In a world filled with tussles and struggles, you might become exasperated with the weight of it all. From talks about racism to political debates about superiority, the world seems to be on a continuous charade. In a world where there is so much ‘fog’, Hari Kunzru uses his novel Red Pill in an attempt to open the windows of reality to allow the human mind to see clearly. This book, which is Hari’s sixth novel, is told by an anonymous person, narrating his journey through different times and places of his life. The narrator opens in a town called Wannsee. Wansee is a town on the outskirts of Berlin where he has just landed a residency job at the Deuter Centre. A job that will take three months. This residency is to help him work on a book that talks about self-construction in lyrical poetry.
You will notice that the book’s tone is somewhat detached; some might say that the narrator is complaining. This is because of the way he describes his daily experiences with the food and life in Wannsee. Though you might be quick to judge Hari’s point of view, if you take a step back to understand that, just like a lot of us, the tone of complacency and nonchalance stems from inner despair caused by fear.
Hari’s subject is married with kids and lives in Brooklyn. But he also has this nagging sense of foreboding; a feeling that something terrible is about to happen. This fear continues with him until he arrives Wannsee.
The first part of the book is a brilliant mix of historic events where references are made to a writer who committed suicide in Wannsee in 1811 with cultural references reflected by the narrator’s writing. This is shown in the epigraph of German writer Heinrich von Kleist highlighted in the novel. It seems like Hari attempts to bring political satire to the fore using subtle euphemisms.
The second section of the novel takes us into another world titled “Zersetzung” which is German for “decomposition”. Zersetzung is a military tactic that was employed by the State Security (Stasi) as psychological warfare to prevent anarchy by the enemies. In the Red Pill, Zersetzung is a method employed by a Stasi agent on a lady drummer named Monika. However, the way Monika is supposed to react to this psychological method is a lot different than is intended.
This section is quite captivating and causes you to pause for a rethink. It might make you ask questions like, “Is this the way I am supposed to react to this situation? Or am I being tricked in some way?” Thought-provoking, isn’t it?
The third section, titled “Apocalypse” will draw you into a spell-binding moment where you begin to empathize with the narrator and even find reflections of yourself in the narrator. This is because Hari, using the first person POV begins to philosophize, trying to connect the idea of “self” with his belief of “privacy”. This is where you find him making statements about how he thinks that his life is a horrifying waste of years, and how he believes that privacy is only exclusive to the gods.
Soon, the novel climaxes when the narrator meets a cynical writer of a TV show. Anton is somewhat Zersetzung in the flesh as he engages the narrator in a dialogue. Anton tries to control the narrator’s mind with his cynical beliefs where he says that humans cannot be hospitable to one another. Anton postulates that humans either try to dominate others or force them into subjugation; there is no balance. This way, he makes the narrator believe that he has taken the “red pill” which will bring clarity to all his confusion about the questions he has had on his mind concerning morality, racism, and so much more.
The narrator’s beliefs are shaken to the very core, as even his views on racism are questioned. This seems to set the narrator loose in a world of darkness, as he continues to doubt himself.
The subject returns to New York after his residency, but it is very obvious that things are no longer the same. It seems that Anton has used the electronic world to dominate his mind. The narrator experiences this as he watches the results of the 2016 United States Presidential Election and feels like everyone is about to come to the realization of the madness he has been encountering.
Beyond the title and plot of this novel, Hari Kunzru uses a mix of personal experiences with political satire to enmesh a mix of beliefs in this intelligent piece that will leave you mentally stimulated, making you have a rethink of some of your ideas that you hold dear.
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