The In-Between World of Vikram Lall - Hardcover

Vassanji, M.G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385659903 ISBN 13: 9780385659901

Publisher: Doubleday Canada, 2003

Synopsis

Double Giller Prize winner M.G. Vassanji’s The In-Between World of Vikram Lall is a haunting novel of corruption and regret that brings to life the complexity and turbulence of Kenyan society in the last five decades. Rich in sensuous detail and historical insight, this is a powerful story of passionate betrayals and political violence, racial tension and the strictures of tradition, told in elegant, assured prose.

The novel begins in 1953, with eight-year-old Vikram Lall a witness to the celebrations around the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, just as the Mau Mau guerilla war for independence from Britain begins to gain strength. In a land torn apart by idealism, doubt, political upheaval and terrible acts of violence, Vic and his sister Deepa must find their place among a new generation. Neither colonists nor African, neither white nor black, the Indian brother and sister find themselves somewhere in between in their band of playmates: Bill and Annie, British children, and Njoroge, an African boy. These are the relationships that will shape the rest of their lives.

We follow Vikram through the changes in East African society, the immense promise of the fifties and sixties. But when that hope is betrayed by the corruption and violence of the following decades, Vic is drawn into the Kenyatta government’s orbit of graft and power-broking. Njoroge, his childhood friend, can abandon neither the idealism of his youth nor his love for Vic’s sister Deepa. But neither the idealism of the one nor the passive cynicism of the other can avert the tragedies that await them.

In interviews given when the novel was published, Vassanji commented that The In-Between World of Vikram Lall is the first of his books to deal with his memories of Kenya, where he spent the first 5 years of his life: “I remember these images of fear, of terror. And I thought I had to come back to that and see the whole Mau Mau episode from the Asian point of view. I had never written a book set in Kenya, where my father was from. And when I did, I just felt good about it, because I was going back to one part, one of many homes.”

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall, a compelling record in the voice of a character described as “a cheat of monstrous and reptilian cunning,” took three years to write. After research in Kenya and Britain, M.G. Vassanji devoted himself to the novel in a dark office at the University of Toronto. It was a hard process of creation and discovery, especially as Vassanji is an assiduous editor of his own work: “I come back to it over and over. For me, it’s like working on a sculpture. You sort of chip away a bit at a time until you tell yourself it’s as perfect as you can make it.” Vassanji’s fifth novel met with immense Canadian and international success. As well as making him the first author to win the Giller Prize twice, the book was a #1 national bestseller.

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall is a profound and careful examination of one man’s search for his place in the world; it also takes up themes that have run through Vassanji’s work, such as the nature of community in a volatile society, the relations between colony and colonizer, and the inescapable presence of the past. It is also, finally, a deeply personal book:

“The major thing that stands out in the book is people who are in-between. The feeling of belonging and not belonging is very central to the book. And that also played out in my life. When we lived in Tanzania we belonged and did not belong because we had come from Kenya. That has been a major thread in my life.”

About this title

Review

" Gorgeous and heart-rending. . . . Vassanji explores [love and loss] with all the tact of a true literary power." --"Chicago Tribune"
" Brilliantly written and deeply felt, it is a resonant family novel that is also a brutally honest portrayal of the last half century of tumultuous Kenyan history. . . . Vassanji displays his great gifts; this beautiful novel, which unfolds with intimacy and an inexorable sense of destiny, is proof that fictional truth can illuminate an epoch in history like nothing else." - "The Boston Globe"
" Tautly written. . . . Admirably captures the tenor of the postcolonial period: the predicament of the Asian minority, the corruption that marred Kenya' s fledgling independence, and the individual tragedies that were the cost of the revolution."
- "The New Yorker"
" A novel of elegant gesture, complex understanding, bright passion, and historical pain." - "O, The Oprah Magazine"
" Finely drawn . . . an ambitious and enthralling work." - "The Times Literary Supplement"

"Gorgeous and heart-rending. . . . Vassanji explores [love and loss] with all the tact of a true literary power." --Chicago Tribune Brilliantly written and deeply felt, it is a resonant family novel that is also a brutally honest portrayal of the last half century of tumultuous Kenyan history. . . . Vassanji displays his great gifts; this beautiful novel, which unfolds with intimacy and an inexorable sense of destiny, is proof that fictional truth can illuminate an epoch in history like nothing else. The Boston Globe Tautly written. . . . Admirably captures the tenor of the postcolonial period: the predicament of the Asian minority, the corruption that marred Kenya s fledgling independence, and the individual tragedies that were the cost of the revolution. The New Yorker A novel of elegant gesture, complex understanding, bright passion, and historical pain. O, The Oprah Magazine Finely drawn . . . an ambitious and enthralling work. The Times Literary Supplement"

From the Back Cover

'My name is Vikram Lall. I have the distinction of having been numbered one of Africa's most corrupt men. . .'

Vikram Lall inhabits an 'in-between world': between his ancestral home in India and the Kenya he loves passionately; between his infamous African past and his uncertain future in exile. In this sweeping and sumptuous novel, M. G. Vassanji weaves a rich tapestry of vivid characters, real and imagined, in a land caught between colonialism and independence, between escape from political terror and a seemingly inevitable return to Africa, a return that may cost Vikram Lall dearly . . .

"A thwarted love story . . . utterly compelling and shot through with the intensity of lived experience." Observer

"Vassanji captures a wide and authentic perspective that ranks with V. S. Naipaul and Graham Greene." The Times

"A writer at the top of his form." Guardian

"This warm-hued, marvellously accomplished novel opens up a world that will be new and unfamiliar to many readers, and one that they will not easily forget." Scotsman

"A wholly engaging and spirited novel of Africa: warm, shrewdly charming, replete with its own wry and humane wisdom." William Boyd

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday Canada
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0385659903
• ISBN 13: 9780385659901
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 405