Aching realism and provocative meditation
Tulip Chowdhury admires a tale of complicated beauty
29 February 2008, 18:00 PM
The Infinite Plan
Isabelle Allende
HarperCollins
Human beings are seekers of truth. The Infinite Plan is a poignant saga of one man's search for love and his struggles to find the meaning of life. The protagonist of the story is a seeker of truth that can make him free. Isabelle Allende weaves a vivid and engrossing tapestry of how a Mexican family is absorbed into life in America. This is the story of Gregory Reeves telling the story of his life. The story is a mixture of first person and third person narrative. Gregory speaks of his own realisations and life axioms. Other characters and plots, vibrant and richly imagined, enter the story line in the third person.
Gregory Reeves is content to live the nomadic life with his self-proclaimed preacher father Charles Reeves. Poverty has its vicious grip on the Reeves family. The family wanders through the American West in a caravan as Charles preaches a divine revelation he has received about the meaning of life and the nature of the universe. He calls it "The Infinite Plan". Gregory's mother Nora is a blind follower of her husband's preaching. She is a silent, cold woman. Her world practically hangs on his words. When Charles Reeves becomes sick and bedridden Nora's world crumbles. Gregory and his sister Judy are looked after by Olga, a fortune-teller who travels with them. Olga is motherly to the children and they settle down in the barrio, the teeming Hispanic ghetto of downtown Los Angeles. Here a new life begins for Gregory. He is introduced to books, gangs, ideas of sex and work.
Gregory finds friends in the barrio as he confronts the new challenges of life. There are Pedro and Inmaculada Morales who become his surrogate parents. They give him the love and security that his parents always seemed to lack. Their son Jose Juan becomes his buddy. Their daughter Carmen befriends him and they remain friends through the ups and downs of life. Carmen grows into a young woman of wisdom and shares her experiences with Gregory. Gregory finds another friend in Cyrus, the old librarian who is a firm believer in socialism. Cyrus continues to give him books to read. The books awaken Gregory's thirst for knowledge. He finds that out there waits a huge world for him to explore. Cyrus dies suddenly, leaving a message and some money for Gregory to move out of the barrio. Gregory moves out to Berkeley.
In Berkeley he joins the university to study law. As he settles down in the new place he finds that reality is changing with frightening speed, the world is whirling, traditions are being turned upside down and life becomes a long hassle. He finds his first love in Samantha. But the love affair does not turn out as idyllic as he had imagined it would be. Gregory becomes restless and decides to experience the war front.
He enlists for the army and goes to Vietnam. He finds the meaning of life anew in the battlefields. To Gregory, "War is people. The first word that comes to mind when I think about the war is people: us, my friends, my brothers, all united in the same desperate fraternity. Here everything is black or white, there are no halftones or ambiguities: the manipulation is behind us, the hypocrisy, the deceit. There is life or death. Kill or be killed."
It seems to be a lucky star that guides Gregory to his buddy Jose Juan in Vietnam. They fight side by side until one day Jose Juan receives a bullet and breathes his last in Gregory's arms. Gregory continues to serve the army. Carmen continues to keep him informed about the barrio and his home. Carmen informs him of her unwanted pregnancy. She leaves the barrio when her father refuses to set eyes on her again. Carmen does not fail to keep in touch with Gregory no matter where she is. Their friendship is like a solid rock, each being for the other in the roughest seas.
Gregory gives up the army some months after the death of Jose Juan and comes back to Berkeley. He finds life perplexing after his life in the battlefield. He is haunted by memories of the war.
The tale goes on. Carmen is woven in as a poignant character. She is a wild and determined young woman who does not know the meaning of failure. Saying that she has some gypsy blood in her, Carmen starts making jewellery and roams through Asia and Europe selling her products. She goes to Vietnam to meet Thui, her dead brother Jose Juan's wife and rescues her nephew Dai from the dying woman. Carmen has a series of affairs but does not find anyone ideal enough to settle down. Carmen's character has been drawn as a very kind and yet bold woman who does not hesitate about anything once she sets her mind to it.
The Infinite Plan pulsates with life as the story carries the reader on roller coaster rides. It is an infinite blend of aching realism and provocative meditation. It is a mixture of love and humour, violence and harmony. It is incredibly rich in character, classic in style and epic in scope. The characters are sewn in seamlessly into the storyline. Isabelle Allende's novel spans decades and continents and in the process, with deftness, bridges the personal and the universal. It is a magical intervention of characters that keep coming back to the reader to awaken the senses. A highly recommended read for those who really wish to savour their reading hours!
Tulip Chowdhury is a poet, writer and teacher.
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