Oscar and the Lady in Pink : Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

                                                  Image Credit : Fantastic Fiction

I wonder why life is so convoluted sometimes. We pay our teachers miserable salaries. We think that fat-cat bankers on Wall Street deserve the astronomical salaries they obtain. And a really good book that may enrich our lives is extravagantly priced.  Money. And its ways. I really wonder if a God above or below or wherever this God is supposed to dwell isn't laughing his or her head off by now. So what do I do when I see Oscar and the Lady in Pink by Eric-Emmanuel sitting in the bookshop, telling a tale that seems so warm and moving, yet is priced at Rs495 (+$10) for 88 pages of it? I couldn't buy it. I wish I were that rich...but I am richer still, because I grabbed a footstool and read the book then and there.

This is a tale similar to Are You There, God? It's Me Margaret, which Birdy had reviewed sometime back. In a series of letters to God, Oscar, a terminally ill cancer patient, all of ten years (I think), ponders the wisdom and logic of life - and sometimes the bliss that exists when you throw both wisdom and logic out. That usually happens when you are facing death. And you realize then what it is to live. Oscar has a favorite - a pink lady (for she is dressed in pink), who he calls Granny Rose, who visits  him in the hospital. It is Granny Rose who inspires him, urges him to write letters to God. But no. It's not preachy. I was a bit worried that it would descend into that - all about finding meaning, and finding God etc - but no.

All we have are letters written by a confused yet wonderfully intelligent boy, who understands that his operation and chemotherapy was not successful. He has around 12 days to live, and Granny Rose tells him to live each day as if it were worth 10 years of his life. Oscar goes through troubled adolescence in one day - falls in love as a mature youth in another day - marries in another day - sees his 'wife' leave another day (she recovers, unlike him), and ponders about old age in another. Each one of these days are touching vignettes. And Granny Rose is also hilarious - talking about her past, that she was a wrestler, and about the subtle tricks that wrestlers use to overthrow champions. How, for example, would you defeat a 500 pound monster? The trick, Granny Rose, says is to roll her over. Keep running here and there, evading the 500 pounds, till you tire her out. Then roll her over. Once the 500 pounds is on the ground, they don't get up.

And the conversations between Granny Rose and Oscar are just touching and thoughtful...

"You mean there isn't a solution to life?"
"I mean there are several solutions to "Life," and therefore no solution."
"Well, this is what I think, Granny Rose, there's no solution to life except to live it."

It's obvious that Oscar and the Lady in Pink will not make any claims to greatness. It's not a very technically accomplished book. Simplicity is its forte, and the use of the letter device not unique either. But there is something heartwarming about Oscar. Maybe I am kind of sensitive today. I don't know. But I liked Oscar and the Lady in Pink. Sometimes, as convoluted as life gets, being simple is easier.

Verdict : Bit expensive buy, but a sweet read. 

Rating : 3.5/5