The Alchemy of Desire

by Tarun J. Tejpal

Book Overview

In turn-of-the-millennium India, a penniless would-be writer halts work on his novel only to feed his ceaseless desire for his beautiful wife. Then a chance occurrence moves the lovers to a sprawling old house in a mist-shrouded spur of the lower Himalayas, where a set of diaries written by a glamorous American adventuress is uncovered during renovations. Her words irresistibly draw the writer away from his beloved, thrusting him through the hole...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006088858X
• ISBN13: 9780060888589
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Best Book Ever Read!!!

This book is one of the best I have read in my life. The way the author tells everyone's story is superb. The erotic content so vivid and so classy at the same time.

Much better than I expected

Yes, it could have benefited from some editing and yes, it did drag a bit a third of the way through but then the narrative began to gel and by the time we are reading Catherine's journal, the dovetailing plot and philosophical underpinning is clear. A masterful trip thru contemporary Indian history and a fascinating dissection of human desire, most notably sexual desire, but also ambition, power, greed and control. You'll have to stick with the book, but the ride is definitely worth it.

A truly original novel set in the subcontinent of India

On a flat marble slab, in a thick black Gothic style, busy with curlicues, was engraved: "Who can ever hold the essence of fire? Who can ever know the alchemy of desire?" Below it was written: "Catherine of Gethia, wife of Syed, daughter of John. Died 1942."--From the final chapter. In The Alchemy of Desire, Tarun J. Teipal, who lives with his wife and younger daughter in New Delhi, has written a stunningly original novel. Containing torrid homilies on hedonism, and bristling scenes of erotic passion, the story skates dangerously over the thin ice of pornography, threatening to sink into its brackish waters. Indeed, moralists will brand The Alchemy of Desire an obscene work--not a story to be read aloud in genteel society. Others will argue that Teipal's literary artistry lifts it above the crude and the common, thereby confirming the truth of Nietzsche's aphorism, "What is done out of love always happens beyond good and evil." But therein lies the rub. One of the key relationships portrayed in this novel happen not out of love but out of a demonic obsession to squeeze the last drop of pleasure out of besieged and battered flesh. The frenzied, desperate pursuit of sensual delight is doomed to failure: "But pleasures are like poppies spread, / You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed; / Or like the snow falls in the river, / A moment white--then melts forever; / Or like the borealis race, / That flit ere you can point their place; / Or like the rainbow's lovely form / Evanishing amid the storm."--Robert Burns, "Tam O'Shanter: A Tale." The unnamed protagonist (let's dub him "T.T" or "The Fool") is enchanted with Fiza ("Fizz"). Theirs is a beautiful relationship, one in which true love and desire meet in harmony. She encourages him in his attempt to write The Great Indian Novel, but he experiences writer's block and consigns one failed work to the waters of a lake and the other to the fireplace flames. T.T. and Fizz move to Delhi, where T.T. finds a job as a subeditor for a newspaper and Fizz is employed as a proofreader and researcher for a publishing firm. They struggle financially, but are supremely happy in their reciprocal love. In a seemingly fortuitous turn of events, T.T. becomes the heir of a fortune, a financial windfall that allows him and Fizz to purchase a sprawling old house situated 5,438 feet high in the foothills of the Himalayas. As they work to renovate the estate, they believe it will be the perfect place to embody their perfect love. But then, as in the opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, fate knocks at the door. "The Fool" (for that is what we must now call T.T.) discovers a cache of long-abandoned diaries, 64 identical tan-leather notebooks packed into a wooden chest, in four stacks of 16 each. They are the erotic diaries of the previous owner of the estate, a beautiful American woman named Catherine. Over the next six months The Fool becomes obsessed, night and day, with deciphering the wordwhe

Lust rediscovered within love

I have known Tarun's journalistic work for over a decade, and it was exciting to see a veteran of journalism trying his hand on fiction. I must say that it was the tsexual passion of his book that made me take up this wonderfully narrated "Alchemy of Desire" since I had just finished reading "The Couples" by John Updike (Economist said on his obituary that he wrote mostly 'salacious literature'.... how prudish these Britisher's can be? I wonder how they breed) and "158 Pound Marriage" by John Irving, and i wanted to dialate in lust (i am using more of lust since i also read a pro LUST book by Simon Blackburn)for some more time. But the book was much more than all those graphic sexual narration, 'eating' instead of 'doing' and all. And I found that he beats both John's in his dscription. I had recently visited Almora and lower Himalayan places I was taken up by his sharp observation of places and life, infact those hills made me so nosatlgic and out of air that i also read I Alan Sealy's "The Everest Hotel" I don't want to write the story itself but the way it has been written has reminded me some of the great essays and narrative fiction. A worthwhile reading for somone who really relisesh...written words...hills ...musing on forgotten love..... Bhole

Lust rediscovered within love

I have known Tarun's journalistic work for over a decade, and it was exciting to see a veteran of journalism trying his hand on fiction. I must say that it was the sexual passion of his book that made me take up this wonderfully narrated "Alchemy of Desire" since I had just finished reading "The Couples" by John Updike (Economist said on his obituary that he wrote mostly 'salacious literature'.... how prudish these Britisher's can be? I wonder how they breed) and "158 Pound Marriage" by John Irving, and I wanted to dialate in lust(I am using more of lust since i also read a pro LUST book by British Philosopher Simon Blackburn)for some more time. But the book was much more than all those graphic sexual narration, 'eating' instead of 'doing' and all. And I found that he beats both John's in his dscription. I had recently visited Almora and lower Himalayan places and I was surprised by his sharp observation of places and life, infact those hills made me so nosatlgic and out of air that I also read I. Alan Sealy's "The Everest Hotel" I don't want to write the story itself but the way it has been written has reminded me some of the great essays and narrative fiction. A worthwhile reading for somone who really relisesh...written words...hills ...musing on forgotten love..... Bhole