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Rana
Bose
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Riveting research
Who knew a doctoral thesis could be so
exciting?
Rana Bose’s second novel, The Fourth
Canvas, somehow manages to make a story about one man’s troubles
finishing his doctorate into an intellectual thriller.
A Mexican philosopher and painter,
Guillermo Sanchez is found dead in the Seine River in France in the
mid-’70s. Thirty years later, Claude Chiragi, a disillusioned McGill
scholar, takes up the task of deciphering Sanchez’s intricately detailed
paintings for his PhD thesis. Claude’s girlfriend, Clara, gives him one
of Sanchez’s paintings for his birthday and they quickly realize it must
be part of a series. They begin a search that takes them around the
world, hoping to get a better idea of the message Sanchez was trying to
convey.
The Fourth Canvas is driven by a
series of significant transformations in each of the main characters. At
first, each separate story seems too distinct to ever create anything
coherent, but they do come together to form an interesting tale in the
end.
Be warned, however, that The Fourth Canvas is, after all, about a
doctoral thesis. It does get a little academic at times, but it’s
entertaining nonetheless.
—Kamila Hinkson
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Brush with
greatness
Using six degrees of separation and a mysterious
artist's fourth canvas, author Rana Bose builds one
great story. The author sends us around the world, first
on a mission to find family roots and then to unlock the
secrets of philosopher painter Guillermo Sanchez. There
are codes in his canvases, and people who boldly turn
their heads to look out from their painted images.
Meanwhile, the humans searching for any small link to
the artist, any small hint of who he was, are themselves
intriguing - they fall in love, they stumble in their
lust and they lose each other in curious ways.
Each of the key males in this, Bose's second novel,
has a connection to Canadian Diana McLaren. She is
cousin to Indian Lyngdoh Meklar (derived from McLaren),
lover of Subhash Ganguli, stepmother (or more?) to
Claude Chiragi, and fan of Sanchez. Diana is tall and
strong, smart and confident. She is the story's
catalyst, first in her search for her roots, and then in
her relationships.
Her strength and individuality are not empathetic
qualities. Instead, she is a rudder steering the
author's divergent plot. Her character remains static,
even steps aside, as the characters of the men around
her develop.
Yet Bose propels Diana with good effect, and through
her we somehow keep track of all the countries and
people we encounter. His layered story begins to hint at
something much bigger. With all the far-flung
connections and ties, in the atmosphere of an age-old
struggle, we are reminded of The
Da Vinci Code.
The answer - seemingly to everything - is the
painter's theory: Two periods of rise followed by two
periods of fall. A simple statement and yet the
surprising, dangerous complications show its
significance as Bose's compelling tale unfolds.
—
Jane Van Der Voort
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After his life’s work is stolen, writer and
philosopher Guillermo Sanchez turns to painting as a form of expression
- until he is found dead, drowned in the Seine. About 25 years later,
Claude Chiragi decides to learn the secrets behind a series of Sanchez’s
paintings and the mystery behind the artist’s death. What will he learn
about the artist, the world, himself?
The Fourth Canvas  by
Rana Bose is at once historical, intelligent, and fascinating. Pick up
this book and you’ll be immediately swept into a tide of captivating
language and a complex plot. Pulling you from Montreal to India to Cuba
and back, you’ll find this book to be theatrical with the intensity of a
brainy
Bourne Identity.
Full of intrigue, Bose’s novel makes a deep political statement,
feeding the mind while offering up an entertaining mystery.
With complex characters, a wide-spanning time period, and historical
fact mixed with brilliant fiction, The
Fourth Canvas will
leave you asking, “When is the next Bose book ready?” As a new fan of
this author’s work, I’ll definitely let you know.
Rana Bose has published 10 plays and is a well-known playwright in
Canada. His first novel, Recovering
Rude ,
has received rave reviews as well.
—
Diane
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I have grown up in Montreal, become
accustomed to the particularities of this
city and have learned to understand, while
not always agreeing with, how the society’s
norms and standards are imposed here, where
we all live together. So, I think, has
Montreal writer Rana Bose.
With an
affinity for concise description of feeling,
sometimes provided through a two-line
metaphor where an entire chapter would not
suffice, Bose is able to provide his readers
with an in-depth narrative of his
characters’ feelings so as to place the
reader within the narrative. This especially
becomes favourable when the story is placed
within the context of a familiar setting,
and in The Fourth Canvas, Montreal
is that familiar setting.
Comparisons abound, Brown’s Da Vinci
Code, Ghose’s Calcutta Chromosome,
were some of the comparisons I had drawn,
but within the context of local societal
commentary, The Fourth Canvas asks some very
important questions about Montreal’s
adaptation and implementation of the
concepts of empire. While the book at large
deals with the greater questions such as
“what causes empires to rise and fall?” and
“are the patterns of empire discernible?”
the connections between how we, in this
city, react to and impose our culture are
provided as the colours with which The
Fourth Canvas is painted. This
enables us to link our experiences with
those experiences of others, who may not be
in the same setting but are faced with
settling the same issues. The unmasking of
the urban context, all drawn from Bose’s
Montreal experience actually is able to
answer the greater questions of empire
through our microcosm of living. Most
interestingly, the references and
descriptions of family relationships,
university communities and other familiar
contexts hint at some general truths and
understandings about this city, even for
those who are not interested in dealing with
macro-level questions of empire.
The Fourth Canvas is not a
textbook or a manifesto, but a captivating
work of fiction that does challenge the
reader to question the very basis of society
and hierarchy in a way that may be even more
powerful then through the other formats.
To present theory and concept through a
protagonist and his experiences, as opposed
to a textbook or a manifesto, can be even
more thought provoking for the reader
because it can also present the challenges
and results in implementing the theories,
based on real-life responses from our
society. And yes, there is enough accurate
case-study description of Montreal
mentalities to understand why we react in a
certain way when presented with a certain
idea.
I have a strong feeling that Rana Bose
would tell us that psychoanalysis of the
Montreal mentality is not what he was trying
to go for in his novel. In fact, the global
context in which the characters are placed,
the plot evolving across continents and time
would tell us that the purpose of this novel
was to show us how any action, no matter
when or where, will have a defining effect
and consequences across globe and time. This
is critical in understanding why empire,
within its current connotations, is
unsustainable. Just as a decision 100 years
ago to hide a family secret will inevitably
affect that family’s legacy, the
exploitative actions taken to conserve
empire on the other side of the world and at
home will inevitably affect that empire’s
sustainability.
Nevertheless, those Montrealers who enjoy
tales such as the Da Vinci Code,
now have a city-referenced version to regale
to. And the Holy Grail at the end of The
Fourth Canvas’ search for truth and
knowledge is the answer
—Tariq Jeeroburkhan
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