My Take - Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel was an unsettling and disturbing read for me. The novel features the story-within-a-story narrative trope, which contributes to its disorganized appearance. The novel primarily features a play, named A 20^th-Century Shirt written by a taxidermist who happens to be a namesake of the protagonist, Henry. Along with the play, which takes up a lion’s share of the narrative, the novel also partially features a short story by Flaubert, ‘The Legend of Saint Julian Hospitator’.

A 20^th-Century Shirt which is in fact, the essence of Beatrice and Virgil is an animal allegory featuring the eponymous characters, a donkey and a monkey, respectively. Through the “irreparable abomination” faced by animals, the taxidermist symbolises all the hatred that is directed towards certain groups by their fellow humans at regular intervals. But “the Horrors” faced by the animals explicitly refer to the Holocaust and the genocide of the Jews. Beatrice and Virgil, having been subjected to the atrocious expressions of the “irreparable abomination”, find a void within themselves. Throughout the play, no major actions take place; rather the characters merely talk about how they are going to talk about the horrors faced by them. The inaction and the apparent ‘plotlessness’ is acknowledged by the taxidermist himself, “My story has no story. It rests on the fact of murder.” Indeed, the murder and the gruesome violence, which according to the taxidermist are the essence of the play have been so vividly described that it was almost nauseating for me to read through those parts. I understand that Martell wanted to bring home a crucial point through the vivid descriptions of violence but in my opinion he has fallen into the trap that ensnares most authors who dabble in the literature of cruelty: Martell ends up sensationalizing violence.

Barring those few sections that deals with the gruesome violence, I actually enjoyed the book, specially the writing. The writing was smooth and had such a natural flow to it that I couldn’t stop myself a few lines over and over again to admire the sentence construct. After, reading the book, I realize that the idea of Beatrice and Virgil as initially conceived by Yann Martel must have been great, but somehow it failed to execute its brilliance on paper. There were certain sections which felt unnecessary, more precisely irrelevant to the plot. There were certain sections whose meanings were muddled for me, especially the ending of the novel which I found somewhat arbitrary as well as confusing. Though the novel has left my intellectual faculties in a daze yet it certainly appealed to my emotional faculty. Just like Henry, the protagonist, I felt an inexplicable, profound sadness for Beatrice and Virgil. I was besieged by a curious guilt that told me that I had failed Beatrice and Virgil; that I am somehow responsible for the Horrors of the “irreparable abomination” faced by them. Perhaps, I am guilty after all. Aren’t we all? As the taxidermist says, “The indifference of the many, combined with the active hatred of the few, has sealed the fate of animals,” perhaps humans as well.

I will end my review with one of my favourite lines from the novel:

“If you are pitched into misery, remember that your days on this earth are counted and you might as well make the best of those you have left.”

My rating – 4 ⭐