Book Review: All the Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy – By George Somasundaram
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Source : Dæhæna – March 2024
Anuradha Roy, the author of “All the Lives we never lived” is a successful Indian novelist. This book is her fourth (published in 2018) hot on the heels of the highly acclaimed “Sleeping on Jupiter”. She and husband Rukun Advani reside in Ranikhet, in the foothills of the Himalayas, having founded “Permanent Black”, a publishing company focused on academic literature.
‘In my childhood, I was known as the boy whose mother had run-off with an Englishman. The man was in fact a German, but in a small town in India in those days, all white foreigners were largely thought to be British’.
Thus begins “All the Lives we never lived”, set around the time of the fight for Indian Independence and World War 2. The beautifully written novel features famous individuals from history (Rabindranath Tagore, Walter Spies, etc.) who enter the lives of fictional characters. Narrated by Myshkin (an endearing nickname), it tells the story of his mother Gayathri (a Bengali Hindu) who left the family to pursue her dreams. Myshkin was only nine when Gayathri moved to Bali embarking on a new life with Spies, a celebrated painter and curator of German heritage.
After his mother’s departure, Myshkin’s life is spent anxiously waiting for her letters from Bali with the hope she will return. In later years he compares that waiting to ‘blood being drained away from our bodies until one day there was no more left’. He seeks to understand why his mother made the choice she did.
India in the 1930s was defined by arranged marriages and rigid customs. Gayathri was the pampered daughter of a free thinker and her unconventional interests made her ill suited for the Indian marriage mart. The only man who would have her was Nek, an AngloIndian academic. The marriage was doomed after a short spell. Nek saw art as irrelevant and dance as scandalous. Nek was a member of an anticolonial organisation of patriots directed towards ending British rule in India. The arrival of Walter Spies to their lives (he was an admirer of Tagore) brings possibilities for Gayathri but distrust of the white skin by Nek. Gayathri, spellbound by Spies follows him to Dutch-held Bali where he is a prominent resident. Nek wanders off seeking redemption and returns with a new bride from a village, a step mother for Myshkin.
Anuradha Roy tackles this scenario tactfully. Her skill as a writer is shown in her ability to reveal the consequences of a mother’s choice. The absent mother is not condemned but there is compassion for the choices made. Nek’s anti-imperial activities are not treated as being impressive while his tyrant behaviour at home is highlighted as a contrast to the freedom he seeks from being ruled. Roy seamlessly shuttles between time, overlaying the past with the present, to create a brilliant tapestry that is the story.
It is a novel of how families fall apart and of what remains in the aftermath.
George Somasundaram
George resides in Brisbane and is currently retired.
