Dasgupta Meets Chaucer: A Confluence of Styles

Rana Dasgupta's Tokyo Cancelled, a novel (or is it a collection of short stories?)

This is one of those stories you start reading and you say, "Why did I not think of this idea?" Dasgupta innovatively connects his work with an idea from classical literature and the result is a refreshing invention. I came to know about Rana Dasgupta because he is the 2009 Willesden Herald Short Story competition judge. The 2008 was Zadie Smith, who did not find any of the twenty-five shortlist stories not eligible for the prize.

Tokyo Cancelled, which reads like a collection of short stories, has been classified by many a critic as work of magic realism. It is “entrancing”(Red) with its thirteen stories which have been described by TLS as “marvels of fabulation…rich in startling insigts.” Often, these are the comments that encourage the regular mass market reader (for instance, in the USA) to purchase literary books, and then when the book gets on the New York Times list, or if the author appears on Oprah, ah, the situation becomes fantastic. But’s what the point again? Oh, that this book, which was published to great critical acclaim, did “outdo the Arabian Nights for inventiveness” (Guardian).

Dasgupta is indeed inventive. At the end of the section entitled “Arrivals”, the informed reader discovers that he or she is about to read a book that follows in the footsteps of the Canterbury Tales. The sheer size of Dusgupta’s ambition is impressive. Basically, the passengers of a Tokyo-bound airplane are stuck at an airport because Tokyo is covered in snow and all flights to it have been cancelled. All but thirteen of the passengers are taken to hotels and motels with available room for the night. The thirteen for whom no room is found have to spend the night at the airtport.

What the thirteen agree to do raises Dusgupta’s story to a Chaucerian proportion the theme pilgrimage. They decide to entertain themselves by telling stories. Throughout the book the importance of stories is highlighted, starting with the very first one in which a king judges the moral soundness of a citizen by asking him to tell a story according the traditions of the land, which include the use of thirteen stages of story execution. The tailor does a great job of telling the story and is financially rewarded. Great message here: Tell a story and tell it well; you may make some money.

We will temporarily close this entry by adding our own description of the book: “brilliant, amazing, fantastic, ambitious."