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The Mystic Masseur

A Novel

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The Mystic Masseur

Written by: V. S. Naipaul
Narrated by: Ron Butler
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About this listen

The first of Naipaul's 12 novels tells of one man's meteoric rise and hilarious metamorphosis from failed schoolteacher and struggling masseur to the most popular man in Trinidad.

In this slyly funny and lavishly inventive novel, Nobel Prize winner V. S. Naipaul traces the unlikely career of Ganesh Ramsumair, a failed schoolteacher and impecunious village masseur who in time becomes a revered mystic, a thriving entrepreneur, and the most beloved politician in Trinidad. To understand a little better, one has to realize that in the 1940s masseurs were the island's medical practitioners of choice. As one character observes, "I know the sort of doctors they have in Trinidad. They think nothing of killing two, three people before breakfast."

Ganesh's ascent is variously aided and impeded by a Dickensian cast of rogues and eccentrics. There's his skeptical wife, Leela, whose schooling has made her excessively fond of punctuation marks, and Leela's father, Ramlogan, a man of startling mood changes and an ever-ready cutlass. There's the aunt known as The Great Belcher. There are patients pursued by malign clouds or afflicted with an amorous fascination with bicycles. Witty, tender, filled with the sights, sounds, and smells of Trinidad's dusty Indian villages, The Mystic Masseur is Naipaul at his most expansive and evocative.

©2018 V. S. Naipaul (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Classics Historical Literary Fiction Satire World Literature

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Steps to government

The story outlines very well how a smart person can build his popularity on the gullibility of common people. Finally when popularity wanes use the contacts to get into powerful government positions.


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