The In-Between World of Vikram Lall
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"A wholly engaging and spirited novel of Africa: warm, shrewdly charming, replete with its own wry and humane wisdom," William Boyd "Belonging in a category with Tolstoy's War and Peace, Vassanji's saga is sweeping in scope... complex, compelling, revelatory and unforgettable" Janette Tumer Hospital, The Globe and Mail (Canada); "This novel is one of the most satisfying you will come across... Both a gripping story and an enduring historical document" National Post (Canada)"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Sweeping in scope, both historically and geographically, Vassanji weaves a rich tapestry of vivid characters, real and imagined, in a Kenya poised between colonialism and independence. Vikram Lall, like his adopted country, inhabits an 'in-between world': between the pull of his ancestral home in India and the Kenya he loves passionately; between his tragic past in Africa and an unclear future in Canada; between escape from political terror and a seemingly inevitable return home ...a return that may cost him dearly. A master storyteller, Vassanji intertwines the political and the personal - the rise of the Mau Mau in the last days of imperialism looms large over a plot centring on two love stories and a deep friendship. The result is a sumptuous novel that brilliantly explores the tyranny of history and memory, and questions the individual's role and responsibility in lawless times.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The In-Between World of Vikram Lall is fascinating story about Vikram, an ethnic Indian, as he grapples with the history and cultures in Kenya . Vassanji gives a good depiction of life during colonial Kenya , of how the hero came to lose his innocence as a young child and of how he came to terms with his new life. In the end, Vikram a rich but perplexing character. As someone who has lived in Africa and grappled with the different cultures and histories, I can relate to this story.
Also recommended: The Usurper and Other stories, Kill me quick, Disciples of Fortune, A Blade of Grass
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The In Between World of Vikram Lal tells the story of Vikram, an East African Asian growing up in Kenya on the brink of its freedom. The story starts at the end, with Vikram in Canada reflecting on how he became known as the most corrupt man in Africa. But this is not a story of corruption, this is one of belonging, the in between world is one that the Diaspora inhabit. As a child caught up in the dreams of a new country we see Vikram making attempts at feeling an attachment to the land, he wishes that he had Masai family connections so he can feel a tie with the land. In the end though his side is chosen for him, his initial career takes him into politics where the plight of Indians living in Kenya is made clear to him. Here we witness the ugly side of the nationalism of countries in recent recipient of their freedom. We hear of business owned by Indians for generations taken over at a stroke by various politicians, Vikram due to his political connections is spared much of this but in the end after sucking him into their world of corruption the new African elites discard him when it serves them to do so.
Whilst the corruption is never justified by the end of the book we do understand with it and to a certain extent sympathise with Vikram. Vassanji sums of the plight of the East African Indian well, stuck in a country which they helped build (three Indian lives were lost for every mile of railway built) but a country in which they are no longer wanted. The story starts slow but soon becomes impossible to put down as we get ever more involved in the lives of the various characters. Aside from Vikram, we are introduced to Deepa, his sister whose struggle to marry whom she chooses at times threatens to tear her family apart. Mahesh, Vikram's uncle supports the Mau Mau in their fight for freedom with both weapons and money, yet his risks and struggles in the end also amount to nothing as he too is discarded by New Kenya and their lack of regard for the Indians. This a great book to read, and it serves as an excellent counterweight to some of the more nationalistic fiction to have emerged from Kenya, notably that of Ngugi. Yet even as a work of literature in its own right, the In Between World of Vikram Lal stands as a gem of book telling the story of a world that doesn't exist anymore.
Whilst the corruption is never justified by the end of the book we do understand with it and to a certain extent sympathise with Vikram. Vassanji sums of the plight of the East African Indian well, stuck in a country which they helped build (three Indian lives were lost for every mile of railway built) but a country in which they are no longer wanted. The story starts slow but soon becomes impossible to put down as we get ever more involved in the lives of the various characters. Aside from Vikram, we are introduced to Deepa, his sister whose struggle to marry whom she chooses at times threatens to tear her family apart. Mahesh, Vikram's uncle supports the Mau Mau in their fight for freedom with both weapons and money, yet his risks and struggles in the end also amount to nothing as he too is discarded by New Kenya and their lack of regard for the Indians. This a great book to read, and it serves as an excellent counterweight to some of the more nationalistic fiction to have emerged from Kenya, notably that of Ngugi. Yet even as a work of literature in its own right, the In Between World of Vikram Lal stands as a gem of book telling the story of a world that doesn't exist anymore.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fascinating
A very good read marred by printing omissions.
Two chapters missing towards the end.
Very frustrating.
Two chapters missing towards the end.
Very frustrating.
Published on 18 Dec 2009 by T. J. Ellis
An insight into the last days of Colonial Rule...
This novel gives a fascinating insight into life in Kenya leading up to the end of Colonial rule.... Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2009 by M. Curtis
Home is... where?
Vikram Lall, the narrator of this engrossing story, looks back over the last fifty years of his life. Read more
Published on 23 Jun 2008 by Friederike Knabe
My life simply happened without deep designs; I was an easily...
This saga of an Indian family living in Kenya, told by `one of Africa's most corrupt men', sketches the (in)direct implication of its family members in Kenya's history. Read more
Published on 8 Sep 2006 by Luc REYNAERT
Neccessary corruption, unavoidable sacrifice
My favourite line from this magic narrative is simply this "Total corruption occurs in inches and travels through many veils of ambiguity. Read more
Published on 30 Dec 2005 by Boo Prince
Faultless
I loved this book from the minute I started reading it to the very end. It is very well researched, and is contrary to many of the popular tales told about the British in East... Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2005
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
