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  African Reading Challenge - Book 2 - The In-Between World of Vikram Lall

  Hi -
  I have completed my second book for the African Book Challenge. Once again this was not a book on my original list and in fact I had not heard of the M.G. Vassanji until another one of his books was recommended and I looked him up and this book caught my attention - "The In Between World of Vikram Lall:. It utns out that this book was the 2003 Giller Prize winner (Canada).
  I was not disappointed and highly recommend this book.
  
  Here are my thoughts:
  "The In-Between World of Vikram Lall" by M. G. Vassanji
  Vikram Lall comes of age in 1950s Kenya, at the same time that the colony is struggling towards independence. Against the unsettling backdrop of Mau Mau violence, Vic and his sister Deepa, the grandchildren of an Indian railroad worker, search for their place in a world sharply divided between Kenyans and the British. We follow Vic from a changing Africa in the fifties, to the hope of the sixties, and through the corruption and fear of the seventies and eighties. The story is narrated by Vic (Vikram) and while the book goes back in forth between the past and the present, most the story is of the past and the story is told in chronological order. We first meet Vic in the 1950s as a child living Nakuru; we then follow Vic, sister Deeper, their friend Njoroge, and the ghost of Annie through the history of Kenya into the 1980s. We see the history of Kenya through the eyes of Vic, a Kenyan born of Indian parentage. As neither black nor white, we gain an understanding of Indian culture in Kenya and the contributions the Indians made to Kenya.
  
  I very much enjoyed this story. The characters were well developed and the description of the locations put you in the place. It allowed me to see a part of Kenyan and African history that I do not encounter often in fiction. This is a wonderful novel about identity and family, of lost love and abiding friendship, and of the effects of the legacy of the British Empire.
  
  

  beachlover20855 started this discussion 1 year ago. ( reply )

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  FKnabe 

  Great, thanks for your thoughts and recommendation. The book has been floating in the back of my mind, but I never realized that it plays in Kenya... So I will have to add this to my reading list this year.

  posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

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  Sugreva 

  Thanks, Beachlover -- I'll add this book to my booklist, too.
  
  
  

  posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

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  peter b (edited)

  This book seemed very real to me, and very daring. Paul Theroux once wrote an article in "Transition" called "Hating the Asians" about the pervasive bitterness in East Africa towards the resident Asian population. Having an African novel narrated by an Asian character in a way is an answer to that prejudice, a way of saying "we're African too, as much a part of this world as any black African is." After all, Vikram Lall's family were in Kenya for several generations, and as indentured laborers their lot was not an easy one. The novel is also an attempt to come to terms with the violence of the Mau Mau era, and to deal with the cruelty on both sides of that war. Its message seems to be that violence was inevitable, given the oppression and exploitation of the wananchi. It also tries to come to grips with the cycle of corruption that followed independence. I found it very successful in its depiction of how an essentially good person such as Vikram could get drawn into an evil and expoitative world. Its lesson is that while it's easy to hunt scapegoats both for the violence and the corruption of recent Kenyan history, the reality is far more conplex than that.

  posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

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  FKnabe 

  Well, I finished it today! Great book, so thanks again for the recommendation. I was so wrapped up in it that I forgot where I was - I was in a hotel in NYC and imagined I was in Nairobi. I think the novel is rich in character development, describing the multi-layered society at the time, the landscape and the human tragedies that drew so many people into misery, despair and, last but not least, violence and crime. The situation of the Asian population is particularly well captured.

  posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

  show 5 replies

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    beachlover20855 

    Thanks for posting your comments. I am glad that you also enjoyed the book as it helps validate to me that I did the right thing in recommending. it.
    Isn't it great when you can get all wrapped up in a book!

    posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

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    FKnabe 

    Hi beachlover! Have you read "The Book of Secrets" - an earlier Vassanji book? I am motivated now to read it and compare to Vikram Lall. Have to get a few books out of the way first though...
    
    cheers F

    posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

  • FKnabe removed this reply 1 year ago.

  • FKnabe removed this reply 1 year ago.

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    beachlover20855 

    Hi FKnabe -
    
    I have not had a chance to read other books by Vassanji but they are on my list.

    posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

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  OaOk 

  thanx for the recommendation beachlover
  i'll add it to my list so hopefully have a chance to get it soon
  cheers.Omer

  posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

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