Summary

The story opens with a recollection by the novel’s unnamed narrator. The narrator remembers the first time he met Ganesh Ramsumair, a struggling masseur who eventually became a Trinidadian statesman. Ganesh and the narrator were both born on the island of Trinidad, although Ganesh was an adult when the narrator was still a boy. In 1939, the narrator had a bad pain in his ankle, and his mother brought him to see Ganesh, who was purported to be a healer and spiritualist as well as a masseur. Ganesh was unable to do anything for the ankle, but a doctor was later able to diagnose the problem as an abscess and remove it. The narrator then transitions to a linear exposition of Ganesh’s life and remains in that mode for the remainder of the novel. After attending Government Training College for teachers in Port...