Transmission - Hari Kunzru
by Zia ~ September 18th, 2005. Filed under: Books.
Arjun Mehta comes to the U.S. to work as a programmer. Hired out for a fraction of his salary by an unscrupulous placement agency, he finally gets work in an antivirus software company. Ultimately, he is laid off and, desperate to show his worth, releases a computer virus named after his favorite Bollywood star, Leela Zahir, which he plans to fix. Instead, his boss takes the credit and the virus replicates and evolves so quickly that Arjun can do nothing but run as the FBI pursues him.
At the same time, there’s the story of Leela Zahir, the muse behind the virus, who emerges as a young star completely at the mercy of her demanding mother. Another film star is under the thumb of goondas. And her PR agent is dating a man with a joke of a rebranding agency, which is a whole other plot line.
In the beginning chapters of this book, I thought to myself, “I am not an Indian. The only things that are Indian about me are my name and the way I look.” Where Kunzru sees warmth and redolent spices, I see overcrowding and smelly hallways. Where Kunzru sees close families, I see a lack of privacy. But that’s really neither here nor there. We are full of hope as we contemplate Arjun’s future in India.
In the middle, I was reminded of Wharton’s The House of Mirth. Both novels chronicle the inevitable downward spiral of its characters, to the growing horror of the audience. But in the case of Transmission, Lily Bart is no longer an American woman at the turn of the 20th century, but an Indian “wage slave” in the 21st.
At the end of the novel, I thought, “This, this is what Mukherjee was trying to do in her last novel.” Kunzru weaves his characters together with the lines of code.
And this is the novel’s genius. Just as variants of the Leela virus keep emerging, so does Kunzru lead us through a constant stream of metamorphosis of plot. Ultimately, we end at a surprising, completely unexpected ending: Happily ever after does exist after all. It’s like a Bollywood film in a novel form: a long story with lots of ups and downs and an unrealistic happy ending. Moreover, Kunzru has quite a bit to say about the society in which we live, this global economy where marketing has replaced culture.
Highly recommend.