The Mystic Masseur

A Novel

By: V. S. Naipaul

Narrated by: Ron Butler

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.

V S Naipaul

Naipaul is amazing. The reader did a good job. Sometimes I wish a Trinidadian reader could have been used to get some of the terms and expressions correctly - but then again, I am Trinidadian, so I would pick up on those things. But as a presentation to a wider audience, Naipaul’s work, thru Ron Butler, still shines.

Unsympathetic main character

As much as this book tried to bring you in to an esoteric character of Indian lineage, I found that the main character was so unsympathetic. It was difficult to continue listening.

Pretty Good

The narrating is excellent and the best part of this book. While the story is amusing and the characters well presented and memorable in their own right, I did not find this work as satisfying as I expected given the talents of it author. A pleasant way to spend time, but not thought provoking or compelling.