Customer Reviews

Such a Long Journey

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sometimes compared to Dickens or Victor Hugo for the strength of his descriptions, Rohinton Mistry uses "ordinary" men and women as his protagonists and fills his novels with the sights, sounds, smells, and color of India. Depicting his characters as neither saints nor sinners, he involves the reader in their lives as they try to survive the complexities of their culture.

In this novel, Gustad Noble and his wife Dilnavaz, living in a congested apartment building in Bombay, try to lead good lives and inspire their children during Indira Gandhi's rule in the 1970s, with all its political, professional, and social upheaval. India is on the verge of war with the Muslims of Pakistan, and though Gustad, a Parsi, is aware of political chicanery, he is far more pre-occupied with having his son accepted at a school of technology, doing his job as a bank supervisor, and supporting his family. Constant blackouts and continually deteriorating conditions on the street add to the frustrations of Gustad's life.

Then Jimmy Bilimoria, an old friend, asks Gustad for help, claiming that he is training freedom fighters in Bangladesh to act on behalf of the Indian government against Pakistani "butchers." Gustad reluctantly agrees to use his position at the bank to deposit money to a secret account, but he soon finds himself enmeshed in a spiral from which he cannot break out, his life turned upside down.

Throughout the novel, the wall outside Gustad's apartment building symbolizes the larger world of Bombay and parallels some aspects of Gustad's own life. At the outset, it is used as a latrine, breeding illness in the neighborhood but keeping the noise and tumult of the street out of the apartment house. When Gustad persuades a sidewalk artist to paint it, he depicts scenes from all the religions of India, and the wall becomes a shrine--until the government decides to widen the road and tear it down. Gustad's personal crisis and the fate of the wall intersect in a conclusion both moving and profound.

Though this novel lacks the grand scale of A Fine Balance, it is a beautifully constructed and emotionally involving story of a small family trying to live meaningful lives against almost overwhelming odds. The characters are finely drawn, and the plot, though not "exciting," reflects the traumas of an ordinary man and his wife caught up in events and crises not of their own making. Wry and often humorous in its observations of people and circumstances, this early novel by Mistry has all the ingredients which make his later novels so memorable. Mary Whipple

I truly enjoyed this book but it failed to meet my high expectations of Mistry's compelling and totally engrossing story-telling. It is a great story but if left me wishing for more depth and impact. Perhaps my biggest mistake is that I read A Fine Balance a few years ago and it still haunts me. It is such an intense journey, none of his other work has come close to it, in my opinion.

Coming from Bombay I thought this book depicted Parsis in a fantastic manner - especially their unique characteristics, the way they speak and even their idiosyncrasies. If you are at all familiar with the culture you will find yourself smiling knowingly and chuckling at all the little details Mistry throws in to depict them. I loved the style and character development. My sister had read A Fine Balance and said it was depressing so I had shied away from Rohinton Mistry for a long time. Big mistake. I hear A Fine Balance and Family Matters are even better and I can't wait to read them.

Rohinton Mistry's novel, Such a Long Journey, is an engrossing and provocative tale. The main character Gustad Noble is aptly named, for here is a man of true nobility--not by birth, but by his being, his determination, and his goodness. This novel is truly a journey, and Mistry takes us by the hand, guiding us into the unfamiliar cultural landscape of India, taking us along with Gustad and his family as they struggle with all the assaults of being human, as they strive to sustain their way of life on the verge of a changing, evolving society.
Mistry's characters are real; they're developed as individuals and they stand seperatly--from the main character Gustad Noble to his upstairs neighbor who barks, literally, at the moon. When one of many of Mistry's characters dances their way onto this carefully wrought stage, he or she envelopes the reader--we don't wait for this scene to finish in order to get to the meat of the matter--we relax, we sift slowly with the writing as we're there with each of the characters' struggles.
This is a book of enormity. This is a book that when finished, regret sets in. The last few pages dangle themselves out, and when the last word is read and the book closed, the reader has a sense that this one is special, that there aren't many like this one, and that it's too bad, really, that it's over.

This book was touching and well-written, but it didn't have the powerful heartbreaking ability or emotional resonance of A Fine Balance. I would recommend it, but make sure you read this one before you read his others. His style definitely developed over time, as is evident in the artistry of A Fine Balance. He is an amazing author whose works I enjoy. I also thought Family Matters was a better novel.

Rohinton Mistry's first novel provides a door through which to step into the lives of a Parsi community in early 1970's Bombay. The world of Khodadad building turns out to be not so alien to a western reader: the same jealousies, petty grudges and gossip one might expect from one's own neighbors. The religious conflict and overwhelming poverty that always loom large in western media portrayals of India are here relegated to the background, and the success and tribulations of the Noble family come to the fore in what is essentially the story of an ordinary man living in what he perceives to be an ordianry world.

While Gustad Noble's home life seems to be spiralling out of control, one son refusing to attend the right college, his daughter enduring never-ending bouts of sickness, and his wife feverishly invoking traditional treatments on all sides, he becomes anonymously embroiled in a scandal that reaches to the heart of Indira Ghandi's corrupt power structure, claims his best friend, and shakes his faith in his country to its core.

Gustad's efforts to clean up the wall of the Khodadad compound, for years an impromptu lavatory, yield results beyond expectation - transforming a cesspool into a shrine. The problems facing India in the 70's, religious intolerance and the aftereffects of partition, are reflected in miniature as the wall and the Noble's are caught between municipal corruption and the mob.

All in all, very much worth the read. I'm looking forward to tackling "A Fine Balance", Mistry's second (and longer) novel, also shortlisted for the Booker. Cheers

Rohinton Mistry is easily the best among all Indian expat writers. He remembers, cherishes and captures India better than anyone else I've read. The difference between his two masterpieces, "A Fine Balance" and "Such a Long Journey", is that the first is all-encompassing and hence somewhat diluted; whereas "Such a Long Journey" lives in a simple microcosm affected by outside events and is richer as a result. Both are great books though, and the author's stamp is unmistakable in both: think "War and Peace" vs "Anna Karenina".

If you, like me, grew up in a middle class family in Bombay, "Such a Long Journey" could very well be about a neighbour of yours. Mistry takes you on a ride around the streets and markets of the Bombay you loved, makes politically incorrect (but funny) jokes about Sardars and Parsis, criticizes the Shiv Sena and the municipality, and even adds a sort of preface to the deaths of Sanjay and Indira Gandhi. He makes you remember - with a lot of fondness - Rex Jelly and gum bottles with rubber nipples and many other things that once made up socialist India. He makes you nostalgic about the past, and captures Bombay in an amazing time capsule of turbulence, struggle and joy. Such a Long Journey also - plain and simple - tells a wonderful story about wonderful characters.

The best thing about Mistry's writing is that he is so realistic about the everyday things. He will translate word for word and make the spoken sentence more authentic. He will not explain a Gujrati idiom or Hindi swear word in a footnote, like many expat authors are prone to do. This enriches the experience even for a non-Indian - it just makes for better writing. For example, even if you don't understand French, you'll find that the best translation of The Three Musketeers begins with the Huguenots making a second Rochelle out of the bourg of Meung and not the protestants laying siege to the village of Meung.

In short, Such a Long Journey is a remarkable piece of work: unputdownable and mesmerizing.

Not as tragic or as huge in scope as A Fine Balance, this book chronicles the life and struggles of a middle-class Parsi family in Bombay with all the detail and delicacy that Mistry is capable of.

Like A Fine Balance, though, it shares an underlying critique of the corruption of Indira Gandhi's regime which is just scathing, and is essential reading even for those who know little else about modern Indian politics.

This interesting first novel tackles several long journeys -- India's transformation from the raj to a brawling, corrupt, mismanaged, constantly at-war democracy under Indira Gandhi; Bombay resident Gustad Noble's economic decline from a kind of family prominence and prosperity under the Brits; and, most directly, Noble's rise in understanding, breadth of spirit, friendship, and accommodation to what India has become, warts and all.

Readers who delight in plot development may be disappointed. There are plots and subplots of sorts in this book -- will Noble's son reject a shot at an engineering degree? will his daughter regain her health? will a former neighbor, now in New Delhi, be found out as a good guy or a bad guy? will a prized homage to spirituality survive the wrecker's ball? will the bank manager learn the truth about some misguided deposits and spill the beans? will the simpleton get the, uh, girl? -- but, to me at least, these stories appear and drift away without careful crafting or much urgency in the telling. Rather, Mistry uses his plot lines more as opportunities to describe modern Indian society, in its complexity, and Noble's passage through it.

Mistry's central characters are full, interesting, and idiosyncratic. His minor characters -- the politically active prostitutes, the apartment dweller practicing the black arts, the bureaucrats and politicians, the speedtalking simpleton -- are persons we have seen before. Excellent political satire sometimes veers toward cartoons. Still, sentence by sentence, Mistry writes well and with sensitivity to his characters' inner lives.

This is not world-class fiction, but it is a good read, especially for persons with an international bent who are not put off by detail.

Unlike many of the other reviewers, I was disappointed with "A Fine Balance," which I read after this book. I thought it was trite, melodramatic and, in the end, depressing -- all of which, of course, made it a prime book to be chosen for "Oprah," though I admit it was a fast read. But to what avail, if you don't like the book? I got rid of my copy as soon as I could.

By contrast, I've read "Such a Long Journey" three times and still love it. I'd agree that plot here is far subjugated to character. But the nuanced, subtle portraits of the family members, the description of their community and building, and the depiction of life in India at that time all make this a beautiful, well-written book. It steps back from the frequent depictions of Indian misery that crop up so frequently they're becoming a cliche, and by focusing on one normal, struggling family, really show a much more vivid and enduring picture of life.