Gopalakrishnan has retired to his native village after 40 years in the civil service. He is not happy about being back in Paavalampaati, but his father has died and his mother needs someone to take care of her. His wife Parvati is not unhappy about being back in the village — theirs was an arranged marriage, and she was never comfortable in Delhi — but she has deep reservations about leaving their son Suresh behind.
Gopu, as he is known to friends and family, is a rigid man. He walks every morning rain or shine for his health, taking the same route every day. (Indeed, it is on his morning walk that we first meet him.) He likes his coffee and tea just so. He devotes a certain amount of time each day to reading. In his highly-structured existence, he is like both his father and grandfather, but he also possesses a certain haplessness they did not; in some ways, he is deeply and self-consciously ineffectual. Life seems to have borne him along.
But when Suresh appears unexpectedly for Diwali, Gopalakrishnan is forced to take action; Suresh is in deep trouble and nothing he can do is enough.
Shankar’s tone is marvellous. His prose is compact and matter-of-fact, but he captures sights and sounds of India — and his dialogue is so perfect that I could actually picture the Indian headroll and hand gestures as his characters spoke. His characters are well-realized; they seem less like fictional characters than real people and we have been plopped down into their lives. No quibbles there.
Structure, on the other hand, is something else entirely. I spent a long time waiting for the story to start. Page 50, page 100, page 130– these all rolled by and Shankar was still roiling backwards in time to review Gopalakrishnan’s past. And while this history is absolutely necessary to understand the present, I felt like the storyline was often subsumed. It is only halfway through that the present conflict pops up; everything preceding it sets the stage. One could, of course, argue that this structure is integral to the novel itself and that the journey referenced in the title stretches both backwards and forwards. Unfortunately, it simply doesn’t work. The story founders for a while.
That said, I would still recommend.
Lee manages to garner a scholarship to the prestigious Ault School in New England. From South Bend, Indiana, she is completely out of her element when she gets to the school — a feeling that never dissipates over the four years she is there. She is alienated from her wealthy classmates, eclipsed by their popularity, and, at the same time, thoroughly indoctrinated into another world that serves to separate her from her own family. Like most teenagers, Lee is thoroughly self-obsessed But she’s also a very compelling character with a strong voice, and Sittenfeld writes about the awkward teenage years with understanding and grace. Bittersweet and powerful, this is a touching novel that reminded me of my own hated high school years. Highly recommend.