Indian Nocturne: A Novella Book

The tone is somber in this murky noir novel. As is Tabucchi's yen it is the noir he hides behind. It is done so well that it provides excellent cover for the existential workings raveling and unraveling beneath.

In its essence it is a novel about sight. As the novel moves forward the narrator accumulates pieces of observations in his travels through India, an awakening travel or nightmarish, to find his friend Xavier. Why, is not made clear though hints are left along the dark inlets he must travel, a Dantesque voyage.

As in a Paul Auster novel it is as if he is staring out his upper floor apartment window at a window in the apartment building just across, to glimpse the person living there. When he finally does he sees the person at his window, binoculars in hand focused on him. Tabucchi's narrator in his noir, articulate manner, is looking for Xavier to be able to see this old friend see him. Xavier is the one person chosen who can provide the narrator this, that by seeing the narrator, the narrator can locate his, self.

The voyage itself is a wonder of fascinating others, in a murky dreamlike chain of passages. This is a part of Tabucchi's deft magic. The results are that I don't realize what he was up to until I have put the book back up on the shelves and find myself for two days scratching my forearm for no reason. It is then that I start to get it, or begin to start to get it. There will be much more to arrive as time passes and therefore this review refuses to conclude…


10/2/15
Ah! As I expected he has not left. Tabucchi in his way continues to settle into his space. A small space requiring little. He does not flinch when I think of shutting the door and locking it tightly. There must be colored chalk since I find on the walls writing and listen to widening echoes of select thought.

Now whispering through the chalk dust he reveals with a wry smile that the book might also be read as a cautionary tale. He warns that life may reside in seeking and searching knowing in the end there is nothing to be found. Wise or unwise, he will continue to stay and I'm sure will have more to say.