Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

The story moves forward like a sluggish river. The author (Henry) shifts from Canada to a “big city”. The vagueness of the city’s actual identity is part of the surreal nature of this novel.

Henry is approached by a reader of his book, a Taxidermist, who consults Henry on how to write a play. The main characters are “Beatrice” a Donkey and “Virgil” a howler monkey. The play is encated on a shirt; a striped shirt. The play is simply a series of conversations between Beatrice and Virgil.

Henry journeys between the “real” world of his life with his wife and his work at the Chocolate Road, amateur theatricals and learning music and the unnatural setting of Okapi Taxidermy where he meets the Taxidermist. Everybody from Henry’s “real” world recognize the Taxidermist for what he is.. A creature devoid of emotion or comprehension of the sufferings of fellow creatures.

The novels takes an old theme of the Nazi atrocities against the Jews during the Holocaust and gives it a totally new and disturbing twist.

Beatrice and Virgil explores the attempts by Holocaust victims to articulate their experiences. Words are not enough. So they decide to use gestures, games, facial expressions etc., The entire list is called “A Horrors Sewing List.”

Reading Beatrice and Virgil is like taking a peaceful and drowsy boat-ride on a placid lake when all of a sudden everything becomes horrible and macabre; the boat capsizes. I am sucked into a maelstrom of conflicting emotions. Finally as I read the “Games for Gustav” section, I am sobbing and weeping. In a way I have lived through the horrors. I was there. I am a witness too….