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teerah's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
meganturnsthepage's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
candacesiegle_greedyreader's review
5.0
It was brilliant the first time I read it, and even more so the second time.
This is the second time I have read The In between World of Vikram Lall. This book is more shocking, painful, and engrossing than it was the first time I read it. Highly recommended for anyone attracted by powerful writing, an unusual setting, and complex, flawed, and heartbreaking characters. One of my favorite books.
This is the second time I have read The In between World of Vikram Lall. This book is more shocking, painful, and engrossing than it was the first time I read it. Highly recommended for anyone attracted by powerful writing, an unusual setting, and complex, flawed, and heartbreaking characters. One of my favorite books.
constantlymaya's review against another edition
3.0
This novel is gorgeous and lush, with very atmospheric and emotive prose. The story follows the life of Vikram Lall, a third-generation member of the Indian community in Kenya. During his life he witnesses massive changes in the country, as it transitions from British colonial rule to independence through the equal parts courageous and horrifically violent Mau Mau uprising. As an Indian Kenyan, he exists in the interstices of privilege and experiences a complex identity: his community endures racism from the colonial rulers of Kenya, but hold status over black Kenyans, a position which earns them vitriol and animosity after independence. Vikram is born in Africa, but can never feel really African. The book offers no simple answers, nor does it shy away from the fraught and convoluted joinings of race, culture, gender and class and the myriad ways in which they interact and influence each other. It beautifully and poignantly explores the shiftings and growing pains of interpersonal relationships over the decades, and contains one of the most moving and satisfying portrayals of a brother-sister dynamic that I’ve ever read. However, the storyline is uneven and weighted in the nostalgia of Vikram’s memories of his childhood, the fullness of which make the portions about his adult life seem too thin and inadequate in comparison, and consequently unable to hold the thread of this long narrative. The ending also seemed a little rushed and lazy, especially for such a long novel. However, this is an informative, moving and thoughtfully written book which is commendable for its willingness to exist in the unknowing of the in-betweens.
millennial_dandy's review against another edition
2.0
"I long believed that mine were crimes of circumstance, of finding oneself in a situation and simply going along with the way of the world." P.372
I dilly-dallied for five months reading this novel. Not because it was boring me, or because a lack of familiarity with the subject matter made it hard to get stuck into (though it's true that I knew virtually nothing about Kenya's independence from England and even less about the chaos that ensued). This was a hard one to get through because I could tell almost immediately that while I was interested in learning something of those events and of that time period through the novel, this was a book with a... difficult perspective.
Our protagonist, the titular Vikram, is born into an established Desi family in Kenya and the narrative opens in 1953. The very first characters we meet besides our protagonist are his sister and their three childhood playmates; a boy called Njoroge, and a brother and sister from an English family. Of this period of his life, Vikram says:
This rather ominous statement, given to us on page one, forms the backbone of the entire narrative and never truly leaves us.
Because, you see, Vassanji seems to be trying to accomplish a few things in this novel. Things that snarl up within each other like: the legacy of colonialism, strained race relations between majority and minority ethnic groups, a corrupt post-colonialist government, violent freedom fighters who sprang up out of an additional ostracised minority group. And there's also a Romeo and Juliet style love story that predictably ends badly. Not to mention the underlying question posed in the title of: where in this new world do people like Vikram belong/do people like Vikram (i.e., Asian families long established in Kenya) belong in this new world?
There's... a lot going on.
All of this getting mixed up together in the stew of a novel should have made for some compelling plot points and nicely complex and nuanced characterization of all of our main characters.
It does not.
Because, you see, Vassanji cleverly lets us in on the stance he's going to take on all of this kerfuffle in the title; that's right -- this is a centrist take. A 'there were bad people on both sides' take.
He pays a lot of lip service to the idea that Kenya gaining independence from the British is good, actually, but then every single British character in the story is decent and good and they all have tragic things happen to them. And all of the freedom fighters/Mau Mau we meet are pretty objectively bad people who murder children only to get shunted sideways in a pathetic little heap once the new, crooked regime takes over.
So that was a choice.
There's a large cast of recurring characters on top of a large number of historical events/plot points, and that weighs things down too because not every character we meet has the space to be equally fleshed out, and so many of them end of fulfilling two-dimensional archetypes. Vikram's sister, Seema, and Njoroge in particular suffer from this problem.
Vikram himself, our protagonist and narrator, is also deeply uninteresting. He tells us in the book's first paragraph that he's essentially the villain of the story. But then kind of hedges that assertion, much like he does every other thought he has. The lad lives this wild life and yet never takes a single stand on anything. Does he support his sister's forbidden romance with Njoroge? Kind of. How does he end of with his wife? She's kind of just given to him. How does he end up being this super high-level con-man? Eh, he sort of just falls into it accidentally.
Passive protagonists can be interesting if the point of their passivity is to be a POV character for the reader, the fly on the wall, the observer. But if Vikram's this story's Nick Carraway, we desperately needed and never got a Jay Gatsby.
And it's all in service to this idea that he can't pick a side because there are 'good and bad people on both sides.' So, what's the result of this maddening centricity? He ends up getting swept up in a tide of decidedly not good things and just runs around being a menace for the last third of the book. Thanks, I hate it.
The framing device of Vikram's exile in Canada and his relationships there ultimately doesn't matter for as much room in the narrative as it takes up, and in the end that central question of identity, of 'where do I belong?' gets answered, but not in a way that feels engaging or new. He belongs in Kenya. Why does he belong there? Is it because of the connection he feels to his grandfather who helped build the railway there? Is it because he grew up there? Is it because he travels elsewhere and realizes home was the place he came from? Who knows because we never find out. He just decides to mosey on back after Njoroge's incredibly forgettable and ultimately unimportant son goes back there and gets arrested.
The entire last act (the last 100 pages or so) feels rushed -- a jarring contrast to the texture and care that were clearly put into the first half of the novel set during Vikram's childhood.
And that's a pity, because in terms of perspective and raw writing talent, Vassanji had everything needed to write a very nuanced and fresh take on a tumultuous time in Kenya's (and Africa's more broadly) history. But, alas.
That all being said, I will give him credit for having some really lovely descriptive passages and a banger of an opening paragraph:
I dilly-dallied for five months reading this novel. Not because it was boring me, or because a lack of familiarity with the subject matter made it hard to get stuck into (though it's true that I knew virtually nothing about Kenya's independence from England and even less about the chaos that ensued). This was a hard one to get through because I could tell almost immediately that while I was interested in learning something of those events and of that time period through the novel, this was a book with a... difficult perspective.
Our protagonist, the titular Vikram, is born into an established Desi family in Kenya and the narrative opens in 1953. The very first characters we meet besides our protagonist are his sister and their three childhood playmates; a boy called Njoroge, and a brother and sister from an English family. Of this period of his life, Vikram says:
"I call forth for you here my beginning, the world of my childhood [...] It was a world of innocence and play, under a guileless and constant sun; as well, of barbarous cruelty and terror lurking in darkest night; a colonial world of repressive, undignified subjecthood, as also of seductive order and security -- so that long afterwards we would be tempted to wonder if we did not hurry forth too fast straight into the morass that is now our mal-formed freedom. p.5
This rather ominous statement, given to us on page one, forms the backbone of the entire narrative and never truly leaves us.
Because, you see, Vassanji seems to be trying to accomplish a few things in this novel. Things that snarl up within each other like: the legacy of colonialism, strained race relations between majority and minority ethnic groups, a corrupt post-colonialist government, violent freedom fighters who sprang up out of an additional ostracised minority group. And there's also a Romeo and Juliet style love story that predictably ends badly. Not to mention the underlying question posed in the title of: where in this new world do people like Vikram belong/do people like Vikram (i.e., Asian families long established in Kenya) belong in this new world?
There's... a lot going on.
All of this getting mixed up together in the stew of a novel should have made for some compelling plot points and nicely complex and nuanced characterization of all of our main characters.
It does not.
Because, you see, Vassanji cleverly lets us in on the stance he's going to take on all of this kerfuffle in the title; that's right -- this is a centrist take. A 'there were bad people on both sides' take.
He pays a lot of lip service to the idea that Kenya gaining independence from the British is good, actually, but then every single British character in the story is decent and good and they all have tragic things happen to them. And all of the freedom fighters/Mau Mau we meet are pretty objectively bad people who murder children only to get shunted sideways in a pathetic little heap once the new, crooked regime takes over.
So that was a choice.
There's a large cast of recurring characters on top of a large number of historical events/plot points, and that weighs things down too because not every character we meet has the space to be equally fleshed out, and so many of them end of fulfilling two-dimensional archetypes. Vikram's sister, Seema, and Njoroge in particular suffer from this problem.
Vikram himself, our protagonist and narrator, is also deeply uninteresting. He tells us in the book's first paragraph that he's essentially the villain of the story. But then kind of hedges that assertion, much like he does every other thought he has. The lad lives this wild life and yet never takes a single stand on anything. Does he support his sister's forbidden romance with Njoroge? Kind of. How does he end of with his wife? She's kind of just given to him. How does he end up being this super high-level con-man? Eh, he sort of just falls into it accidentally.
Passive protagonists can be interesting if the point of their passivity is to be a POV character for the reader, the fly on the wall, the observer. But if Vikram's this story's Nick Carraway, we desperately needed and never got a Jay Gatsby.
And it's all in service to this idea that he can't pick a side because there are 'good and bad people on both sides.' So, what's the result of this maddening centricity? He ends up getting swept up in a tide of decidedly not good things and just runs around being a menace for the last third of the book. Thanks, I hate it.
The framing device of Vikram's exile in Canada and his relationships there ultimately doesn't matter for as much room in the narrative as it takes up, and in the end that central question of identity, of 'where do I belong?' gets answered, but not in a way that feels engaging or new. He belongs in Kenya. Why does he belong there? Is it because of the connection he feels to his grandfather who helped build the railway there? Is it because he grew up there? Is it because he travels elsewhere and realizes home was the place he came from? Who knows because we never find out. He just decides to mosey on back after Njoroge's incredibly forgettable and ultimately unimportant son goes back there and gets arrested.
The entire last act (the last 100 pages or so) feels rushed -- a jarring contrast to the texture and care that were clearly put into the first half of the novel set during Vikram's childhood.
And that's a pity, because in terms of perspective and raw writing talent, Vassanji had everything needed to write a very nuanced and fresh take on a tumultuous time in Kenya's (and Africa's more broadly) history. But, alas.
That all being said, I will give him credit for having some really lovely descriptive passages and a banger of an opening paragraph:
My name is Vikram Lall. I have the distinction of having been numbered one of Africa's most corrupt men, a cheat of monstrous and reptilian cunning. To me has been attributed the emptying of a large part of my troubled country's treasury in recent years. I head my country's List of Shame. These and other descriptions actually flatter my intelligence, if not my moral sensibility. But I do not intend here to defend myself or even seek redemption through confession; I simply crave to tell my story. p.3
geirertzgaard's review against another edition
5.0
Dette er en av de fem viktigste bøkene jeg har lest, viktig for meg vel og merke. Hovedpersonen, kenyanske Vikram Lall er tenåring i Kenya omtrent da jeg var tenåring i Kenya, og sjelden har jeg kjent meg selv igjen i en person som er så ulik som meg som det jeg gjør med Vikram. Vikram vokser opp i Nakuru, en by i Riftdalen, flytter til Nairobi, og må dra i eksil til Canada og ser tilbake på årene i Nairobi og Nakuru, og spesielt årene i Nairobi er å vandre i livet til trettenårige meg. Jeg får samme assosiasjoner som jeg får til en like fabelaktig bok, En fremmed ved mitt bord, som handler blant annet om Ivos fars år i Nairobi. Den samme alderen, ulik bakgrunn men akkurat de samme vibbene. Viktig.
badmom's review
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Fascinating historical details about the building + ruling of Kenya woven beautifully into a story about a man, his family, and the choices he made over a lifetime.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racism, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, and War
dowswell's review against another edition
4.0
There is something to be said about a book that succeeds in being emotionally removed and yet heartbreaking at the same time. Such is the case with this book. You never really get a sense of feeling from the book's protagonist -- a man who introduces himself as having 'the distinction of having been numbered one of Africa's most corrupt men, a cheat of monstrous and reptilian cunning.' Despite this, as his story progresses you find that you relate to him more and more.
It is at the same time a detached and vivid tale that deserves attention from many angles. It simultaneously conquers many issues, from the complexity of race relations to the unending and all-too-human quest for belonging and acceptance. For all its complexity and dispassionate prose, it is easily described in one word: 'mesmerizing'.
It is at the same time a detached and vivid tale that deserves attention from many angles. It simultaneously conquers many issues, from the complexity of race relations to the unending and all-too-human quest for belonging and acceptance. For all its complexity and dispassionate prose, it is easily described in one word: 'mesmerizing'.
bookslayer's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
its_charlielewis's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0