Vikram ParalkarReseñas

A bitter, misanthropic doctor, exiled in disgrace to a government-run clinic in a small village, deals with a corrupt and frustrating bureaucracy both in this world and in the afterlife. Very bleak and existential, with a glimmer of hope, but nowhere near the bright ending of “a greater understanding of life's miracles” that the book description led me to believe.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on audiobook from the library.

Thoughts: This was an odd little audiobook that I threw on my TBR list because of some list somewhere about books with intriguing older protagonists. This wasn't bad it was just weird and a bit slow at points.

The story is about a surgeon in India who is struggling to help a very small town with their medical problems because of a lack of funding and support from the government. Then a dead family wanders into his clinic late at night. The father of the family has made a deal with an angel and if the surgeon can fix their wounds before dawn they will be reborn but forever trapped in this town.

This story has a couple of pretty good twists and turns. Much of the story is descriptions of meticulous medical procedures being done to try and save the dead family; which was kind of interesting but also a bit too much. The story jumps back in time as well to show us how this surgeon ended up in this small town.

I thought it was fine. The narrator does a decent job but his Indian accent does get heavy at point and was a bit hard for me to understand when there was a lot of background noise. It's not something I would read again, and it wouldn't be on my top books to recommend. However, it was interesting enough to listen to while I was decluttering the house, folding laundry, and doing some yard work.

My Summary (3.5/5): Overall this was an odd little story that I didn't really love or hate. There are some intriguing parts to the story but the meticulous descriptions of the medical procedures take away from the story some and add a heavy gory element. I did enjoy the ending quite a bit. So, mixed feelings on this one.½

The intriguing premise is what drew me to this novel. Sadly, despite having all the elements for something exciting, philosophical, spooky, or moving it delivered nothing.

A wrongly disgraced surgeon has moved from the big city to a tiny clinic in a small rural village. He is cold and dispassionate where his patients are concerned and mostly disgusted with how his life has turned. He is short tempered and patronising with patients and his assistant at the clinic.

One night a family comes calling at the clinic needing his assistance. A teacher, his pregnant wife, and their young son have been brutally attacked and have, in fact, been killed. The wounds that they died from must be mended before sunrise when they are expected to be given new life.

Wow! That sounds amazing, right? Yeah. That's what I thought. But fml this was an absolute slog. I fell asleep half a dozen times while reading and the book isn't even very long. This really should have been a short story. Somehow the author managed to take a bunch of interesting elements and create an absolute snoozefest.

Honestly, reading this felt like coming out of anesthesia. I was groggy and irritable and just wanted to get out of there.

In a run-down clinic at the outskirts of a rural Indian village, a once-successful surgeon is bringing what remains of his career to an unassuming end. Saheb, as the villagers respectfully call him, tries to do his job decently, despite lack of facilities, a sorely limited budget, stifling bureaucracy and institutionalised corruption. As for assistance, he must make do with an untrained pharmacist and her handyman husband. But he is soon to face his biggest challenge yet. One night, a young family – father, pregnant mother and infant son – present themselves at the clinic, suffering from horrific injuries inflicted by a band of bandits. It was a savage attack and no one could possibly survive the wounds they show the doctor. In fact, the would-be patients are dead, allowed to return to Earth by a friendly official of the afterlife. There’s one problem though – at dawn, blood will once again course through their veins. In the course of one long night, the doctor must successfully complete three complex surgeries, not to save the living, but to resurrect the dead.

The dead tend to haunt ghost stories and horror fiction. Vikram Paralkar’s Night Theatre (originally published in India as The Wounds of the Dead) is neither of the two. Its horrors, if any, lie in the detailed surgical descriptions (Paralkar is a hematologist-oncologist and, presumably, speaks from experience) and in the quasi-existential sense of futility instilled by the evident moral failure of society. If pressed to classify the novel, I would describe it as a work of magical realism. Indeed, despite its fantastical premise, it feels strangely plausible, its plot driven forward by an inherent logic. By a happy irony, Paralkar manages to use a surreal tale as a vehicle for social critique. At the same time, the otherworldly elements provide a springboard for ruminations about death and the meaning of life.

I must say that the book’s blurb intrigued me, but little did I expect to discover a little literary gem. By turns tragic, darkly comic and ultimately moving, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and can’t recommend it enough.

This was for my reading group and TG it was short. I have no idea what it was about or what it was attempting to do. It's just bizarre. I would classify this as magical realism and I am just not a fan.
Other people in the group seemed to enjoy it a lot more than me, although I was not the only one who was HUH?

In a run-down clinic at the outskirts of a rural Indian village, a once-successful surgeon is bringing what remains of his career to an unassuming end. Saheb, as the villagers respectfully call him, tries to do his job decently, despite lack of facilities, a sorely limited budget, stifling bureaucracy and institutionalised corruption. As for assistance, he must make do with an untrained pharmacist and her handyman husband. But he is soon to face his biggest challenge yet. One night, a young family – father, pregnant mother and infant son – present themselves at the clinic, suffering from horrific injuries inflicted by a band of bandits. It was a savage attack and no one could possibly survive the wounds they show the doctor. In fact, the would-be patients are dead, allowed to return to Earth by a friendly official of the afterlife. There’s one problem though – at dawn, blood will once again course through their veins. In the course of one long night, the doctor must successfully complete three complex surgeries, not to save the living, but to resurrect the dead.

The dead tend to haunt ghost stories and horror fiction. Vikram Paralkar’s Night Theatre (originally published in India as The Wounds of the Dead) is neither of the two. Its horrors, if any, lie in the detailed surgical descriptions (Paralkar is a hematologist-oncologist and, presumably, speaks from experience) and in the quasi-existential sense of futility instilled by the evident moral failure of society. If pressed to classify the novel, I would describe it as a work of magical realism. Indeed, despite its fantastical premise, it feels strangely plausible, its plot driven forward by an inherent logic. By a happy irony, Paralkar manages to use a surreal tale as a vehicle for social critique. At the same time, the otherworldly elements provide a springboard for ruminations about death and the meaning of life.

I must say that the book’s blurb intrigued me, but little did I expect to discover a little literary gem. By turns tragic, darkly comic and ultimately moving, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and can’t recommend it enough.

A bit of a slog. A pretty good tale at the heart of it but the metaphysics are kinda trite, which undermines the whole project.½

A man, his wife, and their son show up at the very underfunded clinic run by a surgeon and a helper. They have wounds, but surprise, they're not bleeding, because they're dead! Walking, talking, dead. Sounds interesting, right? The author is a physician himself, and I suspect this book came to be because he had some philosophical thoughts about life and decided to craft a novel around them. If you removed the meandering thought exercises and fable-like stories, this 208 page, simply written book would probably become novella length. Other than the surgeon, none of the characters even have names, and the story feels similarly distant. It has a simple plot and very little character development. It's not engaging and the interesting premise is the best part of this book despite not being executed particularly well.

"The day the dead visited the surgeon, the air in his clinic was laced with formaldehyde."

A doctor works in an isolated and decrepit village clinic in India, assisted by a young woman known as the Pharmacist. One evening, a man, his very pregnant wife, and their young son arrive at the clinic. The doctor sees that they have been brutally wounded, the wife beneath the scarf around her neck has been nearly decapitated, yet there is no blood. The tell the doctor a strange tale of their having been murdered, and miraculously in the afterlife having been given a second chance. They have been returned to the world, and if the doctor can repair their wounds before dawn they will be allowed to live again. As the doctor works through the night, we learn the stories of the doctor and of the family he is trying to save.

Despite its somewhat mystical premise, this is a realistic and powerful novel. Told in a simple, straight-forward, even scientific manner, it nevertheless raises philosophical and moral issues, and moves us to an ambiguous ending. I loved it.

4 stars

Night Theater exposes everything we humans tell ourselves, about what it means to lead a good life, as meaningless.

And after that, the novel takes every article of faith that we humans like to believe, about the dignity of humanity, and the possibility of redemption, and smashes it to bits.

And then, miraculously, after every virtue is exposed as meaningless, and every hope is smashed to bits, the novel rises up from the ashes, phoenix-like, and becomes a story that's mythic, and true, and powerful. It is honestly one of the most uplifting and life-affirming books I've ever read.

Night Theater is one of those reads that won't let you go. It leaves you with far more questions coming out than you had going in, and that is one of it's real strengths. Nothing in this story is simple, despite how straightforward the narrative feels.

The premise is relatively straightforward, if fantastic. A cynical physician in a rural clinic in India is confronted with three dead people who claim they will be able to live again if he repairs their wounds before the sun rises. From that point, thins spin out with increasing complexity.

I don't want to say too much about this title for fear of interfering with the process of reading it—but I do strongly recommend that readers grab the opportunity to live through that night with the physician at the story's center.

I was so captivated by the creativity of Vikram Paralkar’s The Afflictions that I read it cover to cover as quickly as I could. I regretted that tactic, however. There is no real plot to The Afflictions; it is a collection of descriptions of the mythical ailments that exist in Paralkar’s ancient but non-descript world, loosely tied together by a new librarian receiving a tour of the library that houses the Encyclopedia of Medicine. While these afflictions are incredibly inventive, the social, philosophical, and political commentary weaved into each malady is best approached with a bit of time to be mulled over and sussed out. My second, much slower read of The Afflictions to puzzle together the metaphors was just as rewarding as the captivating first read.

This book is written by a physician with a love of word play, and the narrators have great fun exploring a mythical medical encyclopedia full of mysterious maladies. Irony, despair, and humor are dispensed in equal parts.