David Davidar pens a novel on an industry he has been closely associated with and knows warts and all. Interestingly, the novel has come soon after Davidar had to resign from Penguin Canada on accusations of sexual harassment. A charge he subsequently denied.
Davidar was part of Penguin India start-up team and holds the credit for changing the Indian publishing scene for the better. One would have thought this novel about the fading fortunes of its protagonist Zachariah Thomas might be the story of Davidar himself even if only partially. It could be an effort to score points against those who pointed fingers at him or an effort to come clean and use his pen to write his side of the story. But, if this is what you are looking for, you will be disappointed.
For those who are interested in the story behind the books they love, what efforts goes on in the making of a bestseller, then this is an incisive up close and personal account. Fast paced and traversing continents, the novel starts with a troubled Thomas going to Bhutan in search of some peace and answers to his troubles. ?..(He) begins to brood on the events that have put him on a plane to Bhutan. Julia (now an imaginary friend) walking out of their Kensington flat, his mother dying a year later, and then, the last foundation of his seemingly unassailable life beginning to crumble?being told by his boss that the publishing company he has devoted fourteen years of his life to is in deep trouble.?
Thomas seeks solace in the Himalayas, but inner peace is hard to come by. Especially when his wife has walked out on him, he is in a unworkable relationship on a rebound. The independent publishing house he works for, Litmus, is facing the prospect of being gobbled up by a big American publishing firm, Globish Inc, and the writer, Messimo Seppi, who gave Litmus its prosperity and status in the cut-throat publishing world has just passed away.
Thomas, who had risen to become publisher of Litmus thanks to the immense success of Seppi?s Angel books, now needed to milk the Seppi legacy to stay afloat and keep Litmus as an independent publishing house. And it is this search for Seppi?s last unpublished work, which could be the life giving and job saving nectar, that takes Thomas from Bhutan to London, Delhi, Toronto, Frankfurt, New York and Sydney. Some cities have actually no connection to the Seppi legacy but do have a role in Thomas’ life.
And with him we go on a roller coaster ride of the publishing world. A world inhabited by temperamental authors, the ever patient/ clever agents, the maverick editors, the busy and often conspiratorial publishers. In Delhi, which could be the next big ticket publishing destination, Thomas gets sentimental about the profession he belongs to. ?What gratitude he feels to be on the inside, in whatever small way, of the epic effort to create literature. And the stories behind the stories!…..publishers and writers in love or in hate, novel ways of dealing with writer?s block, publishers? feuds, agents at war, the politics of literary prizes??
Incidentally Delhi is where Davidar has returned to, to set up a publishing firm, Aleph. And he is well equipped to take up this new role in this rapidly changing environment, where people are questioning the very existence of publishing as an industry. With the world going digital, will there be a future of books as we know them at all? Will the route of acquisitions and cost cutting taken up by big publishing houses leave room for small independent players? Throughout the novel we hear arguments and counter arguments.
We get into the heart and soul of the publishing world in Frankfurt. Mortimer Weaver of Globish epitomises the ambition, and the ruthlessness of the publishing world. In this chaos of Frankfurt, Thomas has an epiphany, ?He sees a river of stories, its headwaters stretching all the way to a time before time, to the beginnings of the human race when the first stories were told to a small band of listeners?.And in the future, as the internet really comes into its own, into being the ocean into which all these rivers would eventually flow, the need for publishers to regulate the dispersal of humanity?s stories to readers would only grow.?
Davidar?s Ithaca is fast paced and at times insightful. But strangely enough, his protagonist, who has it all and loses it all on personal and professional front, doesn?t seem to be in a moral quandary ever. Also, Thomas’ journey never reaches epic proportions as suggested by the book’s title. And this seems to be its biggest shortcoming. Nevertheless, the novel engages us because of the contemporary nature of the events and characters.
Renu Agal is a former special correspondent of the BBC
Ithaca
David Davidar
Fourth Estate
Pp 288
Rs 499