Twist of faith

Upamanyu Chatterjee is back with his wry sense of humour in his new novel, and most of it is directed at religion and spirituality

- NILADRY SARKAR

During his train journey to Trieste to visit his family before leaving Italy for London, and eventually for Bangladesh, Lorenzo Sensei was hit with a realisation-the introspective silence of a monastery life had an infinite virtue, but he wondered, "Is it correct to stay away from this madness, from human beings butchering and blowing one another up in every corner of the globe; could one ever escape the insanity, saying that it is none of my business?"

It was during the train journey that readers see, for the first time, Lorenzo transforming in Upamanyu Chatterjee's Lorenzo Searches for the Meaning of Life, after spending eight years as a disciplined Benedictine monk in Italy's Praglia Abbey monastery. He had hoped to find the purpose of his life there, away from his family and the endless "striddle and babble" of everyday existence.

Loosely biographical, the novel follows the story of a young Lorenzo, who meets with a road accident in the last year of his teenage life. He then experiences a profound existential crisis and turns to religion for answers before gradually realising that he didn't necessarily have to lead a monastic life to attain spiritual fulfilment. Before that realisation hit him, Lorenzo believed that the pursuit of purpose meant shedding the comforts of ordinary existence. Family, too, became collateral in his quest. When his parents accused him of selfishly abandoning his responsibilities as an ideal Catholic family man, he remained undeterred.