Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi

From Geoff Dyer comes a wildly original novel of erotic fulfillment and spiritual yearning. Every two years, the international art world descends on Venice for the opening of the Biennale. Among them is Jeff Atman, a jaded and dissolute journalist whose dedication to the cause of Bellini-fuelled partygoing is only intermittently disturbed by the obligation to file a story. When he meets the spellbinding Laura, he is rejuvenated, ecstatic. Their romance blossoms quickly, but is it destined to disappear just as rapidly? Every day, thousands of pilgrims head to the banks of the Ganges at Varanasi. Among them is our narrator, who may or may not be the Atman we met in Venice. As days turn to months, he discovers a hitherto unexamined idea of himself, the self. In a romance he can only observe, he sees a reflection of the kind of pleasures that he has renounced. In the process, two ancient and watery cities become versions of each other. Relating the story line only scratches the surface of this funny and mysterious work. Brilliant witticisms and wordplay are woven into the ongoing commentary of the history, geography, and psychology of Venice and then Varanasi. What emerges is a theme of conflict of Western vs. Eastern modes of behavior and perception.