Happiness and Other Disorders.

R. Gordon Moyles is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Alberta, co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British
Views of Canada, 1880–1914, and author of The Salvation Army and the
Public.

In an old discarded black metal trunk, M. Samiullah, a fictional editor full of false erudition, finds a box of manuscripts which chronicle the often brief lives of several people in a small town in northern India torn apart by religious and sectarian violence. The editor’s introduction seems fatuous beyond credulity, too jokingly erudite to be taken seriously, and out of tune with the stories which follow, but the stories are a different matter. They are intricate in design, elegantly styled, full of wit and poignancy, introducing us to a land and people altogether unfamiliar (the colloquialisms of which take some getting used to), and filled with the most interesting characters one has met in a long time. Though one sometimes has difficulty in establishing the background of events, each story is so complete in itself that we forget the unease felt by not knowing its exact context. In “Flight to Egypt,” for example, we meet an unnamed man fleeing after having assassinated an unnamed politician during an unspecified religious riot somewhere in western India. And yet, the immediacy of the assassin’s fears, the frantic nature of the pursuit, and the inevitable retaliation and death are so vividly portrayed that what we don’t know seems unimportant. Though the “happiness” in these stories is far outweighed by the “other disorders,” they are all superbly crafted, and are both entertaining and enlightening.