Tokyo Cancelled

Book Review

Rana Dasgupta

Tokyo Cancelled is a modern, technologically-driven, retelling of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, set in an airport brought to a complete standstill by a snowstorm. A group of passengers' flights, bound for Tokyo , have been cancelled because of the storm. There is very little room at the various local hotels, and thirteen passengers are forced to spend the night at the airport, camping out amidst the carousels in baggage claim. Each passenger tells a story, combining fairy tales and fabulism into an altogether new modern spin.

There is the prodigal son, who, kicked out of his family, goes to work for a company that is compiling people's memories onto DVDs, in preparation for soaring sales when, inevitably, people begin to lose their recollections of the past in great heaping chunks.

There is the story of the dwarfish, grotesque brother, and his sister who dreams into life profuse, lush vegetation while she sleeps. Separated at birth, these two people are drawn together across space and time, with cataclysmic results for anyone who even attempts to prevent them from being together.

There is the story of the Japanese businessman and his obsession with fashioning the perfect doll companion.

Dasgupta's writing brings to mind some of the great fabulist authors – Italo Calvino, Jeanette Winterson. It is a brilliant debut novel.

“'Clearly not,' Thomas ventured.

‘Remembering is by definition about the past.'

‘Why so? Is to remember not simply to make present in the mind that which happens at another time? Past or future?

But no one can make present that which hasn't happened yet.'

‘How do you know the future hasn't happened yet?'

‘That's the definition of the future!' Thomas's voice betrayed frustration. ‘ The past has happened. It is recorded. We all remember what happened yesterday. The future has not happened. It is not recorded anywhere and we cannot know it.'

‘Isn't that tautology Remembering is the recollection of the past. The past is that which can be recollected. Well let me tell you that I am unusual among people in being able to remember what has not happened yet. And the distinction between past and future seems less and less important than you might imagine.'

Thomas stared at her. He assumed madness.

‘For you, the present is easy to discern because it is simply where memory stops. Memories hurtle out of the past and come to a halt in the now. The present is the rockface at the end of the tunnel where you gouge away at the future.'

There was no one else in the library. They talked naturally, loudly.

‘I, on the other hand, was born with all my memories, rather as a woman is born with all her eggs. I often forget where the present is because it is not, as it is for you, the gateway to the future. My future is already here.'

‘So tell me, if I am to believe you, what am I going to do tonight, when I leave this library.'

‘You make a common mistake. I didn't say that I know everything that will ever happen. I said only that I possess all my memories. (And they run out in so short a time! I have lived through nearly all of them, and now there remain just a few crumbs at the bottom of the bag.) Still, I do have more memories of you.

You will spend your life in the realm of the past.

You will fail entirely to keep up with the times.

But your wealth will make your father seem poor.

A mountain of jewels dug from mysterious mines.”