Book: Spontaneous Acts

Author: Yoko Tawada

Published by: Dialogue

Price: Rs 499

Spontaneous Acts, translated by Susan Bernofsky, is a novella that pays homage to a poet by weaving a moving tale about the idea of connectedness.

Patrik is an unaccomplished scholar on Paul Celan (picture), the leading German poet of the World War II era. He refuses to attend a conference to present his paper on Celan’s Threadsuns and the use of alphabets to establish a meridian. He befriends a man, Leo-Eric Fu, and begins discussing Celan, his exhaustion with the human body, and life after the pandemic.

This slim book, however, may not be the easiest to read if the reader is not acquainted with Olga Tokarczuk’s gaze at the human anatomy or A.S. Byatt’s postmodern handling of a text. Yoko Tawada has been experimental by bringing Celan’s life and works into conversation through Patrik and his friend. The experiment works satisfactorily in style and plot. Patrik’s antipathy with life makes the reader conscious of the sadness and the aggression that are embedded in the poetry of Celan who saw his parents die in a labour camp and tried to think of a life beyond.

“I have been experiencing several forms of stagnation. Writing is impossible,” says Patrik, summing up what it means to live in a world afflicted by capitalism, nuclear disasters, biological hazards, and loneliness. Yet, the narrative misses its central point every now and then. The intellectual investments of the book also come in the way of developing the characters and the plot. Tawada’s focus on paying homage to Celan deprives Patrik from having a story of his own and the reader is left wondering about the direction that Patrik’s life will take: will he be a researcher or a self-loathing man?

Nonetheless, Spontaneous Acts make sharp observations on the times we live in, questioning the idea of the human body being a part of the world and reminding readers of the loneliness that is integral to them in an unforgiving world.