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Jhumpa captures in a graphic
manner the ways and means in which Gogol, the protagonist, and
his family try to make sense of the world they have opted for,
the dilemma of living in a country and not belonging. Also
brought out is the effort required to mediate not only between
people and situations but also between cultures and social
practices. She brings alive the multiple selves constructed so
painstakingly to make sense of the unknown world that is as much
a land of opportunities as it is of conflict and confusion. Her
canvas is not overladen with bold strokes and overwhelming
colours. Instead, Jhumpa displays the dexterity and skill of a
miniaturist fleshing out the people, places and events with
small deft strokes that combine external detail, emotions
fleeting and the turbulence within.
Whether it is the
acute loneliness of Ashima, perseverance of Ashoke or anguish of
Gogol’s mind, it seems life-like and real. No memorable quotes
or scintillating passages but one still empathises with the
characters "dwelling unconnected, in a perpetual sense of
expectation, of longing." It is this expectation and
longing that defines the diaspora experience, she likens to
being in a state of perpetual pregnancy as it were.
In a realistic way
the writer brings out how one can work and live in a country for
decades and not belong. The protagonist does not want to remain
unquestionably in his parents’ world but there’s no way that
he can escape it too. This, for him, accentuates the ambivalence
and the otherness of being in an alien country. Of course, his
pet name is bound up with a catastrophe he has unwillingly
embodied for years.
This in-between
existence of Nikhil/Gogol is exemplified by his relationship
with his American girlfriend Maxine. The manner in which she and
her parents bond and belong to their environment is something
that he and his family will never be able to do. The hyphenated
life he leads is further accentuated by his marriage to and
subsequent split with Moshumi, who might be a fellow Bengali but
her sensibility and orientation is more European — Parisian to
be precise. A truly global citizen Mo is more comfortable with
Dmitri, her German lover, than she is with Gogol. Mo has used
the immigrant experience to gain exposure and push the frontiers
of her personality. There is no ambivalence or lack of certitude
here.
If the book begins
with the birth of Gogol, it ends with his mother’s decision to
leave what has become home. Ironically, after struggling to make
the USA her home for 33 years, Ashima must move, after her
husband’s death, to divide the time between Calcutta and the
USA. "Now she will be without borders, without a home of
her own, a resident everywhere and nowhere". She will miss
the carefully constructed world that had been "home
nevertheless—the world for which she is responsible, which she
has created, which is everywhere around her, needing to be
packed up, given away, thrown out bit by bit."
The theme of
homelessness is portrayed without going overboard, devoid of
undue pathos or excessive sentimentality. In the hands of a less
dexterous writer the quotidian details would have become boring
and the strains of nostalgia (always understated) maudlin. A
slice of life, nevertheless, comes alive. Gently delineated
characters are fleshed out and they are as authentic as is their
milieu. The effortless ease and and the simplicity is deceptive
since it conceals a definitive sense of structure that could not
have been achieved without tremendous hard work.
If the test of a
writer is the ability to make the reader feel for the characters
and empathise with the trials and tribulations in their life,
Jhumpa certainly succeeds in that.
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