The In-Between World of Vikram Lall

Rating:
Summary: "Myth and reality often got mixed up in our lives."
Review: Growing up in Nakuru, Kenya, in the 1950s, Vikram Lall and his sister Deepa, the children of Indian merchants, become friends with British children Bill Bruce and his sister Annie, and with Njoroge, a Kikuyu who lives with his grandfather, the family's gardener. While Vic is secretly in love with Annie, Njoroge is secretly in love with Deepa, both childhood relationships ignoring the cultural and color barriers of the times. The Mau Mau, a Kikuyu group dedicated to ridding the country of the British, are on the march, attacking and killing British men, women, and children. To Lall and his friends, who live in an area where violence has not yet struck, however, they are almost mythic creatures, until the violence strikes close to home, and Vic's life and perceptions are altered forever.

Alternating points of view between the present, when Vikram Lall is in his fifties and living outside Toronto, Canada, where he is "numbered one of Africa's most corrupt men," and the early 1950s, when he lived in a diverse Kenyan community, Vassanji shows how the Lalls are doubly alienated, first from their family in India, whose village, thanks to the British Partition of India, is now part of Pakistan, and from the majority population of Kenya. His depiction of the Lall family, the Indian merchant community, and the African community's hostility towards British rule sets the scene for the action during the next forty years.

When Vic, as a young man living in the ultimately independent Kenya, works in the Ministry of Transport and moves up the political ladder, he is powerless to resist orders from his superiors, even though his job is to launder cash coming in as bribes. The story of Jomo Kenyatta and his successors, and the growing corruption which taints their governments--and Vic--becomes increasingly compelling as the stories of Vic, Deepa, and Njoroge continue to intersect and overlap.

Vassanji tells a fully developed saga that stimulates the reader's emotions at the same time that it reflects historical realities, and the plot is filled with the excitement of change along with its problems. Through intense and vividly rendered descriptions, he juxtaposes the natural world against the unnatural violence of the times. Strong love stories, told realistically, run parallel to the action and keep the reader involved on a level beyond that of history and theme, as the characters evolve in response to the changing times. Fascinating and involving on all levels, this novel, winner of Canada's Giller Prize, should win a broad new audience for M. G. Vassanji. Mary Whipple


Rating:
Summary: Quality stuff, but not a quick read
Review: I have lived in east Africa, and I have enjoyed this author before, so I read this. It is not as compelling as I had hoped, but it has a strength about it that makes it a good read.

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Summary: Kenyan-Born Author Wins Giller Prize
Review: Kenyan-Born Author Wins Giller Prize

At a glitzy, gala ceremony attended by Canada's literati, Kenyan-born former physicist M.G. Vassanji was awarded the 2003 Giller Prize, Canada's most glamorous and lucrative literary award.

Vassanji took home the C$25,000 prize for his novel, "The In-Between World of Vikram Lall." The author won the inaugural Giller Prize in 1994 for his novel, "The Book of Secrets."

The author, who was raised in Tanzania, expressed his surprise at winning the prize a second time.

"I feel dazed and numb," Vassanji told Reuters. "The first prize was a bit harder and the second prize feels like a bonus. It is unbelievable. I may wake up tomorrow and find that it wasn't the case and it wouldn't bother me at all ... writing is about writing, not about prizes."

The Giller Prize, now in its 10th year, was announced at Toronto's Four Season's Hotel on Tuesday night in front of 500 members of Canada's publishing, media and arts community. It is awarded annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story published in English.

The jury described the novel as a "powerful and haunting story of an Indian family living in the turbulence of an emergent Kenya."

Vassanji beat Canadian literary icon Margaret Atwood, who was shortlisted for her novel, "Oryx and Crake." Atwood won the Giller Prize in 1996 for "Alias Grace." Other contenders for the prize included John Bemrose, John Gould, Ann-Marie MacDonald.

Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch established the award in 1994 in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller.

Rating:
Summary: Not to be missed
Review: This is one of the best books I've read this year. Memorable characters, a politically and emotionally-charged setting, and clean writing make Vikram Lall's in-between world a fascinating place to be.

When the novel opens, Vic Lall is in Canada, having fled his home in Kenya after being named the most corrupt man in the country. He is the grandson of a man who came from India to build the Kenyan railway, the son of a store owner in a small Kenyan town. He thinks back on the fun he had with his younger sister, Deepa, neighbor Njoroge, and Bill and Annie, two English children. It is the time of the Mau Mau rebellion when white families were being killed by rebels. It comes too close to their town, and the Lalls make a difficult move Nairobi.

By this time you are wondering how mild fellow like Vikram could possibly have it in him to be named the most corrupt man in an African nation. The story moves ahead to 1965 when former Mau Mau sympathizer Jomo Kenyata is now president of an independent Kenya. Njoroge is moving up in the government and Vic follows. Now the delicate dance of race and politics comes into play as Njoroge and Deepa begin to play out their childhood fascination with each other, and Vic learns that some things never change.

M.G. Vassanji won Canada's prestigious Giller Prize for this novel, and well he should have, even though he beat out Ann-Marie MacDonald whose "The Way the Crow Flies" was probably my favorite book last year. In "The In-Between World of Vikram Lall" he spins a rich, subtle, carefully layered tale which is also very hard to put down.


Rating:
Summary: Caught Between
Review: Vananji has written a telling story of an Indian family trying to re-orient their lives during and after Kenya's independence from British colonial rule.The Lalls struggle as their position in Kenyan society changes from successful businessmen to unwanted immigrants, covert sympathizers with the European colonialists. Even though they manage to become rich and prosperous in independent Kenya, they pay a price for staying. The son Vic, from whose perspective the story is told, makes unethical career compromises that haunt him for life and make him an outcast in the country he loves. His sister Deepa never recovers from unfulfilled love for their chidhood friend Njoroge, a native Kikuyu Kenyan. Their relationship is forbidden in such turbulent political times. The parents marriage strains under the pressures of political and societal change, turning them from each other and towards substance addiction and religiosity respectively for comfort.
There is an uplifting tone to the story though, which overshadows the tragedy. It centers on an enduring friendship between Vic and Njoroge, and the innocent love between Deepa and Njoroge in the face of a disapproving family and society. This friendship and love both get expressed in Vic and Deepa's relationship with Noroge's son Joseph.
Excellent historical fiction of post-colonial Kenya from an Asian viewpoint. I've added Vansanji to my growing list of amazing Indian Canadian writers.

Rating:
Summary: Good read
Review: Vassanji's narrative of the history and cultures in Kenya are extremely interesting. He depicts a very realistic portrait of life during those times. The only problem I had with this book was the slow beginning which was hard to read through. As the novel progresses, the reader witnesses the change within Vikram, the main character in this novel and his inability to come to terms with his loss of innocence as a young child. Those devestations that taunt him even as an adult underlay the reasons why he has become who he is in the later parts of the novel. Vikram's character is truly perplexing and worth the read of this award winning book.