Verdict: Read it!
I enjoy Tarun Tejpal as an author. For whatever has happened in his personal life (and I won't comment on this) I enjoy him immensely as a writer. The combination of his skill weaving a story and his very unique plot lines make him a very interesting proposition every single book. The Alchemy of Desire was no different. It actually took me a very long time to sit down and write this after I finished reading it because I needed a very long time to digest what had happened in the novel.
The story line revolves around a couple who had a very passionate physical relationship that lasted for years and years. Then one day they hit a bump in the road and lost all desire for each other. The story mixes together the slow unravelling of their relationship (which you come to suspect was only about physical passion) with memories that the protagonist painfully indulges in on a regular basis. The story ends after she leaves and he is left to putter about in a house they built together with only his memories. It's a fantastically painful exercise to read. But I do think that was the point. For whatever reason when a couple finds themselves at a point of no return/repair, the ending will be painful. There will be maudlin reminiscing, there will be a painful actual separation point, and there will be shared dreams and goals that will wither away and only be reminders going forward of what was lost.
The difficult part of this novel is that most people in attached relationships secretly harbor at least a little fear of their partner/spouse becoming bored of them on some capacity. Of losing desire or simply finding themselves moving different directions in life. Tejpal does an excellent job of setting the stage in the beginning of the book on just how active and important their physcial connection together was that it's like watching a slow motion train wreck coming. You want to look away but you just cant because you want to witness the entire sequence. After going through a divorce after a long term marriage, I could identify with many of the feelings and physical events that happened in the book, even if not exact replicas. I guess that made it even harder to read. Thinking about it in the context of my current relationship made it terrifying and suffocating all in one.
It's a power house of a book, but not in the usual sense. It will leave you thoughtful and possibly depressed for a while. But going through the experience of reading it will be worth your time, that's guaranteed.
Read it!
~Becky~
