NUDE BEFORE GOD

by Shiv K. Kumar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 19, 1983

Ram Krishna, 40, chairman of the Lalit Kala Arts Academy in Hyderabad, is obsessed with death--he's been commissioned to paint gruesome flood/drowning scenes for a Social Welfare group--and also obsessed with his Christian wife's possible adultery. (Meanwhile, Ram himself is blithely carrying on with young Rezia, daughter of landowner Nawab Suleiman Ali, ""the very nadir of feudal decadence."") So narrator Ram's two fears come together in a book-length dream: he's pushed into the Moosi river by his wife's Christian lover; he promptly drowns; and his soul spends the next 13 days hovering in the atmosphere (the Hindu belief), waiting for reincarnation. The dead Ram argues with Yama, the god of death, who chastises him for his selfishness and immorality. He observes the preparations for his own funeral, hearing everyone's words and thoughts: his crass wife; his grieving parents; his ambitious colleagues; his genuinely stricken mistress; even his beloved dog. He chats with other recently departed souls--all of them murder victims (a labor leader, a Moslem/Hindu riot casualty, the servant-girl fatally raped by Rezia's foul brother). He witnesses a bloody servant rebellion at the home of Nawab Suleiman Ali, then his wife's dalliance with her lover. (""How I wished I had the muscle to strangle them both right there in the shower for their gibing and wanton lechery?) And finally, after the question of Ram's reincarnated form leads to an epiphany-moment of spiritual/artistic rebirth (""Give me another chance, please, and I'll do the child this time""--naked babes instead of female nudes), he wakes up from his dream, realizes that his wife is virtuous. . . and seems to be headed for a cleaner, better life. This basic scenario--imagined death leading to reformation--is a familiar one, of course; and Ram's particular awakening isn't one of the more convincing variations on the theme. But, with casual afterlife humor (Hindu-flavored echoes of both Heaven Can Wait and Stanley Elkin) and some vivid glimpses of India's traditional/modern mixture, this is an engaging religion/art/sex curio--from an Indian writer with a long academic career in England and America.

Pub Date: Oct. 19, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Vanguard

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983

Categories: FICTION