude in these matters is mildly fatalistic, and this seems to justify his lack of initiative and his success by reference to God's will. However, success does come to him, and, under its impact, he begins to see that advancement in life can be achieved by deliberate planning, correctly made and energetically executed. From this point, his success grows and, in the context of the book, it is manifested symbolically by his acquisition of western goods and products. His house expands; he moves into business ventures related to his success as a pundit; and he obtains a refrigerator which he keeps filled with bottles of Coca Cola, thus showing the conquest of western civilization. Ganesh now plans, looks ahead, perceives opportunities, whereas heretofore he had merely expected events.

The whole book is written lightly, the novel being primarily comic in intention even though the subject is one which Naipaul takes seriously.

Although the book is hospitable enough, a certain dearth and privation on part of the author is evidently observable. The hero approaches his lowest of sympathy on the point of achievement in such scenes as the dinner at Government House where the author styles an imagined skirmish between the most naive members of Creole and Indian society on one side and the decidedly civilized and urbane wife of the governor.

All that Naipaul finds ludicrous in Creole society is brought out in this scene: the bad grammar, the lack of taste or social grace, and the struggle to behave like the white people. A black man is shown as being dressed in a blue suit with yellow gloves and a monocle which in due course falls into the soup. Several of the guests at the dinner have difficulty in using their knives and forks. Unquestionably, we can accept such a scene as nonsensical and as intended to show the Creoles and the Indians following the tender and illogical road to civilization and erudition typified by the whites.

But we also get the impression that Naipaul himself looks upon these people with more disdain than empathy and that he is therefore wanting in pity. These are the same people whom Naipaul afterwards described in ‘The Middle Passage’ as being "like monkeys pleading for evolution." The absurdity as well as inappropriateness of his position here is that, while he laughs and ridicules at the Creoles who sketchily imitate and ape standards of pseudo-whiteness, he can only do so by assuming these very standards himself.

The author makes the assertion that the history of Ganesh is, in a way, the history of the modern times. Is the claim valid?

The claim is useable, but only to a partial extent.

The story of the career of Ganesh is awash with hilarity. However, one observes a meagreness of concrete detail about the society of which Ganesh is a representative. Conversely stated, though we are told much about Ganesh's own life and career, we are not told enough about the society of which he is an archetype.

There is diffidently not ample element of the interaction of the society to support the author's claim that the book is a history of our times. Another weakness of the book is the inconsistency in the literary power granted to the narrator by the author.

The narrator is, of course, Ganesh himself, and so the story is written in the first person pronoun.

This book, variously described as a spiritual thriller and a metaphysical whodunit. However, its weaknesses and plot-gaps apart, it makes a wonderful, wonderful read. Give it a go.

[John Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was V. S. Naipaul's first book written in 1957 and it tells of the character, Ganesh Ramsumir, a Trinidadian Hindi, like the author, who moved from being a masseur to a mystic to a politician. His first three novels were about life in Trinidad and are not as bitter as most of Naipaul's works. Still, the other two Trinidadian novels, A HOUSE FOR MR. BISWAS and MIGUEL STREET are much stronger books than this one. I enjoyed it at first but as it followed Ganesh's life, I found it less easy to follow.

[Kevin McAvoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this was Sir VS Naipaul's 1st novel.
The characters dialogue is the best feature for me.
I thought the book meandered until the 2nd half where it was better focused and became clearly more political in a satirical way.

[Bianca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook and I found it quite tedious - I would have preferred a Trinidadian narrator who would have understood and known how to pronounce colloquial expressions.

The book itself is interesting, but as engaging as I expected.