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The Assassin's Song
In the aftermath of the brutal violence that gripped western India in 2002, Karsan Dargawalla, heir to Pirbaag – the shrine of a mysterious, medieval sufi – begins to tell the story of his family. His tale opens in the 1960s: young Karsan is next in line after his father to assume lordship of the shrine, but he longs to be “just ordinary.” Despite his father's pleas, Karsan leaves home behind for Harvard, and, eventually, marriage and a career. Not until tragedy strikes, both in Karsan's adopted home in Canada and in Pirbaag, is he drawn back across thirty years of separation and silence to discover what, if anything, is left for him in India.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
45 people are currently reading
920 people want to read
About the author
M.G. Vassanji
30 books165 followersMoyez G. Vassanji was born in Kenya and raised in Tanzania. Before coming to Canada in 1978, he attended MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, where he specialized in theoretical nuclear physics. From 1978-1980 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Atomic Energy of Canada, and from 1980 to 1989 he was a research associate at the University of Toronto. During this period he developed a keen interest in medieval Indian literature and history, co-founded and edited a literary magazine (The Toronto South Asian Review, later renamed The Toronto Review of Contemporary Writing Abroad), and began writing stories and a novel. In 1989, with the publication of his first novel, The Gunny Sack, he was invited to spend a season at the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa. That year ended his active career in nuclear physics. His contributions there he considers modest, in algebraic models and high spin states. The fact that he was never tenured he considers a blessing for it freed him to pursue his literary career.
Vassanji is the author of six novels and two collections of short stories. His work has appeared in various countries and several languages. His most recent novel, The Assassin's Song, was short-listed for both the Giller Prize and the Governor-General's Prize for best novel in Canada. It has appeared in the US (Knopf) and India (Penguin) and is scheduled to appear in the UK (Canongate).
His wife, Nurjehan, was born in Tanzania. They have two sons, Anil, and Kabir. He lives in Toronto, and visits Africa and India often.
Awards: Giller Prize, twice; Harbourfront Festival Prize; Commonwealth First Book Prize (Africa); Bressani Prize. Order of Canada.
Vassanji is the author of six novels and two collections of short stories. His work has appeared in various countries and several languages. His most recent novel, The Assassin's Song, was short-listed for both the Giller Prize and the Governor-General's Prize for best novel in Canada. It has appeared in the US (Knopf) and India (Penguin) and is scheduled to appear in the UK (Canongate).
His wife, Nurjehan, was born in Tanzania. They have two sons, Anil, and Kabir. He lives in Toronto, and visits Africa and India often.
Awards: Giller Prize, twice; Harbourfront Festival Prize; Commonwealth First Book Prize (Africa); Bressani Prize. Order of Canada.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
March 26, 2009
On the back cover of my edition, there's a blurb from The Globe and Mail that calls the book "timeless." That is the most accurate single-word evaluation of The Assassin's Song.
Once you've plunged into the book and read a couple of chapters, you immediately get that sense of timelessness. M. G. Vassanji intersperses aspects of the "present day" with events in the thirteenth century and events from the narrator's childhood. The historical events take on the quality of a story or a myth, whereas the events from the narrator's childhood function much like snapshots that trigger a distant memory. Vassanji has a crisp prose style that unifies these disparate periods in time, tying them together into a very intriguing story.
Vassanji's depicts his scenes with broad brush strokes that allow me to place myself there and immerse myself in the atmospheres he invokes. India, steeped in mysticism. Boston, the nexus of those who don't belong. Canada, the refuge of fledgling cultural movements. All of the settings are a great deal more three dimensional than I do them justice here, of course, but at the same time they represent very clear and intentional periods in the main character's life.
The Assassin's Song is the type of book that you will be able to read at different times throughout life and interpret accordingly. As a fairly young individual, I often found myself aligning with Karsan against his father, who naturally stood in opposition to some of his son's rebellious actions. As with most father-son tales, the ending consists of a one-way reconciliation, Karsan with his dead father, but there is the suggestion that his father clinged to traditions slightly longer than he should have. At least, that is the decision that Karsan reaches, for he is the last of the line of the Sahebs of Pirbaag, and another ancient tradition shrouded in mysticism passes from the world of the living into the pages of history and folklore.
I suspect that when I revisit this book as an older, more experienced person, I will see additional facets of the story that escaped me on a first reading. While I doubt I'll ever completely empathize with the position of Karsan's father, I do understand his point of view. Vassanji takes the father-son conflict and successfully amplifies it into a discussion of religion and spiritualism in the context of modern society. This is one aspect of Indian culture that makes it so fascinating: India has a very strong tradition; although it is primarily Hindu, there's very deep influences of Buddhism and Islam (the latter of which, of course, led to the formation of Pakistan). For this reason, India is a perfect setting for stories that want to address how cultural values shift as a country attempts to break itself away from the cycle of history and become influential on the international stage. Vassanji gives us a glimpse of this struggle from the perspective of an individual and a family rather than the entire country, and this synecdoche is very effective.
The title provoked me throughout the book--of course in hindsight it's dreadfully obvious, and a more astute reader would probably catch on to its obvious meaning. Until the end of the book, however, I meditated frequently upon the significance of the title. It's not the most interesting part of the book though.
The end of the story takes on a strange epistolary dimension that I didn't enjoy. It works, but at the same time it robs the story of some of the timeless quality that it had before. I kept on having this "voiceover" feeling as I read the letters written by Karsan's father--perhaps, however, that is an artifact of the movies and a testament to my own cultural upbringing than a statement about Vassanji's narrative style.
In any event, The Assassin's Song is a solid character-driven work replete with emotional depth and a moving story. At times it can feel somewhat dense, especially for those unfamiliar with Indian history or the basic tenets of Hinduism, Islam, etc. However, the book takes you on an elegant journey that left me refreshed and made me think. I like that.
Once you've plunged into the book and read a couple of chapters, you immediately get that sense of timelessness. M. G. Vassanji intersperses aspects of the "present day" with events in the thirteenth century and events from the narrator's childhood. The historical events take on the quality of a story or a myth, whereas the events from the narrator's childhood function much like snapshots that trigger a distant memory. Vassanji has a crisp prose style that unifies these disparate periods in time, tying them together into a very intriguing story.
Vassanji's depicts his scenes with broad brush strokes that allow me to place myself there and immerse myself in the atmospheres he invokes. India, steeped in mysticism. Boston, the nexus of those who don't belong. Canada, the refuge of fledgling cultural movements. All of the settings are a great deal more three dimensional than I do them justice here, of course, but at the same time they represent very clear and intentional periods in the main character's life.
The Assassin's Song is the type of book that you will be able to read at different times throughout life and interpret accordingly. As a fairly young individual, I often found myself aligning with Karsan against his father, who naturally stood in opposition to some of his son's rebellious actions. As with most father-son tales, the ending consists of a one-way reconciliation, Karsan with his dead father, but there is the suggestion that his father clinged to traditions slightly longer than he should have. At least, that is the decision that Karsan reaches, for he is the last of the line of the Sahebs of Pirbaag, and another ancient tradition shrouded in mysticism passes from the world of the living into the pages of history and folklore.
I suspect that when I revisit this book as an older, more experienced person, I will see additional facets of the story that escaped me on a first reading. While I doubt I'll ever completely empathize with the position of Karsan's father, I do understand his point of view. Vassanji takes the father-son conflict and successfully amplifies it into a discussion of religion and spiritualism in the context of modern society. This is one aspect of Indian culture that makes it so fascinating: India has a very strong tradition; although it is primarily Hindu, there's very deep influences of Buddhism and Islam (the latter of which, of course, led to the formation of Pakistan). For this reason, India is a perfect setting for stories that want to address how cultural values shift as a country attempts to break itself away from the cycle of history and become influential on the international stage. Vassanji gives us a glimpse of this struggle from the perspective of an individual and a family rather than the entire country, and this synecdoche is very effective.
The title provoked me throughout the book--of course in hindsight it's dreadfully obvious, and a more astute reader would probably catch on to its obvious meaning. Until the end of the book, however, I meditated frequently upon the significance of the title. It's not the most interesting part of the book though.
The end of the story takes on a strange epistolary dimension that I didn't enjoy. It works, but at the same time it robs the story of some of the timeless quality that it had before. I kept on having this "voiceover" feeling as I read the letters written by Karsan's father--perhaps, however, that is an artifact of the movies and a testament to my own cultural upbringing than a statement about Vassanji's narrative style.
In any event, The Assassin's Song is a solid character-driven work replete with emotional depth and a moving story. At times it can feel somewhat dense, especially for those unfamiliar with Indian history or the basic tenets of Hinduism, Islam, etc. However, the book takes you on an elegant journey that left me refreshed and made me think. I like that.
June 1, 2022
Sună mai degrabă a un amestec obositor de manual de istorie și o narațiune încărcată inutil cu multe nume, date și descrieri. Ca bonus avem mult prea multe cuvinte netraduse.
February 8, 2010
I'm giving this a solid 3 because I found it pretty engaging. On the other hand, I questioned several times why I was reading it. Because while I was hooked, I wasn't really enjoying it.
The book isn't a novel so much as a fictional biography, and the main character has a pretty bizarre life. He's an Indian boy who was raised near a shrine that his family had inherited the duty and privilege of keeping up. His father was said to be an avatar, and he would be some day his successor. So of course this is the coming of age story of a boy who doesn't want to follow the destiny he's been awarded, but instead wants to make his own way, and how he deals with the guilt, grief and separation that he creates between him and his family by doing so.
This is the most recent in a line of books about immigrants to the United States that I've read, and while I found the story interesting I also found it tedious. I feel like the part of the story that gives the book it's name is the part the author spent the smallest amount of time on. And while I liked the main character, I found him harder to identify with than most protagonists. I also find it a bit odd that this book which speaks to the Desi Immigrant experience in America, and the uncomfortable intersection of the Moslem and Hindu communities in India, was written by someone not from India. Nor a child of someone from India. They say you should write what you know, and I can't help wondering if the thing I'm not liking about this piece is that the author didn't know what he was writing about.
The book isn't a novel so much as a fictional biography, and the main character has a pretty bizarre life. He's an Indian boy who was raised near a shrine that his family had inherited the duty and privilege of keeping up. His father was said to be an avatar, and he would be some day his successor. So of course this is the coming of age story of a boy who doesn't want to follow the destiny he's been awarded, but instead wants to make his own way, and how he deals with the guilt, grief and separation that he creates between him and his family by doing so.
This is the most recent in a line of books about immigrants to the United States that I've read, and while I found the story interesting I also found it tedious. I feel like the part of the story that gives the book it's name is the part the author spent the smallest amount of time on. And while I liked the main character, I found him harder to identify with than most protagonists. I also find it a bit odd that this book which speaks to the Desi Immigrant experience in America, and the uncomfortable intersection of the Moslem and Hindu communities in India, was written by someone not from India. Nor a child of someone from India. They say you should write what you know, and I can't help wondering if the thing I'm not liking about this piece is that the author didn't know what he was writing about.
August 12, 2023
Read Around the World: Keyna
Eh. I am not sure how I feel about this book; I cannot say that I liked it, but I also didn't hate it and it wasn't until today [12.11.2021] that I actually didn't want to pick up the book to read it and that is when I knew I needed to power through and just finish it. Much of the story is intriguing, but there is a TON of blather, blather, blather that just bogs the main story [this book was about a 100 pages too long IMO]. Plus, there is a ton of jumping around - can no one tell a story in a linear way anymore? Sigh. I cannot discourage people from reading it - there are many parts of the story that are very good, thought-provoking and often sad, but like I said, there is a lot of jumping and blather and that just kept me from loving [or even liking] this book.
Eh. I am not sure how I feel about this book; I cannot say that I liked it, but I also didn't hate it and it wasn't until today [12.11.2021] that I actually didn't want to pick up the book to read it and that is when I knew I needed to power through and just finish it. Much of the story is intriguing, but there is a TON of blather, blather, blather that just bogs the main story [this book was about a 100 pages too long IMO]. Plus, there is a ton of jumping around - can no one tell a story in a linear way anymore? Sigh. I cannot discourage people from reading it - there are many parts of the story that are very good, thought-provoking and often sad, but like I said, there is a lot of jumping and blather and that just kept me from loving [or even liking] this book.
July 24, 2015
I actually started reading this book by accident. A friend was giving away old books and this was one of them. The title suggested a murder mystery and so i picked it up.
Turns out, its a beautiful story with history, religion, family drama and great story telling. What it isn't is a murder mystery but you will still find yourself captured and wanting more!
Turns out, its a beautiful story with history, religion, family drama and great story telling. What it isn't is a murder mystery but you will still find yourself captured and wanting more!
Read
September 21, 2012 From Publishers Weekly
The tension between India's centuries-old spiritual traditions and contemporary religious militancy drives this memorable, melancholy family saga by two-time Canadian Giller Prize–winner Vassanji (who won for The Book of Secrets and The In-Between World of Vikram Lall). Karsan Dargawalla is destined from boyhood to succeed his father and his father's father as avatar of Pirbaag, a 13th-century Sufi shrine. As the novel unfolds in fits and starts, Karsan rejects his spiritual inheritance and decamps for Harvard in 1970, against his chagrined father's wishes. The three decades of stubborn self-exile that follow represent a sorrowful generational rift between father and son that ends when Karsan returns home after his ascetic father's death, announced at the book's opening. Though Sufism is a Muslim tradition, Karsan's father considered himself neither and both Muslim and Hindu, and we, says Karsan at one point, are respected for that. Yet Karsan finds the shrine destroyed by a mob of Hindu hard-liners, while his younger brother, Mansoor, militantly calls himself a Muslim and may be involved in Islamist terrorist activities. Frequent shifts in time and perspective (including flashes of the shrine's early history) heighten Vassanji's evocative depiction of India's ongoing postcolonial tumult, mournfully personalized by the fate of the fractured family at the novel's heart. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
This resplendent novel traces the path of Karsan Dargawalla, who is brought up, as generations of his forefathers have been, to be the "gaadi-varas, the successor and avatar" of a seven-hundred-year-old Sufi shrine in Gujarat, a mausoleum of Muslim origin but for centuries open to all religions. Karsan, rebelling against "the iron bonds of history," leaves for Boston and Canada, though he ultimately returns to India to "research, recall, and write about" his abandoned heritage. Vassanji eloquently details the sufferings of Karsan’s family as the price of his individual freedom, but suggests that this abandonment was necessary, and that tradition, in the face of India’s "ancient animosities," must be engaged with critically and in the context of the wider world.
Copyright © 2007
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November 6, 2012When in India, buy an Indian author's book and read it. I never would have picked this up at home but I'm glad I did. I gained a new understanding of Indian culture and some of the religious traditions which seem so foreign to a Western mind. Karsan Dargawalla is the son of the Saheb - the lord and keeper - of Pirbaag, the Shrine of the Wanderer. As was his father before him - all the way back to 1260 when the Wanderer first arrived in the area. Parts of the story take place in the 1260s so the reader understands the beginning of things but most of the story is 'modern.' Karsan grows up expected to become the next Saheb but of course he rebels and chooses to attend Harvard as an undergraduate. Life happens, thirty years go by, and Karsan goes back to his village torn apart by Hindu-Muslim strife. The characters and the story are interesting and very different than standard Western fare but the emotions and human connections are the same across the world.
March 19, 2021
Reading it, I felt, "not his best". But then, afterwards, I feel it was ...lovely.
How to describe the 20th-21st century experiences of someone who is raised to be the avatar of a 13th century maybe-god?
The idea of the richness of religions and traditions that would allow and support the emergence and persistence of a cult that professed to be neither Hindu nor Muslim (nor Christian), but accepted both and all, is something to ponder.
A deep story of family and faith, mysticism and globalization, history, and ultimately, intolerance.
How to describe the 20th-21st century experiences of someone who is raised to be the avatar of a 13th century maybe-god?
The idea of the richness of religions and traditions that would allow and support the emergence and persistence of a cult that professed to be neither Hindu nor Muslim (nor Christian), but accepted both and all, is something to ponder.
A deep story of family and faith, mysticism and globalization, history, and ultimately, intolerance.
September 10, 2018
A story that got better as the book went on. The reader can sympathize with the boy whose father expects him to follow his predestined role as guru and avatar to the people who visit the shrine. Vassanji's writing is poetic, but he includes an overwhelming number of references to Indian places, events, historical figures, etc., that can confuse the reader and detract from the storyline. I enjoyed the novel, but wouldn't recommend it.
November 24, 2012
The author has a knack of telling a tale minus any dramatisation or hoo-hah! It's that simplicity in his writing style as well as the characters that cuts through. And then, when he says things to the tune of: "I had an itch in my ear that seemed more real than this whole procession I was in, celebrating me becoming the next gaadi-vaaras", you couldnt agree more! Yay Vassanji.
November 12, 2023
First read in 2008, re-read this book, enjoying and appreciating it more this second time.
Moyez’s understanding of cultures and knowledge of history across continents shines through in this work, as does his appreciation of poetry.
Moyez’s understanding of cultures and knowledge of history across continents shines through in this work, as does his appreciation of poetry.
May 21, 2023
I love India and this novel fills quite a few gaps in my knowledge, as it covers quite a few recent decades. I like learning something as I read, so from this point of view it ticks all the boxes, particularly as far as religion goes (Muslim vs Hindu and the efforts to sail somewhere between the two) - this works well. As to the rest of the plot, the story is of a mature man looking back on his life - pretty straightforward, but I do not think the ending is satisfactory. And I disliked the narrator's way of telling of his son's death: there was hardly anything personal in the few pages it took. Why was the son (and his death) altogether necessary? However, my interest in India kept me going.
I feel pleased with myself that a novel purchased so long ago is read at last.
I feel pleased with myself that a novel purchased so long ago is read at last.
September 5, 2019
Gorgeous. Such a layered, spiritual, deeply human book. You feel at once very grounded: real people, humour, details, places-- Vassanji carries you from Gujarat to Massachusetts to British Columbia, vividly, and covers a stretch of 20th century political history through the eyes of someone living in that time. But the book is also wrapped in mystery, religion, woven with anecdotes from a wandering 13th century wise man. These are also sparkling with human details. I sincerely recommend the book, especially for anyone with a family connection to India.
November 4, 2020
The literary historical novel follows the life of the protagantist, Karsan Dargawalla. He tells his story wrapping the present to the past and to the mystical roots of the shrine of which he is heir.
I like the writing and the historical detail the author used. It is a story of the prodigal son but is also a story of a nation struggling to find its place in a modern world. It took me a long time to meander my way through the book. It didn't grab tight enough and I did read several other novels while reading this one.
I like the writing and the historical detail the author used. It is a story of the prodigal son but is also a story of a nation struggling to find its place in a modern world. It took me a long time to meander my way through the book. It didn't grab tight enough and I did read several other novels while reading this one.
July 3, 2022
A full blooded life story, mainly the coming of age, of the son and designated successor of an avatar/guru of The Wanderer, an ancient Sufi master. This story mingles with the ancient myth and modern history and all the colour and contradiction of India. It also includes family drama, estrangement, and violence, as well as an escape to the modern worlds of Harvard University, and of British Columbia, and finally, the return of this most modern wanderer to the shrine served by his ancestors.
While it takes a while to take up residence in this story, it soon becomes a page turner!
While it takes a while to take up residence in this story, it soon becomes a page turner!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 28, 2021
This book was challenging to read in spurts, I highly recommend trying to do it in concentrated chunks. The timeline is across 50/60 years and also across centuries. It's about the ties that bind is and the ties that choke us, and how freeing it can be to build your own independent future but how lonely it can be to realize you can never really go home again. This was definitely a book that gave me something to think about, about who you let into your life and who you let go.
September 29, 2022
I didn't think I would be a fan of the romanticism of spirituality in the book but I now realise that the book was about the futility of trying to qualify our lives. Emotionally invoking and poignant.
October 30, 2019
NICE BOOK,
June 14, 2020
I absolutely loved the book.The writing is beautiful and deep. A fictitious story that seems so real and affects you directly.I am in awe and overwhelmed at the same time.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
Want to read
July 19, 2020elibrary
January 4, 2021
Pacing a bit off. Time etc. in India was understandably long but his marriage and child flew by in a flash.
February 15, 2021
A wonderful exposé of life in India through the eyes of the conflicted son of a sahib. Conflicted by the clash of East and West.
February 18, 2021
Litera 2012
June 25, 2023
Audible. Enjoyed the cultural element of this book. I don't know a lot about India's history and belief systems and it was well integrated in this fiction format.
February 18, 2025
Did not finish
September 13, 2019
The Assassin's Song by M G Vassanji was beautiful, sad, touching, and full of yearning. It was brought to life by narrator Firdous Bamji. All this while giving a history lesson. I learned much more about the Pakistan-Indian conflict than watching the nightly news.
January 23, 2021
I'm torn about this book. The writing was beautiful and the story intricately weaved but I think I wasn't in the right place for it. I found the timeline to be difficult to follow, particularly in the first half, and so it was hard for me to really fall into a rhythm with the book.
March 31, 2024
In the (fictional) village of Haripur in Gujarat there is the mausoleum of the thirteenth century Sufi saint Pir Bawa who fled Afghanistan for his life, found temporary sanctuary with the Hindu king of Patan and then settled here. For generations the same family has been looking after his shrine and giving solace and advice to believers, passing the position of Saheb of Pirbaag from father to eldest son.
In that dusty little village Muslims and Hindus have long lived together in peace. Opposite Pirbaag there is the Mosque of the Shia Child Imam, Pir Bawa’s grandson, and nearby the temple of Rupa Devi, Pir Bawa’s Hindu bride. Every day azans mix with ginans and the tinkling of temple bells. The guardians of Pirbaag don’t define themselves as Muslims or Hindus, there is no muezzin, no praying in the direction of Mecca. Pir Bawa’s message is that the world is an illusion, that one has to look inside oneself to gain knowledge and see reality and that all religions in their different ways have aspired to find oneness with the universal soul,
Karsan, the present Saheb’s young son, is growing up in that peaceful environment, going to school, playing cricket with his friends and not thinking too much about his future but his curiosity about the outside world is aroused when he befriends a Sikh truck driver who brings him stacks of newspapers from his farflung trips across the north of India. Later on, the discovery of a dusty little second-hand bookshop in Ahmedabad and friendship with another boy make him take the drastic decision to reject the past and to apply to university in the USA. Against all odds and his father’s express prohibition and deep disappointment Karsan ends up at Harvard.
The rest of the book is devoted to Karsan’s inner struggles between his love of learning, the happiness and freedom of just being an ordinary person and the guilt he feels about leaving his family, rejecting his ordained future as avatar of Pirbaag and not being there for his own people.
While he is enjoying his quest for knowledge and settling down with a family, the menace of religious strife is mounting in India and when the Babri Mosque riots break out and a train full of Hindu pilgrims on the return journey from Ayodhya is set on fire, anti-Muslim violence breaks out on a huge scale and Karsan’s father’s voice of reason and neutral stance can no longer protect the garden of his ancestors and the shrine of Pirbaag.
The book has strong, well-rounded characters, the writing is beautiful and Karsan’s struggle is brilliantly portrayed : knowledge, modernity, free choice and an ordinary life against the burden of the past, filial duty, tradition, the spreading of a message he may no longer believe in and responsibility towards the simple people, devotees of the shrine. I loved the juxtaposition of the two worlds, the peaceful, calm, unchanging world of Pirbaag and the vibrant, challenging student and working life in the West and I particularly loved this passage :
“Early mornings could still bring tears to my eyes. Whenever she was around, I woke up to the pure joy of her thin clear voice rising from the temple, giving the devotional shape to a ginan. It was a beautiful sound at the most beautiful, holy hour before dawn, the first sandhya: the air cool and flavoured with incense, trembling ever so slightly with the rhythms of a bell, a haven of peace.”
In that dusty little village Muslims and Hindus have long lived together in peace. Opposite Pirbaag there is the Mosque of the Shia Child Imam, Pir Bawa’s grandson, and nearby the temple of Rupa Devi, Pir Bawa’s Hindu bride. Every day azans mix with ginans and the tinkling of temple bells. The guardians of Pirbaag don’t define themselves as Muslims or Hindus, there is no muezzin, no praying in the direction of Mecca. Pir Bawa’s message is that the world is an illusion, that one has to look inside oneself to gain knowledge and see reality and that all religions in their different ways have aspired to find oneness with the universal soul,
Karsan, the present Saheb’s young son, is growing up in that peaceful environment, going to school, playing cricket with his friends and not thinking too much about his future but his curiosity about the outside world is aroused when he befriends a Sikh truck driver who brings him stacks of newspapers from his farflung trips across the north of India. Later on, the discovery of a dusty little second-hand bookshop in Ahmedabad and friendship with another boy make him take the drastic decision to reject the past and to apply to university in the USA. Against all odds and his father’s express prohibition and deep disappointment Karsan ends up at Harvard.
The rest of the book is devoted to Karsan’s inner struggles between his love of learning, the happiness and freedom of just being an ordinary person and the guilt he feels about leaving his family, rejecting his ordained future as avatar of Pirbaag and not being there for his own people.
While he is enjoying his quest for knowledge and settling down with a family, the menace of religious strife is mounting in India and when the Babri Mosque riots break out and a train full of Hindu pilgrims on the return journey from Ayodhya is set on fire, anti-Muslim violence breaks out on a huge scale and Karsan’s father’s voice of reason and neutral stance can no longer protect the garden of his ancestors and the shrine of Pirbaag.
The book has strong, well-rounded characters, the writing is beautiful and Karsan’s struggle is brilliantly portrayed : knowledge, modernity, free choice and an ordinary life against the burden of the past, filial duty, tradition, the spreading of a message he may no longer believe in and responsibility towards the simple people, devotees of the shrine. I loved the juxtaposition of the two worlds, the peaceful, calm, unchanging world of Pirbaag and the vibrant, challenging student and working life in the West and I particularly loved this passage :
“Early mornings could still bring tears to my eyes. Whenever she was around, I woke up to the pure joy of her thin clear voice rising from the temple, giving the devotional shape to a ginan. It was a beautiful sound at the most beautiful, holy hour before dawn, the first sandhya: the air cool and flavoured with incense, trembling ever so slightly with the rhythms of a bell, a haven of peace.”
August 26, 2016
The Assassin’s Song, by M.G. Vassanji comes with an impressive list of literary accolades, having been shortlisted for the Giller and the GG. Yet, for my part, there is a definite lack of simpatico or connection with Vassanji’s tale.
The novel is set in India from Partition to the devastating religious violence of the early 21st century, following the timeless theme of father/son tension and sibling disharmony. There is a rich vein of material here to mine, and mine it Vassanji does. Yet there is a distinct distance to how Vassanji relates his story, a lack of emotional involvement that cools the narrative and shutters the reader.
For the first third of the novel Vassanji spends considerable time setting the stage for the emotional impact of the denouement, offering up endless, almost jejune details regarding the protagonist’s, Karson Dargawalla, life as the next embodiment of the sufi mystic and demi-god who resides in the temple Karson’s father keeps, Pirbaag. From there we shift to the middle third in which Karson escapes to Harvard, and a renunciation of his birthright.
Throughout this interminable backstory, Vassanji does little to draw in the reader, either by way of contextual clues as to language or cultural nuances, or by way of emotional investment. Karson’s father remains an aloof, unapproachable academic, his mother a frustrated, secretive if dutiful stereotype, and his brother an unknown, albeit cute, almost throw-away character. There are other characters who walk on and off-stage, uttering lines and sagacities, conveniently thrown in to move Karsan through the story-arc.
It is not until the final third of the novel, Vassanji employs any emotional investment to draw in the reader. By then, for this reader, it’s too little too late. That Karsan’s brother is most likely a terrorist responsible for the devastation of Pirbaag, and the death of his own father, is almost a shrug. That Karsan submits, in the end, to destiny and the continuation of chicanery and religious charlatanism, seems contrived and cardboard.
It is a competent novel. But it is a disappointing read. In the end, all I can offer is this: Vassanji is no Rohinton Mistry.
The novel is set in India from Partition to the devastating religious violence of the early 21st century, following the timeless theme of father/son tension and sibling disharmony. There is a rich vein of material here to mine, and mine it Vassanji does. Yet there is a distinct distance to how Vassanji relates his story, a lack of emotional involvement that cools the narrative and shutters the reader.
For the first third of the novel Vassanji spends considerable time setting the stage for the emotional impact of the denouement, offering up endless, almost jejune details regarding the protagonist’s, Karson Dargawalla, life as the next embodiment of the sufi mystic and demi-god who resides in the temple Karson’s father keeps, Pirbaag. From there we shift to the middle third in which Karson escapes to Harvard, and a renunciation of his birthright.
Throughout this interminable backstory, Vassanji does little to draw in the reader, either by way of contextual clues as to language or cultural nuances, or by way of emotional investment. Karson’s father remains an aloof, unapproachable academic, his mother a frustrated, secretive if dutiful stereotype, and his brother an unknown, albeit cute, almost throw-away character. There are other characters who walk on and off-stage, uttering lines and sagacities, conveniently thrown in to move Karsan through the story-arc.
It is not until the final third of the novel, Vassanji employs any emotional investment to draw in the reader. By then, for this reader, it’s too little too late. That Karsan’s brother is most likely a terrorist responsible for the devastation of Pirbaag, and the death of his own father, is almost a shrug. That Karsan submits, in the end, to destiny and the continuation of chicanery and religious charlatanism, seems contrived and cardboard.
It is a competent novel. But it is a disappointing read. In the end, all I can offer is this: Vassanji is no Rohinton Mistry.
May 6, 2016
The Assassin’s Song tells the story of Karsan Dargawalla. Beginning with his childhood in rural India, Karsan becomes aware of his destiny to succeed his father as the spiritual leader of their community and the protector of The Shrine of the Wanderer – servicing all who come there to worship. However, Karsan begins to discover there is a much more exciting world beyond their home and – on a whim – applies and is accepted to study half a world away at Harvard University. What ensues is Karsan’s coming-of-age in a foreign land, but not without the constant tug of his family, his heritage and many tragedies trying to pull him back.
Vassanji’s writing is beautiful – almost lyrical – throughout the novel. However he relies far too much on lyrical verse early in the book and the story evolves very slowly. Near the middle of the story, as Karsan is making his decision to leave his home, the story starts to pick up the pace and becomes a very interesting tale of his coming of age, successes and some rather humorous failures. The really draws us into Karsan’s life and makes the early parts of the story worth reading through. However, just when the story gains momentum, it flounders. Karsan becomes lost, but the story seems to get lost as well, failing to provide the ready much to cling onto. The last third of the book seems to really wander. Karsan’s brother is reintroduced near the end, but nothing about him or his relationship with Karsan is developed and we are left with a lot of new questions that are never answered. In the end, Karsan seems more an uninterested observer of his life rather than a participant in it.
The Assassin’s Song had some interesting moments along the way and Vassanji’s writing is beautiful by its own right, but unless you are looking to immerse yourself in Indian culture, there won’t be much of a story to hold your interest.
Vassanji’s writing is beautiful – almost lyrical – throughout the novel. However he relies far too much on lyrical verse early in the book and the story evolves very slowly. Near the middle of the story, as Karsan is making his decision to leave his home, the story starts to pick up the pace and becomes a very interesting tale of his coming of age, successes and some rather humorous failures. The really draws us into Karsan’s life and makes the early parts of the story worth reading through. However, just when the story gains momentum, it flounders. Karsan becomes lost, but the story seems to get lost as well, failing to provide the ready much to cling onto. The last third of the book seems to really wander. Karsan’s brother is reintroduced near the end, but nothing about him or his relationship with Karsan is developed and we are left with a lot of new questions that are never answered. In the end, Karsan seems more an uninterested observer of his life rather than a participant in it.
The Assassin’s Song had some interesting moments along the way and Vassanji’s writing is beautiful by its own right, but unless you are looking to immerse yourself in Indian culture, there won’t be much of a story to hold your interest.
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