When She Was Queen

By M.G. Vassanji

Book Overview

"My father lost my mother one evening in a final round of gambling at the poker table," writes the narrator of "When She Was Queen," the title story of a new collection by bestselling novelist and two-time winner of the Giller Prize, M.G. Vassanji. That fateful evening in Kenya becomes "the obsessive and dark centre" of the young man's existence and leads him, years later in Toronto, to unearth an even darker family secret.

In "The Girl With The Bicycle," a man witnesses a woman from his hometown of Dar es Salaam spit at a corpse as it lies in state at a Toronto mosque. As he struggles to fathom her strange behaviour, he finds himself prey to memories and images from the past-and to perilous yearnings that could jeopardize his comfortable, middle-aged life.

Still reeling from the impact of his wife's betrayal, a man decides to stop in on an old college friend in "Elvis, Raja." But he soon realizes that it's not always wise to visit the past as he finds himself trapped in a most curious household, where Elvis Presley has replaced the traditional Hindu gods.

The other stories in the collection also feature exceptional lives transplanted. A young man returns to his roots in India, hoping to find his uncle and, perhaps, a bride. Instead, he becomes a reluctant guru to the residents of his ancestral village. A mukhi must choose between granting the final sacrilegious wish of a dying man and abiding by religious custom in a community that considers him a representative of God. A woman is torn between the voice of her dead husband-a cold and grim-natured atheist-and her new, kind and loving husband whose faith nevertheless places constraints on her as a woman. On Halloween night, a scientist lays bare his horrifying plan to seek vengeance on the man who thwarted his career.

Set variously in Kenya, Canada, India, Pakistan, and the American Midwest, these poignant and evocative stories portray migrants negotiating the in-between worlds of east and west, past and present, secular and religious. Richly detailed and full of vivid characters, the stories are worlds unto themselves, just as a dusty African street full of bustling shops is a world, and so is the small matrix of lives enclosed by an intimate Toronto neighbourhood. It is the smells and sentiments and small gestures that constitute life, and of these Vassanji is a master.

Vassanji's seventh book and his second collection of short stories, When She Was Queen was shortlisted for the 2006 Toronto Book Award. The jury said: "Vassanji's Naipaulian language is like a sharp short knife that cuts through the superficial and gets to the heart and soul of the narrative."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385661770
• ISBN13: 9780385661775
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Anchor Canada
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.0" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

"We Indians exist in networks..."

Having enjoyed reading MG Vassanji's novel The In-Between World of Vikram Lall, a rich panoramic portrayal of Lall as a representative of the Asian community in Kenya and their complex existence in that country, I was intrigued how the author translates such multi-layered themes into a series of short stories. This, his second short story collection, tackles a wide range of 'in-between' life experiences of men and women, either in India, East Africa or Canada and USA. Across generations Vassanji's protagonists are caught between traditional and modern or urban cultures, between different religions or challenges to their beliefs. Each story, some very short, others more novellas, is an delicate and intimate portrait of a small group of people, exploring different aspects of the human challenges faced by them. Some of the prominent characters are loosely connected across different stories, reappearing over time and space, so that over the length of the book, their different circumstances and personality traits can be explored. Vassanji is a master story teller as well as an accomplished wordsmith. Both talents are evident and make this book engrossing reading. The title story, a man loses his wife in a night of gambling... seen from the perspective of the child it explores family and relationships in an unusual way. There is a lovely twist at the end that makes the child, now grown up, look at his parents - and love - in a new way. Shamshu, the first person protagonist and Farida, his adorable and much adored wife, are now living in Toronto, in an Asian community district that brings together many of their acquaintances from their earlier life in Tanzania where they met as students. Shamshu is an elder in his congregation and is called upon with every type of domestic and political problem. He and his wife act as something like central hub of a network established between characters and stories, that gives the collection an unusual continuity and depth. This technique lets the reader explore connections that would otherwise be more difficult to establish and it allows Vassanji to reflect on the different individuals over time and space as Farida and Shamshu discuss and reminisce. While all stories are appealing, my favourite is a story about a deep friendship between two girls, Madhu and Khatija, who were neighbours in Amritsar before India's independence and part of India was partitioned off into Pakistan. One of them has to flee and the other, in diary entries, kept over decades, shares her emotions and the dramatic impact that the partition had on ordinary people. A sad, yet beautiful story. All are worth reading. [Friederike Knabe]