THRILLING EXPOSITION- BOOK REVIEW

By GANDHI RAJ KAFLE

(This article was originally published in The Rising Nepal)

LB Thapa needs no introduction. An M.A in Economics, who turned to literature by choice, has several books already published to his credit and also keeps on floating ideas and options in various newspapers and newsmagazines of the country. In fact, his work itself is there to introduce him.

The latest creative work, which is a novel, however, is a kind of wish fulfilling project because author Thapa has mentioned that he had long thought about it and that dream came true only after the successful launching of this book. So, the under review novel The Quest of a Dead Man is suc a book.

Though it may apparently be ambiguous to talk about supernatural power, aht can be said is that this novel takes readers to be serious once they read it and will spontaneously ask questions like: Can dead man live? Is it possible for a dead man to make a quest and move ahead to get a very important mission of lifetime accomplished? These questions are exclusively a matter of mysticism. If some believe, it would be a mystical faith and it many do not, it too would be welcome. But, one thing, which still can’t be explained is there is huge curiosity around this because even when there is no fact and proof, people have not yet stopped to take it as mysticism filled interest.

We need not go far to take up the example. Kathmandu itself burns effigies of demons to feel safe from any evil powers and it is a maintained culture. And, to add more to, tit, there are various chariot processions and festivals in our country, which have been part of our tradition to pray to and ward off evil forces. The tradition of animal sacrifice is also there. There are likes and dislikes and protests and supports, but amidst this backdrop what is undeniably acknowledged is cultural tradition does not stop.

In this ligt, jointing aforementioned facts in the context of the under review book The Quest of a Dead Man, novelist LB Thapa has not only played with mystical themes to storytelling, he has also beautifully added descriptive skills and imaginative talents within the broader periphery of inter religions faiths to hold the attention of the readers.

This tightly printed 260-page novel goes deeper and deeper and takes readers to an obscure world which is not real. Introductory words “thrills, suspense and horror” of the novel are quite true. Mention9ing of Beirut of Lebanon, the place which has seen a number of bomb blasts and killings of innocent people in the past, and the novel’s dedication to the people there itself signals something odd is going to happen isn course of the story.

In fact, the mystery does not open up fully until broadened cosmos of evil foreces get envisaged completely before the principal charter of the novel. Also in this novel, diine poer and their good deeds vanquish demon power. And, also without doubt, moral strength and dutifulness have been attached high importance. Similarly, the novel’s focus is that implementing the law of the land has become a challenging task because of the conspiracies of evil forces. Yet, what is good is the novel is successful in delivering the message that no evil force can succeed to achieve enduring success.

In this conceptual strength, four points consistently and safely built up in this novel seem to be important. They are: The main charter police inspector Avinash is a morally straightforward and principled man, who never compromises with evil forces. Secondly, there are numerous threats and challenges (both seen and unseen) a dutiful person confronts. The next point is short cut path chosen to reach the zenith of success is always hazardous if it is not natural and truthful. The fourth point proved in this novel is truth prevails and it is the evil force that gets defeated.

Being a suspense and horror novel, the success of the main character, however, does not materialize in his lifetime; it comes only after death. Nevertheless, truth prevails and evil force influenced series of mysterious murder cases seize to repeat at a hotel with the unwavering struggles of the novel’s hero against the demonic power.

In real life, human being are not free from enemies like bombing terrors, injustices, inhuman tortures, corruption and various other malpractices. In all such sufferings, there are some seen culprits and some unseen ones; it means the responsibility of persons who investigate them is onerous. That is because culprits have managed to establish unholy nexus. So, the question to pose is: can the job be done properly? Doubts may be there, but efforts to tell stories against such ill connections on the part of literatures especially novelist and storytellers are on. Also notably, they have followed obscure method to do it. The novelist of the Quest of a Dad Man hs taken it up and his story telling is really thrilling.

Thank you very much for reading this article. I hope you liked this article. I will be glad if you take little time and make a comment about this article. Your comment is highly appreciated.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gandhi Raj Kafle is a literary editor at The Rising Nepal, a national daily publishing from Kathmandu. Originally, this article was published in The Rising Nepal.

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