We have to recognize that we are a highly polarized nation in this time and time and all writers are bridge builders, says Jerry.
We have to recognize that we are a highly polarized nation in this time and time and all writers are bridge builders, says Jerry.
Award-winning author and poet Jerry Pinto begins writing his recently launched book, Yuri’s education, some five years ago. The idea came to him when he was passing through Elphinstone College in Mumbai, where he studied liberal arts for three years from 1981. “I feared those would be the best days of my life, and so I firmly closed the door to college and didn’t return until 20 years had passed,” he says. Although this is not a novel about him. It is a work of fiction that transcends themes of a variety of themes – from love and loss to adolescence and politics, as Jerry describes it.
The novel has earned very good reviews, some of whom define it as ‘India’s first, coming-of-age novel on existentialism’. However, that was not what Jerry intended when he set out to write it. “I wrote it inside-out with the hope of understanding the processes of formation. The idea of bildungsroman has always been a source of fascination and horror; I think the only way to escape it was to do it. So, I worked with outsiders. Worked – they said, they did, they said – and then with thought and then with the inner dialogue with which the self-conscious suffers,” he says.
The novel juxtaposes the Bombay of the 80s through the eyes of Yuri Fonseca, a 15-year-old boy from downmarket Mahim, who is described as ‘sometimes weird, sometimes lonely’, and how he learns to write poetry. struggles, worries if he will ever get a job and catch up, and tinker with Naxalism for a while’.
Does attempting to capture the cultural zeitgeist of an era through the prism of writing put the writer in a precarious position of responsibility? Can works of art – through which one can engage with the masses on an unconscious level – be seen as a powerful weapon in the cultural, social or even political struggle of any country? Jerry doesn’t think so, but he does.
We choose to read something that supports our world view and when we read something that doesn’t, we enter into a heated argument with it, he says. “There is very few readers who can dispel preconceptions about the author or the subject and have a real conversation with the book. Yes, literature is in this fight (against the struggle) if we can all do that. Can be a powerful weapon. Most people are preaching to convert. We have to accept that we are a highly polarized nation in this time and time and all writers are bridge builders,” he explains.
new book by jerry
Jerry sees the act of writing as a means to provoke a reaction. “You definitely want them (the reader) to read and respond in a certain way, but if you’re going in with that set of expectations, you’re going to be disappointed,” he says, giving the reader a thorough The different book faces that the author writes.
Conversation touches on postmodernism and lands in his Windham-Campbell Literary Prize-winning novel M and the Big Hoom, “When I wrote it, I thought I had written about a family trying to love each other. It was received as a book on mental health. I was in awe of that reception. I’m fine with that. Reception is always going to be different from intent. So, if you start with the intention of promoting a message, you’ll find that your promotion may well be distorted by the reception. The reception will decide which message What is. It’s not the messenger. It’s not the message. It’s the two of them who are passing through the prism of welcome.”
Yuri’s education Published by Speaking Tiger, editor of which is Ravi Singh. His association with Ravi has been around for 20 years and Jerry calls him the “perfect editor”. Why? “He’s the kind of editor I know who doesn’t want to write a book, and so he’s the perfect editor. There’s a whole lot of trust apart from the jokes. I can write in the void and I can jump because Ravi is my safety.” It’s a trap.”
For now, Jerry is working on translating playwright Swadesh Deepak’s collection of short stories and plays. “When I did i haven’t seen manduI thought it would be nice if it contained his plays and his short stories in translation so that there could be a dialogue between these three texts. Because in Mandu, you often read references to Maya Bakshi, a character in a long short story, and Suraj Singh from his play. court martial,” he says. So, is it even being published by Speaking Tiger? “Who else?”, he laughs.
Yuri’s education Posted by Speaking Tiger and priced at ₹599. Prakriti Foundation is hosting the release of Jerry’s book, which will be followed by an interaction between the author and Ranveer Shah on Friday (October 7) at 6.30 pm at Amdavadi Gujarati Snack House in Chennai.