For such a short book, Saikat Majumdar's The Remains of the Body packs a massive punch. It took me about 10 days to read this near-novella not because I didn't like it, but because it made the emotion of love so real, so visceral, that it was overwhelming at times.
The spare plot of the book sticks firmly to a single question: What happens when one out of a tightly bonded set of three people who love each other finds himself caught between the other two when their marriage ends? Especially when this one person is deeply attracted to both the others? The answer, as Kaustav, the central character in the book, must learn, is that there is no answer until the truth is spoken aloud.
Kaustav, a PhD student in Canada, has been deeply bonded to his friend Avik since they were kids in Kolkata. Avik has always been the rock Kaustav leans on, thanks first to Kaustav’s uncaring family and later to Kaustav’s unspoken feelings for Avik. For Avik, who does not think very deeply and is somewhat afraid of sex, Kaustav is also a rock: his friend’s experiences, sexual and otherwise, are the learning experiences Avik cannot bring himself to undergo.
Still, Avik is the one who marries and his wife is Sunetra, a brilliant researcher who gives up the subject she loves to become a corporate drone. Living in the US, Avik seeks the American dream and finds it in his large house and fancy car. Kaustav is a welcome visitor to this house, one of the family, beloved uncle to Sunetra and Avik’s son, and Sunetra’s partner in domesticity when Avik indulges in man-boy behaviour with other friends.
But one day Sunetra cannot take Avik any longer, so she turns to Kaustav instead. And that is when Kaustav must figure out his truths. Who does he love? Who does he really love?
To me, The Remains of the Body is an intriguing work. While the story centres on love, there’s no romance in it at all. The book is written in physical terms that many people would find repulsive. Avik has hairy nipples and a big stomach. Sunetra is so bony that sex with her is like being stabbed. No romantic novel uses descriptions like this. But love? Love notes these things and they don’t matter. Love is just love. And I can say with truth that though I cringed through the physicality of the writing, I loved this book.
The Remains of the Body
By Saikat Majumdar
Penguin
pp. 170; Rs 499
