The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell - 11 out of 10 as a Definite, Ultimate Magnum Opus

 The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell

11 out of 10 as a Definite, Ultimate Magnum Opus

The Siege of Krishnapur is not just a winner of the prestigious Booker Prize - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_winners_and_shortlisted_authors_of_the_Booker_Prize - for 1973, it is also shortlisted for the Best of the Booker and it is indeed one of the best books one can ever read in that it is extraordinarily comprehensive, investing time in the middle of a terrible Siege to ask and give some pertinent, if often from opposing camps answers to some of the most relevant questions regarding God, the different faiths and the attitude to life – as represented by the clash between two cultures (in the middle of the fight culture is dismissed by one of the protagonists of the conflict) and one figure comes to mind, that of the ‘Prime Minister’, the Indian who is introspective, meditative throughout and he is not moved by any of the catastrophic events taking place around him.

The attack which is at the center of the divine book is based on real historic details as explained by the wondrous author, but it is also the paradigm of the clash between cultures in general and in the narrative we have representatives of different groups that face each other at various moments, the Catholic priest wants more space for burial for his congregation, while the ‘Padre’ feels at a different moment that whatever the ‘papist’ would have left behind is fair game as improvised ammunition for the fighters that are left without means to continue to resist…for that matter, there is almost no food left, they smell like animals, speaking of the latter, it is a devastating image that in which we see the dogs and the mongrels fighting to survive the oppressive, unbearable heat and the lack of food, solved by the near wild by eating from the faces of corpses – Chloe, the pet destined to help with the love life of one of the main characters, Fleury, would be shot dead when it seems that her existence would only continue through scavenging through dead bodies, though the undersigned thought that given the circumstances she should have been allowed to go on…

The opposing camps come to a climax of conflict after a series of blunders that offend the religious beliefs of the native population – seemingly the majority, for the Muslims, though aggravated on the matter of the mosque that would be demolished for military, defense purposes within Krishnapur, are on the whole on the side of the ‘Company’- have been committed by the British and thus the sepoys start a rebellion, kill many of their commanders and set their sights on the town of Krishnapur, where luckily the Commander, an exceptional figure, in spite of some serious flaws, such as sexism that was however specific to all men at that time, in 1857 and long after that, had been involved in building ‘mud walls’, a defense that had attracted the mirth and ridicule of his compatriots in the town and Delhi.

The Commander is perhaps the archetypal British upper class man, a believer in progress, which is one of the issues that is disputed among various figures in the novel, the defender of the advances of technology would be confronted, together with others, by the Padre, who thinks that God is towering over all, he is responsible for the Design of the world, and those like the Commander and Fleury are responsible for the terrible Siege, with their sins and belief in ‘civilization’ that is actually propelled by the devil…we have variants on the subject and the dispute between the two doctors, wherein one maintains retrograde theories that maintain cholera is caused by the air and a ‘cloud’, whereas the other uses statistics and demonstrates, for those who can think – and most seem to be unable – that this deadly disease is spread by the use of contaminated water…

Humans have to suffer indescribable – for other than the glorious JG Farrell – torment as the Siege advances, for the ammunition is soon depleted, though to start with, Harry Dunstaple envisages with Fleury the different scenarios of using their canon against the natives and though they give some thought to the conditions where it would be justifiable, moral, their attitude and that of the colonial forces in general shows that they look at the locals as to inferior people, though we could also look at the case of Lucy Hughes, a handsome woman that ‘had disgraced herself’ by entering an unacceptable for the mores of the time connection with a man and therefore is now treated by society as a pariah, placed at the lowest level when she is inside the Residence, a place which at the height of the Siege it is still absurdly segregated, with the upper classes staying away as much as possible from those on the lower levels, or Eurasians for that matter.

Most important ideas – and ideas themselves as a concept are in discussion – are developed and placed in contrast throughout this fantastic, ecstatic book, where civilization is under scrutiny from various angles – what do the Indians benefit from the arrival? The Commander thinks that half of them – they were about two hundred million – never noticed the British and would feel nothing when they depart, no touch of the progress, in an admission of the unfairness of the situation, while at some other stage, they mention the accumulation of wealth as one target, but not the exclusive one as civilization includes ‘so many things, both spiritual and practical’, the Commander and others are in awe – up to the point where some are disaffected and think that progress may just be a temporary step and it can all go back and forth – with different inventions, some of which, if not all, would disappear in the Siege, from statues, to the furniture, paintings, art, even the covers of the Bible are used by Harry and Fleury to get the invasion of bugs off from the naked (!) body of Lucy, to the fury and dismay of the Padre and the respective sisters of the two cavaliers.

Although there could be no other situation with more dramatic, awful events, where fighters die and are eaten by animals – the Commander thinks highly of vultures for very good reasons and is sure that without them, another epidemic would have caused a calamity within the ranks of the defending community – and when there is no more opportunity to bury the deceased in the graveyard or under the ground, they are thrown into a deserted well, there is still fantastic humor in so many pages of this Ultimate Magnum, such as the moment when the Magistrate – so many personages populate this masterpiece with poignancy and sublime literary power – is near a dying, Christian man, but as an absolute atheist and sardonic man, he says to the soon to be departed: ‘they are sure to take you in after this performance, do not worry’