The In-Between World of Vikram Lall - Brossura

Vassanji, M.G.

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0385659911 ISBN 13: 9780385659918

Casa editrice: Anchor Canada, 2004

Riassunto

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.”
From the Hardcover edition.

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Recensione:

"An astonishing tapestry of irresistible vignettes, brilliantly exploring the painful lessons of history . . . a mesmerizing literary landscape. . . . [with] luminous characters and inspiring prose."
–from the comments of the 2003 Giller Prize jury

"This novel is one of the most satisfying you will come across . . . . What Vassanji does wonderfully well, with zero hectoring and unsettling calm, is describe the complexity of race relations in post-colonial, multi-cultural societies. . . . It’s the reason this novel is both a gripping story and an enduring historical document."
–Donna Bailey Nurse in The National Post

"The In-Between World of Vikram Lall . . . wrestles passionately and intelligently with big intractable questions. Belonging in a category with Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Vassanji’s saga is sweeping in scope . . . . There are brilliant passages in this novel. Vassanji’s evocation of the pervasive anxiety created by terrorist attacks is visceral."
– Janette Turner Hospital in The Globe and Mail

"The prose of Vassanji’s fifth novel tumbles out so easily it looks effortless. . . . The rich details of rural African life fall into place as they would in an easy conversation . . . [a] well-wrought portrait of a troubled man."
–Quill & Quire feature review

"This is a taut, marvellous story, told in a dispassionate voice that still manages to convey passion and wonder.... Vassanji leaves his readers with dazzling images of the Eden and its opposite that comprises modern Africa, told by a man who has travelled many roads, only to find that they all lead him in one direction: home."
–Nancy Wigston in Books in Canada

Praise for M. G. Vassanji

"It is part of Vassanji’s great talent to demonstrate that the minor changes – unexpected love, sex, accusations – in the life of a very modest man are, in fact, transformations of history."
–The Globe and Mail

"Vassanji is one of the country’s finest storytellers."
–Quill and Quire

"One of our most thoughtful, as well as one of our most able, writers."
–Financial Times (U.K.)

L'autore:

M.G. Vassanji was born in Kenya, and raised in Tanzania. He took a doctorate in physics at M.I.T. and came to Canada in 1978. While working as a research associate and lecturer at the University of Toronto in the 1980s he began to dedicate himself seriously to a longstanding passion: writing.

His first novel, The Gunny Sack, won a regional Commonwealth Writers Prize, and he was invited to be writer-in-residence at the University of Iowa. The novel’s success was a spur, Vassanji has commented: “It was translated into several languages. I was confident that this was what I could do, that writing was not just wishful thinking. In 1989 I quit my full-time job and began researching The Book of Secrets.” That celebrated, bestselling novel won the inaugural Giller Prize, in 1994.

Vassanji’s other books include the acclaimed novels No New Land (1991) and Amriika (1999), and Uhuru Street (1991), a collection of stories. His unique place in Canadian literature comes from his elegant, classical style, his narrative reach, and his interest in characters trying to reconcile different worlds within themselves. The subtle relations of the past and present are also constants in his writing: “When someone asks you where you are from or who you are, there is a whole resume of who you are. I know very few people who do not have a past to explain. That awareness is part of my work.”

M.G. Vassanji was awarded the Harbourfront Festival Prize in 1994 in recognition of his achievement in and contribution to the world of letters, and was in the same year chosen as one of twelve Canadians on Maclean’s Honour Roll. He lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons.
From the Hardcover edition.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Anchor Canada
• Data di pubblicazione: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0385659911
• ISBN 13: 9780385659918
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 416