Raise your hand who has heard of the author Ari Gautier! He lives in Oslo, writes in French, was born in Madagascar and raised in India. His books have been published in several languages, most recently he is current with the novel “Thinnai”, which came out in French in 2018 and which has been translated into Norwegian by Synneve Sundby. This is a fabulously beautiful tale! Or stories, to be precise. Ari Gautier Photo: Camino Forlag French-language author, living in Oslo. He was born in Madagascar in 1965 and is of Indo-Madagascar origin. “Thinnai” was first published in French in 2018 by the publisher Le Lys Bleu Éditions. It is Gautier’s novel in the series and the first publication in Norwegian. He has written two other novels: “La revenge d’une gueuse” (2017) and “Carnet secret de Lakshmi” (2018). A cornucopia The most adventurous stories unfold on the thinnai. The thinnai is the covered porch outside the first-person narrator’s house. He himself is only a bystander to it all, a boy who observes the outbursts of emotion, arguments and laughter that spread in his small home town, Kurusukuppam in India. The stories span several continents and over several centuries, from the first Portuguese and Danish colonists to the south-east coast of India. The barely 200 pages feel packed and evoke associations with more talkative authors such as Salman Rushdie or Nagib Mafouz. Those who are concerned with the head and tail or the fish-like skeleton of the story will not necessarily have their expectations met. Those who, on the other hand, swim with the flow of words, will get plenty of surprises. Requires a dedicated reader A man returns to his village in Puducherry after several years in France. The old house that once stood out in the neighborhood now looks poor and small. The juggler Three-Baller-Six-Face, on the other hand, is just as big-mouthed as before. He reminds the first-person narrator of the day Gilbert Tata came to the thinnai. And it is this homeless old drunkard – Gilbert Tata – who gives himself up to telling stories of the right dramatic kind: ones about wealth, travel, misfortune and curses. It does not simply open up for a Norwegian reader. Many words are not translated at all from Tamil, but are put in italics. Here, too, one can choose to stop, aggrieved at being left out, or take the challenges head on and hope that the context – and perhaps the running narrative – will provide a clue. The linguistic diversity reflects the reality the boy grows up in. Here, French, Tamil and Creole are spoken interchangeably. Glimpse into an unknown world I can’t remember having read a book from French-speaking India before. It is a rare item. The depictions of how different cultures and not least religions have played off each other and allowed the inhabitants to live in a kind of understanding, side by side, are fascinating. Here, two brothers can have different citizenships; one has been in the war for France, is Catholic and French, the other is Indian, a supporter of the textile workers’ union and a freedom fighter at heart. Ari Gautier writes about big and small in the working-class district of Kurusukuppam. It becomes tragic and comical at the same time, like the anecdote about the priest who, to help the overly creative village tomboy, leaves him on duty at the orphanage – whereupon a disturbing number of the older girls become pregnant. Of course, Gautier also shows that colonialism had its price. People on restless wanderings in search of roots populate the book. On the other side: French rule opened up the possibility of freedom from a suffocating caste system. Gives life to a motley assembly Here is the man who is so fond of writing that he writes letters of complaint to the authorities for all the villagers and opens the place’s first Communist Party office. Here are Western yoga tourists, dirty hippies who can easily tempt the local youth with their free-spirited drug use, but who otherwise mostly cause laughter with their unrealistic yearning for Hindu spirituality. With the efficiency of a short story writer, Ari Gautier observes individuals whose fate is set by the zeitgeist. It is impressively done. As a reader, I want to start over and take in the many subtle characteristics once more. It is a sign of quality. Ari Gautier writes a story and a group of people who are almost invisible in world literature. With his obvious storytelling talent, he brings a completely unknown world to life. Not only that, he inspires the reader to orient himself and acquire more knowledge. news reviews Photo: Camino Forlag Title: “Thinnai” Author: Ari Gautier Translated from French by: Synneve Sundby Publisher: Camino Number of pages: 172
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“Thinnai” by Ari Gautier – news Culture and entertainment
