‘Choice’: Neel Mukherjee’s new novel buckles a bit under its own lofty ambitions

Neel Mukherjee’s latest novel Choice – a tripartite structure – is loosely held by a thread that can be very easy to miss. Spanning from London to Nonapani, a backward village in West Bengal, each section considers the illusion of individual choice in the face of insurmountable social conditions.

In Section I, we meet Ayush and Luke. A London-based gay married couple with twins. Ayush is a publisher while Luke is an economist. Though severely underpaid in comparison to Luke, Ayush is still among the well-to-do of the London proletariat. He can afford to have lofty ideals and be unmindful of money that is not entirely his own. As a brown man in a predominantly white industry, he wants to shake things up. He knows everything boils down to money – even in the sagely business of books. Nevertheless, he pushes on by taking on “underrepresented” writers and fights for artistic choices free from market constraints. The result is often demoralising.

Who cares?

Despite his ardent wish to make the world a better place, it’s hard to empathise with Ayush. His noble pursuits are often propelled by staggering displays of self-pity. The concern that he shows towards the environment or livestock or the poor seems like a gimmick...

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