Customer Reviews

The Book of Secrets: A Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

M.G. Vassanji's new novel, The Book of Secrets, is a haunting story -- at once a detective tale, a historical story, and a family saga. Its beauty lies in its ambiguities -- the way it leaves those loose ends in the novel: whose son was Noormohamed Pipa, arguably the protagonist? Whose son was Ali Akbar Ali, Pipa's, or the British administrator's? Did Ali Akbar Ali at all play some role in the Falkland crisis with his Argentine wife (there's a teaser about it, somewhere towards the end)? By leaving these strands ambiguous -- like the administrator Corbin and the child of nature, Mariamu (Did they or didn't they?) or the nature of relationship between Pius Fernandes, the narrator, and the poet (Gregory) he makes us speculate more. Had he solved all puzzles into a neat ending it would have satisfied one's curiosity, but perhaps drained the book of its haunting beauty. It is its incompleteness, its ambiguity, and its inadequacy, which makes it more accessible and perfect. The pace is gentle and the manner in which new characters were introduced was unhurried. In the hands of a less-skilled writer the tendency of crowding a historical plot with many characters can go haywire. And The Book Of Secrets offers that possibility: a tale told over nearly century, a waning empire, a colonized culture with a marginal population itself fleeing from poverty from its ancient motherland, conflict of great powers, world wars, independence struggle, and later, the disillusionment with Soviet-style planned economy ruining the rags-to-riches lives of unlettered migrants -- the canvas is vast, and the scope to be clever and populating it with a cast of thousands enormous. But Vassanji wisely takes his time in introducing people and lets a series of coincidences link them. And, as the tale unfolds, leaves some parts unanswered and vague. The book opens a new world as watched by a marginal player, the Indian, in a bigger landscape, Africa. While the Indian-African encounter is not mentioned in much detail, and that is possibly a failing of the book, the complicated maneuvers put in place by the Shamsi community to take away the fair-skinned Aku from Khanoum, the Swahili mother, reveals Indian color-consciousness. Jamali's grandson's dislike of his father singing a Gujarati hymn, is another evidence. I liked the peripheral way in which historical figures were introduced in the novel -- Livingstone and Mwalimu, or Julius Nyerere. It is so easy for such powerful personalities to force the pace of the story and take it in another direction altogether by the sheer weight of their presence and the history surrounding them. Vassanji succeeds in keeping the story focused on this marginal family, which had brief encounters with historical figures, and whose lives were influenced and transformed by those figures (Livingstone saves Pipa from possible amputation by German police; Mwalimu seeks political donations from Pipa and rewards him with a prized seat at Independence, only to dispense with him when the bigger cause, socialism, so demands.) There are a couple of excellent images: about the kind of currency notes handed down by the Germans (crisp) versus the kind of notes Pipa is used to handling -- smelling of sweat, crumpled, brought from bosoms or arm-pits, or smelling of matchboxes/tobacco. Or the long list of events in East Africa (pg 226 in the paperback) culminating in the end of an age. Vassanji has made that ambience real and palpable. There are other credible characters - the bespectacled Hindu accountant whose under-shirt is hanging out when he is apprehended with the Shamsi girl, or the hapless messenger,Karim Langdo. However, deeper exploration of the Indian-African experience would have made the novel richer. There is a small inaccuracy: Ali Akbar Ali and Rita carry on romance by exchanging notes through Karim Langdo. One of the film songs Ali Akbar Ali uses to woo Rita is: "The alley which doesn't have your home, I can't bear to tread upon." The time is 1940s, or a best, early 1950s. However, the song alluded to, clearly seems to be Mukesh's song from "Kati Patang" - "Jis gali mein tera ghar na ho balama, us gali se hame to guzarna naheen". Kati Patang, which catapulted Rajesh Khanna to stardom in India, was made in 1970 or 1971. Not that it matters, of course; the song *is* appropriate in the context, and this is not a quibble either. Could it be seen as Vassanji doffing his hat to Rushdie, about suspect narrators and tricks memory plays?? Finally, a word about Corbin's stay in Kikono, the fictional town. I couldn't help comparing the self-important air of a young warrior of the Raj, Corbin, as an ADC in a godforsaken town, with the cynical stint of Agastya Sen in "English, August: An Indian Story". But that's another story by itself. - Salil Tripathi

The author managed to write a novel that reads like a diary, a fascinating history oh Kenya and Tanzania from 1912 until 1988. He starts with Alfred Corbin who represents the British empire as ADC in a tiny Kenian town near the border to Tanganyika. The town had been founded by immigrants from India, who had come to East Africa in the second half of the 19th century. They became traders and, over the generations, some of them prospered. They lived through two world wars, married within their community, lived within their faith - and did not mix with the indigenous population. When independence came in the 1960s, they were destroyed by the new native powers.

Thus the author gives us the history of the Indian settlements, practically from their beginning to their aslmost destruction. His main characters shift from Corbin, to the Indian shopkeeper Pipa and his family, to the expatriate Englishman Gregory, destroyed by the new nation. There is hardly a mention of the native Africans.

Vassanji gives us a fascinating history of the people that Kenya, to this day, neglects and despises. I am very glad that this book was written to resurrect the Indian immigrant, whose trading really built these nations commercially.

It is not only my facination with Africa that made this book special. Vassanji really makes his characters come out of the book, inprints them in your head so they become so real you end up imagining they are your own personal friends. Haven't read a book I enjoyed so much in a long long time. when it came to an end, I wanted more. I really recomend this book to everyone, whatever their reading interest may be. This book will not dissapoint them.

From the book, I found that M. G. Vassanji (an Indian descent from Eastern Africa) has an excellent grasp of history and well understanding of local cultures around his childhood region. He turned these ingredients into a recipe and prepared them into this novel. The historical accounts were extremely thoughtful and entertaining. Local taboos, customs, habits were all exploited by Mr. Vassanji in great lengths.

During some of the novel Indian descendant characters life experiences in England, he has vividly enliven his characters feeling being a second-class citizen for not being whites; and vice-versa being other than blacks during the Kenya and Tanzania pre-independence moments, other races were also allocated into second-rate citizens. It is a socially true prejudice which was more rampant during the years after WW II.

I also found it interesting, that many words in Kenyan and/or Indian may have been of Arabian origins, such as "kitabu". Kitabu = kitab (Indonesian) = book (English).

This book was written in Pius Fernandes' (his chief protagonist) point of view. Pius was a history teacher at Kikon, British East India during the colonial reign. It started when Pius found a very old diary of Alfred Corbin from 1913. He traced Corbin's experiences up to when Corbin stopped writing at all. Becoming curious, Pius started his own journey into researching what had become of Corbin and other main characters of this novel. Eventually, it was Pius himself who will get entwined into his old memories.

Mr. Vassanji is a real smooth-operator, moving between Pius (the more recent character) and older characters, moving between 1913 to end of WW I to end of WW II to 1988, when he found Corbin's diary. Another unsolved remaining secret at the end was whether Ali was Pipa's real son or not was never revealed by the author. Really "A Book of Secrets."

A very good, commendable read. I like it, a four-star.

The narrator of this fascinating novel, Pius Fernandes, uses this description to refer to an old diary, which he has received from one of his former students, a shopkeeper in Dar es Salaam. It is, however, an equally apt description of the novel itself. The "captured spirits," in both cases, represent several generations of Indian expatriate merchants living in the shadows of Mt. Kilimanjaro, straddling the border of Kenya and Tanzania.

As Pius Fernandes investigates mysterious events only partially explained by the British Assistant District Commissioner, Alfred Corbin, in his 1913 diary, the reader is treated to a century of East African history, from the days of British and German colonial rule in Kenya and Tanzania, respectively, through its World War II battles, its independence movements, and up to the present.

Since the narrator and all the main characters from three generations are either Indian or British, and not African, the reader gains a unique perspective on the unfolding events in these African countries.

The author's ambitious scope and broad perspective, his overlapping characters from several generations, the thread of mystery which connects the 1913 diary with characters well into the present, and his seductive story-telling, all contribute to an exciting narrative which will actively involve even the most jaded reader. The insights we gain into the character of the narrator and one or two other main characters engage the heart, making the conclusion understandable, if not, satisfying. Offering a unique point of view, this is a story which enlightens while it entertains. Mary Whipple

A beautiful novel about how all the events in this planet are connected whether you are aware of it or not. The characters are forced by the circumstances that surround them to be involved in situations which in principle do not concern them (A lot of Indians or Massais could not care less if the Germans defeated the British in World War I or viceversa but they have to fight in a conflict without a clue of the reasons behind it). But for the main characters of the novel, such unseen force is the same one that will lead them to explore aspects of their life which they did not even know that existed. The perfect example is how Pipa found his wife and the subsequent birth of a son who will follow its roots eventhough he is not aware of them.

Our existence is fun, tragic, confusing, arbitrary, ambiguous, etc. and for the same token many aspects of this novel follow the same pattern. The most important ones are the many unfinished events, which by the simple force of inertia find an opportunity that will make sense at least for someone, later on.

The author seems to remind us that life will always surprise us. It is simply to ample for anyone to imagine all the possible outcomes.

In M. G. Vassanji's The Book Of Secrets one would expect to find a world of intrigue and mystery. One would expect to be as caught up with this story as a wife reading love letters to her husband that she didn't write. Nothing that compelling here. The title, it seems, is just a marketing ploy.
It's true, a reader could find plenty to talk about in this award-winning book. It has many themes that are worthy of conversation. Discuss amongst yourselves: In searching for the truth behind human motivations, it is likely only more questions will be found. Or, Human drama is more intrapersonal in peaceful times and interpersonal in times of world conflict. Or, Despite a setting unfamiliar to most Canadians, this novel could just as easily be set in Canada's history. But reading group fodder aside, this book is still boring.
It is simply hard to care about who the father of Miriamu's child is. Was it Pipa? Was it Alfred Corbin? Was it her step-father? Who cares? While this might seem callous, Vassanji does not make you feel enough concern for these characters to garner much interest. As the novel begins, it appears to revolve mostly around a British colonialist named Alfred Corbin. A little too quickly the focus switches to Pipa, an Indian immigrant. And near the end the focus is on Pius Fernandes, a local teacher who was researching the lives of the aforementioned characters. The only one of these characters developed sufficiently is Pipa. A reader can readily see what drives him and it is easy to feel concern and compassion for this man. However, Corbin was dropped like the proverbial hot potato just as a reader would start to find him compelling. Pius, is explored a little more in depth than Corbin but not adequately to suggest any plausible reason why he is obsessed with the mysteries of the past.
All in all, this book was a let down from the onset. Given the title The Book of Secrets one expects to be engaged more than this, but without sufficient character development the plot falls flat.

I read this book as a book report book for my school.. I love this book! It is beautifully written, and the story is just...sort of like a journey through the past, through "the book of secrets." .. I had that beautiful "sigh" feeling after I finished reading this book.. it's just really awesome!

I'll go against the current, here. Yes, the book depicted an unusual and interesting side of African history (hence the 2 stars), but I did not find the story itself engaging and certainly not fascinating. I guess I was expecting too much from the winner of a literary book prize. You won't be breathtaken, but you may find you know more about early East Africa than you did before you read the book.

I read this after having lived in East Africa for a few years. It remains one of my all time favourites. Do yourself a favour and read it.