The Nine Chambered Heart by Janice Pariat

Nine-chambered heart?

You must be thinking, “what a fool!”. Human heart is four-chambered, then why this book refers as nine-chambered heart. That’s the reason that made me pick this book – the strange title. Also, the beautiful cover having minimalist design with pastel colours.

“The Nine Chambered Heart” comprises 10 stories by nine narrators who describe the same woman – whom they have loved or who have loved them. All these people have met her at different phases of her life.

There are no names of anyone. The woman is referred as “you” by the narrators. Narration is in second person. The countries and cities have no name. Countries are just denoted with east, west, north and south. Cities are named as “city with the river”, “city without river”, “city with stone bridges” and “city by the sea.” The book has names just for some cats.

Talking about the story, the first narration is by the art teacher at school, who have taught her origami. Origami has become something exceptional for her that deep in her heart, she wants to become an origamist.

‘I think… because with origami you don’t need anything else. You don’t add paint or ink… you don’t take away from it, like with sculpture… you start with a sheet of paper, and end with a sheet of paper, yet somehow… it’s transformed.’

The next one is a musician whom she has been with longest. She has even given him a second chance. The other one is with an old man. The most different one is of another young woman, who loved her. She shares deep conversations with her which is distinct from the conversations she had with men.

The most significant one is narration of a man who doesn’t fall in love with her. She met him on a solo trip. Their relationship was of just five days. But it is one of the longest relationships for her.

‘What I mean is, we feel it’s the right time to be in love… the right age… the right season… the right whatever… and the person is incidental.’

These nine people recounts memories of the woman. They all have their own perspectives about her. Each chapter unravels the different layers of love. The love that is fleeting, foreign and “selfish.” You will see a different form of love in every chapter except the person is the same. And the one more common thing is that each love is lost in the end.

The sky is gathering clouds and has darkened, and when you leave it will rain.

The language written in the book is just poetic and beautiful. You could picture all the cities, people, nature – everything described in the book. It feels like someone is painting and each stroke of brush creates something exceptionally magnificent. It generates a painful and eerie feeling in heart.

I’m a moon, one half dark, the other lit by late afternoon sun.

This book mainly tries to picture out that anything can be love and love can happen at any time with anyone. How it is easy to love. But apart from the love, the book talks about how other people perceive us. How two people have distinct perspective about the same person. The portrayal of this woman through others makes her seem so mysterious for us. We want to know more about her, but get to see very little.

A woman who is deprived of love from her parents in childhood. She is searching for love everywhere that is lacked in her life. Does she discover it? Why does she always leave, even though she says that she does not know how to leave? These questions left to be answered, and you keep on searching for them by thinking about these narrations.

I would not recommend this book to everyone because it may be exhausting for you. If you want to read something very deep and want to decipher its meaning, then this is the book for you. Although language is really very simple, but you need patience to deal with it. I absolutely loved this book from the core of my heart.

Have you read this book or anything of this type? Share in the comments.

I have written this post for #AtoZChallenge and my theme is “Love for the books”

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