Book Review: Dominique Lapierre’s The City of Joy

Sumanta Mondal revisits the critically acclaimed novel that has given a new name to Calcutta as the city of joy. 

The novel The City of Joy by the French author Dominique Lapierre was first published in 1985. The book is a gripping tale of Calcutta and its penurious streets. The ‘city of joy’ is the name given to Anand Nagar, one of the slums in Calcutta. The story focuses on the trials and tribulations of the interwoven lives of a young Polish Catholic priest named Stephan Kovalski, an improvised rickshaw puller Hasari Pal and an American doctor named Max Loeb. ‘City of Joy’ was inspired by true events where Dominique lived in the slums for two years to record the experiences of their lives. The book chronicles the themes of class segregation, stigmatization of the caste system, religion, and the perpetual struggle of the poor in urban Calcutta.

The story begins with Father Stephen Kovalski who has decided to join a religious order that sends its members to provide aid to the destitute people in the world. He chooses not only to live in the slums of Calcutta and serve the impoverished dwellers but also to starve with them, love with them and if God willed, die with them. Kovalski is slowly accepted as an ally and guardian by them. Although the slum dwellers are exploited and disregarded by those in power, they have their share of prejudices against themselves which further relegates them to the margins of the society.

Hasari Pal was a farmer whose life was upturned by a massive drought that wiped away his farmland and thus was forced to migrate with his family to Calcutta. It was the survival against all odds as they get caught up in a web of corruption, he becomes a rickshaw puller ferrying people for a modest fee. When Max first arrived in Anand Nagar, he was a young doctor who was both idealistic and disillusioned by his upper-class life. He is struggling to set up a leprosy hospital in the slum against public apathy. He discovered compassion when he encountered poverty up close and the ‘city of joy’ became his second home.

Lapierre’s descriptive writing gives us microscopic insight into the lives in the slum. Calcutta becomes the perfect amalgamation of old-world charm and the urban world. The story minutely delineates the political turmoil, ravages of natural calamity, corruption, the eternal struggle for existence, deprivation, diseases, and deaths. Yet even more, it is about patience, kindness, humanity, generosity, faith, and acceptance. Lapierre delineates Calcutta paradoxically as a mirage city. The infernal image of the colonial and the chaos of the post-colonial era is retained in the story. He depends on the description of the cityscape to reinforce the internal pangs and agony of the migrants. The juxtaposition of humanity and inhumanity where Hasari soon discovers how Calcutta became an inhuman metropolis where people surrounded by apparent indifference can even die on the pavements. (29) The natural and political disaster masks the wealth and prestige of Calcutta. Lapierre’s colonial gaze actively situates Calcutta as degenerating and disastrous cityscape while reminiscing the glory of its colonial past. The description of the Victoria Memorial emphasizes the loss of materiality of colonialism into a narrative of eternal loss and longing. The olfactory imagery almost describes the cityscape as a helpless, wounded, and dying body. The urbanisation of post-colonial Calcutta is often described as an image of failed modernity.

The literary excellence of the book lies in the authentic depiction of the human condition and the piety of its cause. The use of vivid realism perfectly chronicles the segregation of society based on class, caste, and religion. The world of Anand Nagar is seen through the eyes of compassion. Despite adversity, the people hold on to their belief that their lives are sacred and worth living. The City of Joy makes the finest effort to understand the resilience and willpower of the people to survive against all odds.

Sumanta Mondal is a PhD research scholar at The Sanskrit College and University. 

Email: sumanta.m93@gmail.com

Photo courtesy: Pinterest.