Book Review: The Nine Chambered Heart

Book: The Nine Chambered Heart
Author: Janice Pariat
Publisher: Fourth Estate 
Pages: 216 
Price: 399

There is, on the one hand, an object of love – a young woman, unnamed – and nine perceptions of her. You know her only through the nine speakers’ retelling of their interactions with her – people who cross her path as teachers, mentors, classmates, colleagues, lovers or friends. She does not speak for herself. It is for you to deduce what to make of her. Is she a girl running away from her fears, a temptress or simply a woman whose unbridled love helps people reconnect with their long-lost selves? 

For Pariat, it is irrelevant how the ‘character’ of her protagonist is perceived. The reader is at liberty to draw any conclusion s/he wants about the central character or the storytellers. Is it the girl who’s shaping the relationships? Or is she merely an object of adoration/exploitation? Pariat sets the reader up on a game by splintering the gaze. The reader can borrow any of the nine gazes to look at the girl, but would s/he know which to trust? For no one seems to know her completely. Is it even possible to know anyone completely?

In this examination of love, Pariat dislodges the oppressive weight of ‘judgment’ in matters related to the heart. Her protagonist gives her love as unreservedly to a young lover as she does a middle-aged married man. It is, after all, “easy to love” if one sees each opportunity to love as the beginning of a memorable journey. 

Of course, the journey is not without peril, given love’s association with loss. The girl’s fear of loss is heightened by her sense of being abandoned by her parents; she would never abandon like her parents did her. But the trauma or stigma of leaving does not colour her relationships alone. It taints the marriages of at least two of her lovers who have drifted apart from their partners. 

Loss, betrayal, despair are all embedded in love. One of the characters in fact compares love with the act of arriving at the airport, where one is immediately reminded of departure. The exhilaration of love perhaps lies in the journey, and not the destination. Pariat’s heroine, however, never seems to tire despite knowing how some of the journeys will end. At times her need to journey seems incessant. Or is it that I, the reviewer, am getting judgmental?

Pariat would revel in this confusion. For her aim is not merely to examine love, but also to challenge our ways of seeing – others and ourselves. It is remarkable how effortlessly Pariat assumes the disparate voices of this book’s many speakers. For many of us, the stories will bring home memories of the discomfort, exhilaration or heartbreak we have felt ourselves. 

This book, with its lyrical prose and poignant tales, is a mind-twister. You need to let your guard down and allow Pariat to work her magic.