The Charterhouse of Padma

by Padma Viswanathan

Two South Asian professors, both named P, unearth shocking secrets about the men they love and question the lives they chose.

P is writing obsessively about her favorite color: chartreuse. She’s a translator and professor, married to Mac, a professional feminist too slick for his own good. As the COVID lockdown commences, she discovers a secret about him, one that upends her understanding of their relationship and their marriage. In the gulf of their widening estrangement, P imagines a double, someone very like herself but less lonely, more independent, more angry, more maternal, more fun…

Now we meet another “P”: a novelist, also writing about chartreuse. She’s married to a successful poet and translator called Mat. It’s her second marriage—the first fell apart when she discovered a secret about her then-husband. This P is abraded, exhausted, and enraged: by racial microaggressions, by structural obstacles, by the ways her husband’s reaction to her own overdue career success is challenging their marriage. Granted stillness by the pandemic, though, this P rediscovers joy and hope in her relationship.

Eventually, each woman is led by her essay to the Chartreuse Mountains, the region made famous by the monks and their secret elixir.

The Charterhouse of Padma is full of delicious secrets, revelations, and sharply observed truths about what is to be brown, a woman, a wife, a mother, and an artist. Exhilarating, electrifying, charged with incisive intellect and humor, this is a novel for anyone who ever wondered how, and if, they ever chose the thing they love.

200 pages, Hardcover

Published October 22, 2024

About the author

Padma Viswanathan’s debut novel, The Toss of a Lemon, was published in eight countries, a bestseller in three, and a finalist for the Commonwealth (Regional) First Book Prize, the Amazon.ca First Novel Prize and the Pen Center USA Fiction Prize. Her second novel, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao, was published in Canada in spring of 2014, and shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. It is forthcoming in the USA, India and Australia.

Viswanathan’s short fiction appears in various journals; her story “Transitory Cities” won the 2006 Boston Review Short Story Contest. Her plays include House of Sacred Cows and Disco Does Not Suck.

She publishes cultural journalism and reviews in such venues as Elle Canada, The National Post and The Rumpus Online. Her handwritten Letter-in-the-Mail for The Rumpus can be found in Best American Non-Required Reading 2012. She has also published several short translations of Brazilian fiction.

Canadian by birth and temperament, she now lives on a hilltop in Arkansas with her husband (the poet and translator Geoffrey Brock), children, parents and an ever-shifting array of animals.

Reviews

[Dorsa D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing idea but the execution was strange, it had so much promise but I actually felt it was very disjointed, with lots of references to other materials that kept coming up, and I found myself getting lost often, trying to remember which quote was referring to which author etc. I wanted to like it, and maybe there’s something I’m not getting?? But it truly felt like a draft of a book and not a strong enough thread pulling it all together.

[Christian M · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5 —

Meh. The idea was really cool. The lack of execution was intense.
Also, so much info-dumping. So so so so much information (telling) with very little showing.

Meh.

[Shannon A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two women writers both intrigued by the same color and its history find that their stories weave together. A book full of history, secrets and how the life one chooses can make you question everything

[Shweta Ganesh Kumar · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is well-written. In the sense, the writing itself is lovely. There are sentences you will want to read again. There are paragraphs that you will read and then put the book down to process. But there is a whole chunk of the narrative that makes zero sense. And it is not the essay about the chartreuse. That part is actually fine.
It’s like the writer had two possible ways of writing this book - with two fairly similar characters and decided she did not know which one to choose. So she puts both of them in the book with the hope that it seems like a surreal indie film where there is a film within a film and a parallel nonfiction track.
I really enjoyed some parts but I wish she had a harsh editor who had made her choose. The book would have been shorter but it would have still been art and made sense.

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chartreuse as a liqueur, color, monastery and alpine region. Two similar academics and their families' stories, plus many philosophies somewhat related to chartreuse.
I would love to try the liqueur someday when I have the extra funds to buy the kind sold in the liquor store (truly authentic stuff is no longer produced).

The two stories aren't successfully resolved for my tastes although I did learn some interesting facts. The author was trying here, she said "to write about chartreuse as the idea of green, beyond the visible, an essence, elusive..."

This is the second book I've read in the last two weeks referencing Shahrazad/Scheherazade, weird. The other was Medusa's Ankles by A.S. Byatt.

[Enid Wray]

Sigh… a favourite author of mine and I am DNF’ing this one at approx 40% of the way through it.

I adored The Ever After of Ashwin Rao (can’ believe it has been 10 years since that title!), and I enjoyed Like Every Form of Love.

But this one? I have absolutely no idea what she is trying to accomplish here. I am totally confused by the narrative - a word I struggle to even apply to this title as it suggests something cohesive to me and there is nothing but randomness to this.

Thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for granting me access to an early digital copy. Apologies for the delay in getting this post up.

DNF

[Minelle Mahtani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary. Precise. Stunningly scaffolded and all around - genius. I know this sounds over the top but this is one of those books that you RELISH. EVERY line is worthwhile reading - there are moments that will make you stop and think for a long while. I underlined so many sections. I have so much respect for the author - the way she put the whole thing together; the storyline of the relationship with the narrator and her husband - it's astounding. One of the very best books I've read in ages.

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that I had to come here to Goodreads to read the book description to understand what I just read. I enjoyed it, though found it confusing. Perhaps an explanation of the different Ps and timelines would've helped. The book contained sharp observations on our needs for solitude and companionship, self actualization, gender roles, racism and the conflicts inherent in marriage.

[Theresa Jehlik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Take two professors named P., throw in a love of the color chartreuse, set them down in an Arkansas university, and relate their very similar lives. The plot itself is a novella as much of the novel explores the history of chartreuse within the context of history, art, and literature. Are there really two Ps or is this story of one woman who internally explores which path to take for the rest of her life?

[Dessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dug this a LOT. A book about the colour chartreuse, but also about a kind of monastic pensiveness, but also about alternate universes or paths through life not taken, and also about shitty husbands, and maybe the first book with Covid in it that I’ve read that didn’t feel like a “covid” book. Shelve it next to Bluets but only to see them fight (or maybe kiss, but only at night, when everyone else on the bookshelf is asleep).

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much enjoyed the voice and the stories of the two Padmas. Could have done with maybe fewer diversions into history and art. Still, a good read overall. 3-1/2 stars. From the “advance reader’s copy” bin at Main Street Books in Davidson, this ended up being a good pick.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the idea but it lacked conviction.