Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer (Pantheon)
Geoff Dyer’s Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi is divided into two sections. The first half takes place in Venice, Italy. The latter half is set in Varanasi, India, considered a holy place by Buddhists and Hindus. It was where Buddha gave his first sermon. In Hindu mythology, the city is believed to have been founded by Shiva, the Supreme Lord who “creates, protects, and transforms the universe.”
The year is 2003. Jeff Atman, a journalist in his forties, living in London has been commissioned to write an article on the Biennale in Venice which is an art festival held every two years in the “City of Canals” featuring the latest names in art and art installations. This year’s participants included Ed Ruscha, Gilbert & George, Jacob Dalhgren, Fred Wilson just to name a few.
He was told by the editor of Kulchur Magazine to get an interview with the reclusive Julia Berman, “to persuade her - to beg, plead and generally demean himself - to do an interview that would guarantee even more publicity for her daughter’s forthcoming album and further inflate the bloated reputation of Steven Morison, the dad, the famously overrated artist.”
Everything changes when Atman meets Laura. He becomes obsessed with her and spends more time looking for her than he does gathering information for his article. The two have a mutual attraction and spend most of the rest of their time at the Biennale having sex or getting drunk, or a bit of both but the event has come to an end “when everything was so close to becoming just memory.” “Or the opposite of memory: a longing for something that would soon be impossibly remote.”
The next thing you know, you’re reading about another freelance writer who was asked at the last minute to do a travel piece on Varanasi in India. Dyer leaves it up to the reader to decide if this journalist is the same Jeff Atman that covered the Biennale as the story is told in the first person and not once does the writer’s name appear.
Venice was full of fun and debauchery to satisfy one’s lust and longing. In contrast, the journalist in Varanasi who was only going to visit the country for a few days stays for months. The first few days he walks around, checks out the ghats, does research for the article he’s supposed to write, but the longer he stays, he forgets about the article and has his own spiritual awakening. His friends become a little worried as he seems to be going native as the days go by reminding one of Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
In Venice, Jeff Atman loses his inhibitions and follows his desires whereas the unnamed journalist in Varanasi is faced with death, sickness, and poverty. Atman chooses to live life to the fullest. The unnamed writer is at first disgusted by what he sees but the longer he stays, he begins to develop an understanding of the Hindus love for Varanasi. Dyer writes two great stories and makes you wonder if his versions of Venice and Varanasi are two sides of the same coin or are they reflections of the same city? ~Ernie Hoyt