It has been the contention of the critic Fredric Jameson that the traditional realist novel is a largely exhausted form and that, today, it is science fiction that sends out “more reliable information about the contemporary world.” I suspect that Prof. Jameson might look to support his claim with “The Light at the End of the World,” an extravagant, time-traveling novel by Siddhartha Deb that depicts India’s past and future through a constellation of occult secrets and malign conspiracies. This wild, often bewildering production unites two seemingly contradictory agendas. It engages in what the author calls a “gradual dissolving of the boundary between the fantastic and the real,” seaming its narrative with nightmares, hallucinations and monstrous psychological projections. But it is through the recurrence of the uncanny that Mr. Deb creates a coherent, interconnected vision of India’s history—and, if trends persist, of its history to come.

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Persons: Fredric Jameson, Jameson, Siddhartha Deb, Deb