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All the Lives We Never Lived: Shortlisted for the 2020 International DUBLIN Literary Award
In my childhood, I was known as the boy whose mother had run off with an Englishman" - so begins the story of Myshkin and his mother, Gayatri, who is driven to rebel against tradition and follow her artist's instinct for freedom.
Freedom of a different kind is in the air across India. The fight against British rule is reaching a critical turn. The Nazis have come to power in Germany. At this point of crisis, two strangers arrive in Gayatri's town, opening up for her the vision of other possible lives.
What took Myshkin's mother from India to Dutch-held Bali in the 1930s, ripping a knife through his comfortingly familiar environment? Excavating the roots of the world in which he was abandoned, Myshkin comes to understand the connections between anguish at home and a war-torn universe overtaken by patriotism.
Anuradha Roy's enthralling novel is a powerful parable for our times, telling the story of men and women trapped in a dangerous era uncannily similar to the present. Impassioned, elegiac, and gripping, it brims with the same genius that has brought Roy's earlier fiction international renown.
Freedom of a different kind is in the air across India. The fight against British rule is reaching a critical turn. The Nazis have come to power in Germany. At this point of crisis, two strangers arrive in Gayatri's town, opening up for her the vision of other possible lives.
What took Myshkin's mother from India to Dutch-held Bali in the 1930s, ripping a knife through his comfortingly familiar environment? Excavating the roots of the world in which he was abandoned, Myshkin comes to understand the connections between anguish at home and a war-torn universe overtaken by patriotism.
Anuradha Roy's enthralling novel is a powerful parable for our times, telling the story of men and women trapped in a dangerous era uncannily similar to the present. Impassioned, elegiac, and gripping, it brims with the same genius that has brought Roy's earlier fiction international renown.
336 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2018
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About the author
Anuradha Roy
24 books535 followersAnuradha Roy was educated in Hyderabad, Calcutta and Cambridge (UK). She is an editor at Permanent Black, an independent press publishing in South Asian history, politics and culture. She lives mainly in Ranikhet, India, with her husband Rukun Advani and their dog, Biscoot.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 429 reviews
November 4, 2018
3.5 stars
Once in a while, I’m left struggling to understand how I feel about a book I’ve just read. This was one of those books. The story itself is full of struggles both personal and political. There are a number of things I liked about it, but yet something was missing that I find difficult to pinpoint. The writing in particular struck me from the beginning, beautiful prose and wonderfully reflective of emotion. I find that I enjoy first person narratives ( except in biographical novels) . It always feels so much more intimate and I felt this way about Myshkin’s narrative. He is nine years old when his mother abandons him; nine years old when he heard the argument between his parents and his mother says that part of the world stopped when he was born. Now in his sixties, he has been struggling his whole life to come to terms with being abandoned by her. I found him to be such a sympathetic character, a lonely man, so impacted by what happened to him as a child, a man who has taken refuge in his work as a horticulturist. I was glad for him that he had Dada, his grandfather and my favorite character.
Gayatri, his mother struggles with her passion for her art - painting and dance, struggling in a marriage and a culture and a time where women’s freedoms are held at bay. We become privy to her viewpoint, later in the novel when Myshkin opens a package of letters that were sent to her best friend, Lisa, who leaves instructions to her family that upon her death, these letters be forwarded to Myshkin. I enjoy epistolary narratives because I find those to be intimate and telling. I felt for her in some way, appreciating her love of her work and recognizing that she suffered in her marriage, yet it was very difficult to accept what she does, in light of what it did to her child. I couldn’t get interested in what she was doing in spite of her connections with characters based on real people. The shift in the narrative from Myshkin to his mother’s letters felt sort of abrupt. It’s years later when he reads them and I wished in some way that he had read these earlier in his life. There are political struggles reflected here as well- India and Britain, WWII. The letters do give a perspective on the war and his father’s involvement in the country’s politics provide some insight into what was going in in India in the 1930’s. I didn’t really know of India’s participation in it. We also know about the war through the impact it has on people that Myshkin knows.
So a mixed bag for me . Liked it but didn’t love it. This was a monthly read with Diane and Esil and one that we didn’t like equally. I always enjoy it when we agree, but when we don’t, the discussion is so interesting. You should read their reviews.
This ARC was provided by Atria the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Once in a while, I’m left struggling to understand how I feel about a book I’ve just read. This was one of those books. The story itself is full of struggles both personal and political. There are a number of things I liked about it, but yet something was missing that I find difficult to pinpoint. The writing in particular struck me from the beginning, beautiful prose and wonderfully reflective of emotion. I find that I enjoy first person narratives ( except in biographical novels) . It always feels so much more intimate and I felt this way about Myshkin’s narrative. He is nine years old when his mother abandons him; nine years old when he heard the argument between his parents and his mother says that part of the world stopped when he was born. Now in his sixties, he has been struggling his whole life to come to terms with being abandoned by her. I found him to be such a sympathetic character, a lonely man, so impacted by what happened to him as a child, a man who has taken refuge in his work as a horticulturist. I was glad for him that he had Dada, his grandfather and my favorite character.
Gayatri, his mother struggles with her passion for her art - painting and dance, struggling in a marriage and a culture and a time where women’s freedoms are held at bay. We become privy to her viewpoint, later in the novel when Myshkin opens a package of letters that were sent to her best friend, Lisa, who leaves instructions to her family that upon her death, these letters be forwarded to Myshkin. I enjoy epistolary narratives because I find those to be intimate and telling. I felt for her in some way, appreciating her love of her work and recognizing that she suffered in her marriage, yet it was very difficult to accept what she does, in light of what it did to her child. I couldn’t get interested in what she was doing in spite of her connections with characters based on real people. The shift in the narrative from Myshkin to his mother’s letters felt sort of abrupt. It’s years later when he reads them and I wished in some way that he had read these earlier in his life. There are political struggles reflected here as well- India and Britain, WWII. The letters do give a perspective on the war and his father’s involvement in the country’s politics provide some insight into what was going in in India in the 1930’s. I didn’t really know of India’s participation in it. We also know about the war through the impact it has on people that Myshkin knows.
So a mixed bag for me . Liked it but didn’t love it. This was a monthly read with Diane and Esil and one that we didn’t like equally. I always enjoy it when we agree, but when we don’t, the discussion is so interesting. You should read their reviews.
This ARC was provided by Atria the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
November 5, 2018
One's sense of identity and the interior and exterior forces that help shape the person we become. Our narrator for most of the book is Myshkin, now a horticulturist, looking back on his life, the personal and the changes in his country. We learn of his mother's early life in 1930 India, and her how her childhood shaped the person she became. How her leaving when he was only nine, changed his perception and the course of his life. His father, a difficult man who makes a decision that also effects him, but provides him with a you g girl who would become his friend. A look at small town India, those who fight against colonization, and later a look at WWII and India's involvement. Much is covered here, the writing is very good, but it is a risk when including real historic characters such as Walter Spies, with the fictional story. Sometimes there is something lacking in the blending of the two.
The tale of three stories. The first part of this book which I suppose was the background, the setup of the story, I felt went on too long. Found it sometimes boring, a struggle to continue on, and had this not been mine, Angela's and Esils monthly read, would have been tempted to set it aside. Then the second third, more the story of Myshkin, his father and his dada, who was by far my favorite character, pulled me into the story. I enjoyed this part, reading his thoughts, seeing how the family was enduring, reading about the outside forces that were brought inside. Then the third part, which was a series of letters that he opens at his current age, letters that attempt to fill in the gap of he and his mother's life. Although these were the most informative, pointing to the abuse of pridoners during the war, his different countries fared during this time, much broader look at the history, I found moving away from the personal not quite what I expected.
So for me this was three separate stories that did not in my mind gel quite seamlessly. The emotional connection for me was lost, and I missed it. Other readers will feel differently I'm sure, the three of us sometimes agreed, and sometimes did not. We did, however, recognize that the prose was excellent.
ARC from Edelweiss.
The tale of three stories. The first part of this book which I suppose was the background, the setup of the story, I felt went on too long. Found it sometimes boring, a struggle to continue on, and had this not been mine, Angela's and Esils monthly read, would have been tempted to set it aside. Then the second third, more the story of Myshkin, his father and his dada, who was by far my favorite character, pulled me into the story. I enjoyed this part, reading his thoughts, seeing how the family was enduring, reading about the outside forces that were brought inside. Then the third part, which was a series of letters that he opens at his current age, letters that attempt to fill in the gap of he and his mother's life. Although these were the most informative, pointing to the abuse of pridoners during the war, his different countries fared during this time, much broader look at the history, I found moving away from the personal not quite what I expected.
So for me this was three separate stories that did not in my mind gel quite seamlessly. The emotional connection for me was lost, and I missed it. Other readers will feel differently I'm sure, the three of us sometimes agreed, and sometimes did not. We did, however, recognize that the prose was excellent.
ARC from Edelweiss.
October 19, 2018
Letters. Those intimate little bits of paper and ink that hold many worlds, some known and some hidden. A best friend who takes all our secrets and refrains from being judgemental. Also, an enemy who slays every icy vein and renders us defenceless. A lap that cradles at night to keep our insomnia at bay. Also, a gust that denudes our pretences and tramps on our breathing. Of many dimensions and flights – of success and euphoria, of defeat and grief, of desire and melancholy, of murder and regret, of timidity and guilt, of opportunities and lost chances – are letters.
And they emerge as the only thread binding a mother and her son, separated not just by miles but times too.
The novel opens in India’s pre-independence era, when the freedom movement is gathering steam and towards its many patriotic bellows, are thronging the intent and purposes of young men and women. Nek Chand Rozario is one amongst them. Considerably liberal but uptight in certain principles, he shall do his bit when the nation's call comes. But his feisty, free-spirited young wife, Gayatri has her heart set on something completely different – art. Despite the road of freedom she has been allowed by her husband, her soul yearns to abandon it for the sea. And it does, one day, when the Germans, Walter Spies and Beryl de Zoete, come visiting the couple. The painter Spies spots his kin in Gayatri and eventually, turns into the rescue boat riding on whom Gayatri leaves her home for good to pursue her dream. Soon after, Nek Chand too, renounces his routine and marches out to answer the nationalistic fervour. And thus, her only regret, becomes the biggest casualty – Myshkin. A boy, all of 9, abandoned.
Fast forward half-a-century. When the quiet horticulturist, Myshkin, who has lived his life in the hazy blanket of his mother’s memories, suddenly receives a bunch of letters from her, several wounds come undone and his life veins are sluiced in love and regret, pain and peace.
In Anuradha Roy’s compelling work, the pendulum sweeps all the way from the 1920s to the 1970s, and in its throes remain captive, Gayatri and Myskhin, like little fossils who have a story of their own even when they are no longer vocal or valid in this world. The juxtaposition of political currents (in British-India and Nazi-Germany) and individual agencies is deftly done, with the masterful amalgamation of fictional and real personalities imparting additional glitz. But what really reaches home is the prose – its lightness, akin to a dream that powers direction and action. Practically no one is driving the story; it is simply going on. Much like life. And the letters which continue to regale with the vignettes of journeys taken, and missed.
And they emerge as the only thread binding a mother and her son, separated not just by miles but times too.
The novel opens in India’s pre-independence era, when the freedom movement is gathering steam and towards its many patriotic bellows, are thronging the intent and purposes of young men and women. Nek Chand Rozario is one amongst them. Considerably liberal but uptight in certain principles, he shall do his bit when the nation's call comes. But his feisty, free-spirited young wife, Gayatri has her heart set on something completely different – art. Despite the road of freedom she has been allowed by her husband, her soul yearns to abandon it for the sea. And it does, one day, when the Germans, Walter Spies and Beryl de Zoete, come visiting the couple. The painter Spies spots his kin in Gayatri and eventually, turns into the rescue boat riding on whom Gayatri leaves her home for good to pursue her dream. Soon after, Nek Chand too, renounces his routine and marches out to answer the nationalistic fervour. And thus, her only regret, becomes the biggest casualty – Myshkin. A boy, all of 9, abandoned.
Fast forward half-a-century. When the quiet horticulturist, Myshkin, who has lived his life in the hazy blanket of his mother’s memories, suddenly receives a bunch of letters from her, several wounds come undone and his life veins are sluiced in love and regret, pain and peace.
In Anuradha Roy’s compelling work, the pendulum sweeps all the way from the 1920s to the 1970s, and in its throes remain captive, Gayatri and Myskhin, like little fossils who have a story of their own even when they are no longer vocal or valid in this world. The juxtaposition of political currents (in British-India and Nazi-Germany) and individual agencies is deftly done, with the masterful amalgamation of fictional and real personalities imparting additional glitz. But what really reaches home is the prose – its lightness, akin to a dream that powers direction and action. Practically no one is driving the story; it is simply going on. Much like life. And the letters which continue to regale with the vignettes of journeys taken, and missed.
November 14, 2018
This novel has beautifully written sentences and images, but the story itself is impossible to get into because it keeps going off on tangents that don’t move the plot forward. It's about Myshkin coming to terms with his artistic mother rebelling against what Indian culture at that time in history deemed acceptable for women--she ran off with a German artist, leaving Myshkin and his father to fend for themselves in a time of war.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES NOVEMBER 20, 2018.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES NOVEMBER 20, 2018.
July 5, 2018
I've read all of Roy's four novels (the first one, 'An Atlas of Impossible Longing', twice), and was surprised (but kind of delighted) to find this most reminiscent of that debut work, rather than 'The Folded Earth' or her Booker-nominated 'Sleeping on Jupiter'. Regardless, it is always a sublime pleasure to read her luminous and luxurious prose, and am hoping that this year's Booker committee again sees fit to place her on the longlist, at the very least.
The story is told in memory, from the perspective of a sixty-something horticulturist, nicknamed Myshkin after the Dostoevsky character, looking back on his formative years, and the sudden disappearance of his mother in the late '30s. In some ways, it seems that this is rather a slight thread to hang an entire 330 page novel on, but the book deepens and broadens out as one goes along, and becomes increasingly relevant when the encroaching fascism of Nazi Germany rears its ugly head (... providing an all too chilling echo of our own times).
The last third of the book becomes an epistolary novel, consisting primarily of letters written by the mother, Gayatri, depicting what drove her to leave her home and son in search of both intellectual and artistic freedom, and although I had some problems with how lapidary those letters prove to be, Roy's skill makes you accept them as something that Gayatri could conceivably have written. And she 'sticks the ending' beautifully. A book I am sure I will eventually re-read (especially if it does make that Booker list), and it will probably make my top 5 books of the year list also. PS: Kudos for how beautifully bound the book is, and for that gorgeous cover illustration.
The story is told in memory, from the perspective of a sixty-something horticulturist, nicknamed Myshkin after the Dostoevsky character, looking back on his formative years, and the sudden disappearance of his mother in the late '30s. In some ways, it seems that this is rather a slight thread to hang an entire 330 page novel on, but the book deepens and broadens out as one goes along, and becomes increasingly relevant when the encroaching fascism of Nazi Germany rears its ugly head (... providing an all too chilling echo of our own times).
The last third of the book becomes an epistolary novel, consisting primarily of letters written by the mother, Gayatri, depicting what drove her to leave her home and son in search of both intellectual and artistic freedom, and although I had some problems with how lapidary those letters prove to be, Roy's skill makes you accept them as something that Gayatri could conceivably have written. And she 'sticks the ending' beautifully. A book I am sure I will eventually re-read (especially if it does make that Booker list), and it will probably make my top 5 books of the year list also. PS: Kudos for how beautifully bound the book is, and for that gorgeous cover illustration.
November 15, 2018
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin
The only constant in life is change; the phenomenon that drives those wheels which move our life forward. Though being shaped by our own decisions or choices, the trajectory is difficult to ascertain. For, being a part of an ephemeral (also chaotic) world, much that we go through or are faced with, is also influenced by our circumstances, largely the familial ties and the socio-political environment we inhabit. Now this also means that not much in life is certain.We may go to bed making plans for next morning or for the distant future and the very next moment may unfold events which turn our life upside down.
This uncertainty, however intolerable, perpetually holds life and perhaps also at times, dictates our perspectives - making us plunge, without reconsideration, into things unforeseeable and unknown.
What if this plunge leaves us aching – for things we left behind, for that which we always took for granted instead of feeling ecstatic with happiness even if what followed was much better? What if it makes us pine for all that life could be, for all the lives we could have lived but never did?
Roy’s novel takes us onto a journey encompassing the lives of a mother and her son, separated by uncertain turn of events but united in their wistfulness for times they could have lived together.
Gayatri Rozario is an Indian woman, a mother (in the late 1930’s) who leaves her family and her only son because her creative and independent soul feels stifled in her marriage - a scandalous affair in pre independent India which leaves her son confused rather than angry. Though he doesn’t understand why his mother doesn’t take him along as she said but even the passage of time is not able to diminish her absent presence in his life.
Gayatri feeds on the pursuit of arts and pleasure rather than embracing the fervour of nationalism by engaging in struggle for independence.She has a mind of her own and feels smothered by the expectations of her abstemious husband Nek Chand who believes that it’s only worthwhile to engage in such higher pursuits like fighting for freedom. In carving out Nek Chand’s character, Roy skilfully shows the conflicting nature of a highly educated liberal Professor of a college who has little regard for the personal interests of women in his life and who thinks the place of women (if it is not for ‘higher pursuits’) is within the confines of her household. So when Gayatri, who once dreamt of going to Shanti Niketan to learn arts, is visited by Walter Spies, whom she had once met in Bali on a trip purposely planned by her father, she becomes desperate to get rid of the shackles her marriage had imposed upon her.
Gayatri’s departure followed by that of her husband Nek Chand and then his subsequent return with a wife, has a bearing upon nine year old Myshkin who feels her absence acutely. It is somewhat conciliated by the letters he receive from her where she tells him about her new life and how she wants him to be with her sooner. But as he grows older and begins understanding his father and other things around him like the Indian struggle for independence, he accepts her absence. It is only when he , much later in life, gets hold of a packet of letters written by his mother to her friend Lisa, that he comes to know more about his mother, about the events which unfolded between the times when his mother reached Bali till its occupation by the Japanese during WWII. These letters further emphasize how difficult it is to determine the outcome of one’s actions when one is living in uncertain times. Nothing happened as Gayatri had planned out or as her son had thought. It can only be said with certainty that she was at peace with herself while indulging in painting.
Roy’s incredible writing style is augmented with her ability to create realistic characters within an ambitious framework also dealing with history, historical facts and real artists. She deftly portrays the plight of her characters facing as difficult times as freedom struggle and WWII spanning across India and Bali. In fact, it is the uncertainty of times that loom largely over the lives of her characters, directing their actions and deciding their fates. Depiction of artists like Rabindranath Tagore, Walter Spies and Beryl de Zoete not only help us understand the artistic prospects of those times but also Gayatri’s character better. I loved how real life events associated with these artists were incorporated with fiction to create a convincing storyline.
The narrative is exquisite and mesmerizes the reader throughout the length of the novel. It is so riveting that I did not find even a single dull moment while reading it. The author’s writing style, attention to detail and ability to churn out credible characters reminded me of V.S.Naipaul. The book was also shortlisted for JCB prize for literature this year.
To end this review with my favourite quote from this novel:
For as long as they are alive, trees remain where they are. This is one of life’s few certainties. The roots of trees go deep and take many directions; we cannot foresee their subterranean spread any more than we can predict how a child will grow. Beneath the earth, trees live their secret lives, at times going deeper into the ground than up into the sky, entwined below with other trees which appear in no way connected above the ground. Had we been trees – my father, my mother, Brijen, Lisa, Dinu, my grandfather and I – which direction, I wonder in idle moments, would our roots have taken below the earth?
The only constant in life is change; the phenomenon that drives those wheels which move our life forward. Though being shaped by our own decisions or choices, the trajectory is difficult to ascertain. For, being a part of an ephemeral (also chaotic) world, much that we go through or are faced with, is also influenced by our circumstances, largely the familial ties and the socio-political environment we inhabit. Now this also means that not much in life is certain.We may go to bed making plans for next morning or for the distant future and the very next moment may unfold events which turn our life upside down.
This uncertainty, however intolerable, perpetually holds life and perhaps also at times, dictates our perspectives - making us plunge, without reconsideration, into things unforeseeable and unknown.
What if this plunge leaves us aching – for things we left behind, for that which we always took for granted instead of feeling ecstatic with happiness even if what followed was much better? What if it makes us pine for all that life could be, for all the lives we could have lived but never did?
Roy’s novel takes us onto a journey encompassing the lives of a mother and her son, separated by uncertain turn of events but united in their wistfulness for times they could have lived together.
Gayatri Rozario is an Indian woman, a mother (in the late 1930’s) who leaves her family and her only son because her creative and independent soul feels stifled in her marriage - a scandalous affair in pre independent India which leaves her son confused rather than angry. Though he doesn’t understand why his mother doesn’t take him along as she said but even the passage of time is not able to diminish her absent presence in his life.
Gayatri feeds on the pursuit of arts and pleasure rather than embracing the fervour of nationalism by engaging in struggle for independence.She has a mind of her own and feels smothered by the expectations of her abstemious husband Nek Chand who believes that it’s only worthwhile to engage in such higher pursuits like fighting for freedom. In carving out Nek Chand’s character, Roy skilfully shows the conflicting nature of a highly educated liberal Professor of a college who has little regard for the personal interests of women in his life and who thinks the place of women (if it is not for ‘higher pursuits’) is within the confines of her household. So when Gayatri, who once dreamt of going to Shanti Niketan to learn arts, is visited by Walter Spies, whom she had once met in Bali on a trip purposely planned by her father, she becomes desperate to get rid of the shackles her marriage had imposed upon her.
Gayatri’s departure followed by that of her husband Nek Chand and then his subsequent return with a wife, has a bearing upon nine year old Myshkin who feels her absence acutely. It is somewhat conciliated by the letters he receive from her where she tells him about her new life and how she wants him to be with her sooner. But as he grows older and begins understanding his father and other things around him like the Indian struggle for independence, he accepts her absence. It is only when he , much later in life, gets hold of a packet of letters written by his mother to her friend Lisa, that he comes to know more about his mother, about the events which unfolded between the times when his mother reached Bali till its occupation by the Japanese during WWII. These letters further emphasize how difficult it is to determine the outcome of one’s actions when one is living in uncertain times. Nothing happened as Gayatri had planned out or as her son had thought. It can only be said with certainty that she was at peace with herself while indulging in painting.
Roy’s incredible writing style is augmented with her ability to create realistic characters within an ambitious framework also dealing with history, historical facts and real artists. She deftly portrays the plight of her characters facing as difficult times as freedom struggle and WWII spanning across India and Bali. In fact, it is the uncertainty of times that loom largely over the lives of her characters, directing their actions and deciding their fates. Depiction of artists like Rabindranath Tagore, Walter Spies and Beryl de Zoete not only help us understand the artistic prospects of those times but also Gayatri’s character better. I loved how real life events associated with these artists were incorporated with fiction to create a convincing storyline.
The narrative is exquisite and mesmerizes the reader throughout the length of the novel. It is so riveting that I did not find even a single dull moment while reading it. The author’s writing style, attention to detail and ability to churn out credible characters reminded me of V.S.Naipaul. The book was also shortlisted for JCB prize for literature this year.
To end this review with my favourite quote from this novel:
For as long as they are alive, trees remain where they are. This is one of life’s few certainties. The roots of trees go deep and take many directions; we cannot foresee their subterranean spread any more than we can predict how a child will grow. Beneath the earth, trees live their secret lives, at times going deeper into the ground than up into the sky, entwined below with other trees which appear in no way connected above the ground. Had we been trees – my father, my mother, Brijen, Lisa, Dinu, my grandfather and I – which direction, I wonder in idle moments, would our roots have taken below the earth?
November 4, 2018
All the Lives We Never Lived was not perfect, but there’s something about it that really drew me in. The story is set in India, moving between the 1930’s and the 1980’s. The narrator, Myshkin, is in his 60’s, and looking back on his childhood. His mother left the family when Myshkin was 9 years old. Later in life, having received a package containing letters written by his mother in the first few years after her departure, Myshkin tries to make sense of this time in his life. As the backdrop to Myshkin’s family crisis, WWII was raging and India was marching toward independence from British rule. I loved the writing which was descriptive without being overwrought. I loved the historical setting, which allowed me to learn about a part of Indian history. And I loved Myshkin’s character and perspective — the abandoned awkward child as much as the contemplative adult. There were holes in the story, which at times were a bit frustrating. But, to me, this was a minor flaw — I really enjoyed this one. It felt original and potent.
This was a monthly read with Angela and Diane, and while we didn’t agree on this one, it was enjoyable as always. Thanks also to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
This was a monthly read with Angela and Diane, and while we didn’t agree on this one, it was enjoyable as always. Thanks also to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
May 29, 2021
No. So not the writing style or the plot or the characters or anything related to this book is for me. Tortured myself enough for more than 60 per cent of the book. No. No. No.
The book is just stuck at one theme. The mother ran away. The boy grows up and stays questioning stuff. The other adult characters are just jibber jabbering. Come to the point at least once!
I say there's no point in going round and round in circles. It seems like there's no plot at all, jo character development and nothing much to talk about.
Lack of character development, lack of proper plot, lack of representation of anything relevant made me DNF the book towards 70 percent of the book. I just cannot tolerate this. No.
Better luck next time.
Thank you, next!
The book is just stuck at one theme. The mother ran away. The boy grows up and stays questioning stuff. The other adult characters are just jibber jabbering. Come to the point at least once!
I say there's no point in going round and round in circles. It seems like there's no plot at all, jo character development and nothing much to talk about.
Lack of character development, lack of proper plot, lack of representation of anything relevant made me DNF the book towards 70 percent of the book. I just cannot tolerate this. No.
Better luck next time.
Thank you, next!
May 29, 2019
I am battling between a 4 and a 5.
Overwhelming characters, rich poetic prose, and an engaging storyline make for a heartwarming reading experience.
.
.
Abundantly melancholic to a point where it gets under your skin and weighs down your heart. But that's all right, for some books crave to be heard. No, not heard, but felt. And this is one of those books. You'll love every bit of it and hate yourself for loving it for you feel so torn and heartbroken for Gay (Gayatri). And then there is Myshin's encompassing quest to unearth his mother's one impulsive act that shredded his life.
.
.
Myshkin Rozario has nothing but missed, craved, loved, then loathed, his mother, since he was nine, since she left home. But only after what seems like a hundred years of misery, does he start to understand why his mother did what she did that tore apart his family, blighted his childhood, and left a lifelong scar upon his conscience.
.
.
Please allow me to wallow. Proper review to follow!
Overwhelming characters, rich poetic prose, and an engaging storyline make for a heartwarming reading experience.
.
.
Abundantly melancholic to a point where it gets under your skin and weighs down your heart. But that's all right, for some books crave to be heard. No, not heard, but felt. And this is one of those books. You'll love every bit of it and hate yourself for loving it for you feel so torn and heartbroken for Gay (Gayatri). And then there is Myshin's encompassing quest to unearth his mother's one impulsive act that shredded his life.
.
.
Myshkin Rozario has nothing but missed, craved, loved, then loathed, his mother, since he was nine, since she left home. But only after what seems like a hundred years of misery, does he start to understand why his mother did what she did that tore apart his family, blighted his childhood, and left a lifelong scar upon his conscience.
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Please allow me to wallow. Proper review to follow!
April 27, 2020
Din îndepărtata Indie vine un roman recent, cum altfel decât exotic, mustind de aerul colonial din anii '20-'30. "Toate viețile pe care nu le-am trăit" zugrăvește imagini, locuri și peisaje de o frumusețe cuceritoare, ce ne poartă totodată și prin Indonezia, în paradisiacele insule Java și Bali.
Ca notă deosebită, figuri marcante din arte și din literatura universală, precum poetul Tagore și pictorul Walter Spiess, apar ca personaje și chiar interacționează cu cele create de autoare.
Suntem atrași într-o poveste frumos scrisă și convingătoare a unei femei care se răzvrătește împotriva tradiției și prejudecăților culturii și societății în care trăiește, alegând libertatea și dedicându-se pasiunii sale, pictura. Deopotrivă intrăm și în detaliile unei drame despre destrămarea familială și suferințele din urma ei, despre frământările și întrebările fără răspuns ale unui copil părăsit.
Acțiunea romanului gravitează, așadar, în jurul ideii de descoperire a adevărului și înțelegerii faptelor din trecut, fapt ce poartă cititorul printr-o lungă rememorare a copilăriei petrecute de narator în India.
Un element surpriză este că ni se devoalează controversata istorie a iubirii dintre Mircea Eliade și Maitreyi Devi.
Ca notă deosebită, figuri marcante din arte și din literatura universală, precum poetul Tagore și pictorul Walter Spiess, apar ca personaje și chiar interacționează cu cele create de autoare.
Suntem atrași într-o poveste frumos scrisă și convingătoare a unei femei care se răzvrătește împotriva tradiției și prejudecăților culturii și societății în care trăiește, alegând libertatea și dedicându-se pasiunii sale, pictura. Deopotrivă intrăm și în detaliile unei drame despre destrămarea familială și suferințele din urma ei, despre frământările și întrebările fără răspuns ale unui copil părăsit.
Acțiunea romanului gravitează, așadar, în jurul ideii de descoperire a adevărului și înțelegerii faptelor din trecut, fapt ce poartă cititorul printr-o lungă rememorare a copilăriei petrecute de narator în India.
Un element surpriză este că ni se devoalează controversata istorie a iubirii dintre Mircea Eliade și Maitreyi Devi.
November 21, 2021
2.5 stars
Not the best works of author
Not the best works of author
December 12, 2018
Anuradha Roy’s new novel, “All the Lives We Never Lived,” is once again filled with impossible longing. The plot is a silhouette in words, an anguished delineation of the shadow cast by a woman’s absence. “In my childhood,” the narrator begins, “I was known as the boy whose mother had run off with an Englishman.” Though many decades have passed, the pain and shame of that abandonment still feel fresh. “My mother had torn herself up and scattered her shreds in the breeze when I was nine. Ever since, I have scoured everything I read, see, hear, for traces of her.”
Fans of Michael Ondaatje’s recent novel, “Warlight,” will appreciate Roy’s similarly sensitive exploration of a child’s mingled confusion, resentment and hope. Her narrator, nicknamed Myshkin, confesses to a life sapped by his mother’s disappearance. He has avoided friends and lovers, and he still lives in the house where he was unhappily raised. Wary of being hurt so badly again, he dedicated himself to the more reliable companionship of plants and trees. “They ask only that you are regularly, consistently, caring and watchful,” Myshkin says. “I was.”
The story develops along two intermingled paths. On one, Myshkin re-creates. . . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
Fans of Michael Ondaatje’s recent novel, “Warlight,” will appreciate Roy’s similarly sensitive exploration of a child’s mingled confusion, resentment and hope. Her narrator, nicknamed Myshkin, confesses to a life sapped by his mother’s disappearance. He has avoided friends and lovers, and he still lives in the house where he was unhappily raised. Wary of being hurt so badly again, he dedicated himself to the more reliable companionship of plants and trees. “They ask only that you are regularly, consistently, caring and watchful,” Myshkin says. “I was.”
The story develops along two intermingled paths. On one, Myshkin re-creates. . . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
July 1, 2018
I can easily see this novel ending up as one of my favorite books of the year. It is the 2nd book in a row that I have given 5 stars, the 1st being Tim Winton’s The Shepard’s Hut. Roy’s novel joins Winton’s in being one I would be happy to see on the Booker longlist (which, as I write this, is only 23 days away). I can only hope such a winning reading streak continues for me.
So…I am tempted to leave it at that and allow future readers to discover the beauty of this novel on their own. For some reason I’m finding this novel to be one that is difficult to review for fear of spoiling its many mysteries and pleasures. I know I could add a spoiler alert, but that isn’t my style. I’ll give it a try -
In my childhood, I was known as the boy whose mother had run off with an Englishman.
Since this is the opening line of the novel, I think I can safely tell you that the narrator, now a man in his 60’s, is looking back at his childhood and attempting to understand why his mother abandoned him, piecing together the events that brought about that abandonment. This abandonment is the force behind the novel’s major theme - a look at how the suppression of a woman’s freedom, her interests and artistry, can lead to an action that negatively impacts many lives for years. This is the main theme and story, yes, but the novel is not that simple. It explores other political themes of personal liberty as well. Set primarily in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, against the backdrop of the rise of Nazi Germany, World War II and the beginnings of India’s fight for independence, there is much in this novel concerning freedom and these events play a significant role in the characters' lives. Gayatri, the runaway mother, writes in a letter to a friend: How it tears its way in by its fingernails - I mean politics - & shreds your life to pieces. That really hit me. Roy’s depiction of a creeping Fascism is frightening and certainly relevant to right now. It is uncanny how she conjures disturbing images that are mirrored in our current daily news cycle.
Historical people pop up in the novel. Some, such as the German painter Walter Spies, play a significant role in the lives of the fictional characters. Ignorance on my part, perhaps, but I was not familiar with Spies or several of the others that appear. If you are like me and like to google the pictures of the real-life people while reading, I would strongly advise, for this novel, not to read their biographies if their lives are unknown to you.
Hope I haven’t slipped and given too much away. I also hope that this novel finds many readers. A big recommendation from me. The writing is gorgeous - a beautiful, heartbreaking story told with great intelligence, control and restraint.
So…I am tempted to leave it at that and allow future readers to discover the beauty of this novel on their own. For some reason I’m finding this novel to be one that is difficult to review for fear of spoiling its many mysteries and pleasures. I know I could add a spoiler alert, but that isn’t my style. I’ll give it a try -
In my childhood, I was known as the boy whose mother had run off with an Englishman.
Since this is the opening line of the novel, I think I can safely tell you that the narrator, now a man in his 60’s, is looking back at his childhood and attempting to understand why his mother abandoned him, piecing together the events that brought about that abandonment. This abandonment is the force behind the novel’s major theme - a look at how the suppression of a woman’s freedom, her interests and artistry, can lead to an action that negatively impacts many lives for years. This is the main theme and story, yes, but the novel is not that simple. It explores other political themes of personal liberty as well. Set primarily in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, against the backdrop of the rise of Nazi Germany, World War II and the beginnings of India’s fight for independence, there is much in this novel concerning freedom and these events play a significant role in the characters' lives. Gayatri, the runaway mother, writes in a letter to a friend: How it tears its way in by its fingernails - I mean politics - & shreds your life to pieces. That really hit me. Roy’s depiction of a creeping Fascism is frightening and certainly relevant to right now. It is uncanny how she conjures disturbing images that are mirrored in our current daily news cycle.
Historical people pop up in the novel. Some, such as the German painter Walter Spies, play a significant role in the lives of the fictional characters. Ignorance on my part, perhaps, but I was not familiar with Spies or several of the others that appear. If you are like me and like to google the pictures of the real-life people while reading, I would strongly advise, for this novel, not to read their biographies if their lives are unknown to you.
Hope I haven’t slipped and given too much away. I also hope that this novel finds many readers. A big recommendation from me. The writing is gorgeous - a beautiful, heartbreaking story told with great intelligence, control and restraint.
July 27, 2021
3.5 ⭐
Este o carte precum un munte de nisip, pe care autoarea se straduieste sa il modeleze, dar mereu bulgarii se pravalesc si nu reuseste nicidecum sa ii dea forma dorita. Asta am simtit pe tot parcursul romanului, ca alearga de la o tema la alta, fara a reusi sa o contureze suficient. Pe masura ce urmarim povestea lui Mîşkin traversam istoria tumultoasa a Indiei interbelice, fara insa a cuprinde pe deplin nici drama personala a lui Mîşkin, nici contextul istoric, nefiind suficient tratat niciunul dintre subiecte. Devenirea lui Mîşkin este extrem de fragmentata. Tocmai mentionarea (destul de mult) a povestii dintre Mircea Eliade si Maitreyi Devi ne arata cat de palid este acest roman prin comparatie. Ambele versiuni ale povestii de dragoste dintre Mircea si Maitreyi exuda trairi, sentimente si sensibilitate, care lipsesc mult prea mult din Toate vietile pe care nu le-am trait. Partea cea mai interesanta a romanului a fost descrierea taberelor de concentrare din India si Bali.
Este o carte precum un munte de nisip, pe care autoarea se straduieste sa il modeleze, dar mereu bulgarii se pravalesc si nu reuseste nicidecum sa ii dea forma dorita. Asta am simtit pe tot parcursul romanului, ca alearga de la o tema la alta, fara a reusi sa o contureze suficient. Pe masura ce urmarim povestea lui Mîşkin traversam istoria tumultoasa a Indiei interbelice, fara insa a cuprinde pe deplin nici drama personala a lui Mîşkin, nici contextul istoric, nefiind suficient tratat niciunul dintre subiecte. Devenirea lui Mîşkin este extrem de fragmentata. Tocmai mentionarea (destul de mult) a povestii dintre Mircea Eliade si Maitreyi Devi ne arata cat de palid este acest roman prin comparatie. Ambele versiuni ale povestii de dragoste dintre Mircea si Maitreyi exuda trairi, sentimente si sensibilitate, care lipsesc mult prea mult din Toate vietile pe care nu le-am trait. Partea cea mai interesanta a romanului a fost descrierea taberelor de concentrare din India si Bali.
June 26, 2023
Duioșia personajului Mâșkin, iubirea lui pentru plante și câini, descrierea peisajelor indiene și balineze, melancolia povestirii...toate, toate pe mine m-au fermecat.
October 23, 2018
"It is the year 1937 that I feel on my skin." from All the Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy
As a toddler, Myshin suffered from convulsions, which led his grandfather to nickname him after the character in Dostoevsky's The Idiot. The nickname stuck, even after the fits stopped--much to the boy's chagrin. "Innocents are what make humankind human," his grandfather explained.
In 1937 Myshkin's mother warned him to come straight home from school. Fatally, he was delayed. He never saw his mother again. She ran off with Walter Spies, a man who left his German homeland, an artist who had mentored her in her girlhood when traveling the world with her liberal-minded father. His father is absorbed in his political work and spiritual quest.
Suffering so much loss in his life, Myshkin had turned to the things that make roots and last: trees. He became a horticulturist. He had planted a grove of flowering trees to add shade and beauty. Now the city wants to tear them down. Does anything last in this world?
Myshkin is in his sixties when a package arrives from his mother's best friend. The contents send Myshkin on a journey into his past.
The novel is Myshkin's record, his way of coming to terms with his past.
Set in 1937 through WWII, in India and the Dutch East Indies, the setting is unfamiliar and exotic.
The human story is universal:
The life-long hollowness of a man whose childhood recurrent fear of abandonment became real.
How the conflict between private life and the work of political revolution split a family. Myshkin's father, an academic, was active in the Indian Independence Movement, an idealist who could not understand his wife's joy in painting and dance.
The motives, and costs, behind a young woman's breaking free of the constraints of her husband's expectations.
The fear that incarcerated non-hostile aliens during wartime.
I was moved by Myshkin's story. The intensity picks up when we learn the contents of the package, letters from his mother to her friend. From the personal suffering of a child, the novel turns to her tragic story.
Roy's research into the time period and the historical persons who appear in the novel bring to life a time few Americans know about. I am thrilled to have read it.
I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
As a toddler, Myshin suffered from convulsions, which led his grandfather to nickname him after the character in Dostoevsky's The Idiot. The nickname stuck, even after the fits stopped--much to the boy's chagrin. "Innocents are what make humankind human," his grandfather explained.
In 1937 Myshkin's mother warned him to come straight home from school. Fatally, he was delayed. He never saw his mother again. She ran off with Walter Spies, a man who left his German homeland, an artist who had mentored her in her girlhood when traveling the world with her liberal-minded father. His father is absorbed in his political work and spiritual quest.
Suffering so much loss in his life, Myshkin had turned to the things that make roots and last: trees. He became a horticulturist. He had planted a grove of flowering trees to add shade and beauty. Now the city wants to tear them down. Does anything last in this world?
Myshkin is in his sixties when a package arrives from his mother's best friend. The contents send Myshkin on a journey into his past.
The novel is Myshkin's record, his way of coming to terms with his past.
Set in 1937 through WWII, in India and the Dutch East Indies, the setting is unfamiliar and exotic.
The human story is universal:
The life-long hollowness of a man whose childhood recurrent fear of abandonment became real.
How the conflict between private life and the work of political revolution split a family. Myshkin's father, an academic, was active in the Indian Independence Movement, an idealist who could not understand his wife's joy in painting and dance.
The motives, and costs, behind a young woman's breaking free of the constraints of her husband's expectations.
The fear that incarcerated non-hostile aliens during wartime.
I was moved by Myshkin's story. The intensity picks up when we learn the contents of the package, letters from his mother to her friend. From the personal suffering of a child, the novel turns to her tragic story.
Roy's research into the time period and the historical persons who appear in the novel bring to life a time few Americans know about. I am thrilled to have read it.
I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
April 7, 2019
I absolutely loved this one. Such an engaging, moving, fascinating read. It follows a man looking back on his life growing up in India in the 1930s, focused on his relationship with his relationship with his mother, who was absent for most of his childhood. I found it such a compelling read, beautifully written with a fantastic engagement with that period in history, and I would highly recommend it. I read this for the Watler Scott Prize longlist and am so sad it didn't make the shortlist - it definitely deserved to!
October 30, 2018
"I need nobody else. I am contented and complete with my animals in a way I never have been with human beings. People think of my solitude as an eccentricity or a symptom of failure, as if I am closer to animals and trees because human beings betrayed me or because I found nobody to love. It is hard to explain to them that the shade of a tree I planted years ago or the feverish intensity of a dog fruitlessly chasing a butterfly provides what no human companionship can."
This isn't a particularly happy story. Myshkin Rozario is a boy growing up in a world where his father is emotionally detached, his mother is physically distant, and his homeland of India is on the precipice of World War II. This could have potentially been an immensely depressing read, but it wasn't. Anuradha Roy's prose really brings the natural beauty of India (and later Bali) to life, and her style fleshes-out her characters in such a way that you can't help but feel varying levels of understanding and empathy.
If you feel you're living in a dangerous era and you're seeking a respite through fanciful fiction, this is not your book. But if you think you're up for a gritty Indian excursion laced with hope and history and heartbreak, I highly recommend giving it a go.
This isn't a particularly happy story. Myshkin Rozario is a boy growing up in a world where his father is emotionally detached, his mother is physically distant, and his homeland of India is on the precipice of World War II. This could have potentially been an immensely depressing read, but it wasn't. Anuradha Roy's prose really brings the natural beauty of India (and later Bali) to life, and her style fleshes-out her characters in such a way that you can't help but feel varying levels of understanding and empathy.
If you feel you're living in a dangerous era and you're seeking a respite through fanciful fiction, this is not your book. But if you think you're up for a gritty Indian excursion laced with hope and history and heartbreak, I highly recommend giving it a go.
October 1, 2018
All the Lives We Never Lived is a stunning achievement of Anuradha Roy, being his fourth novel. It is a beautiful overlapping history that explores love, secrecy and the definition of family. This book, about halfway through began to remind me of Donna Tartt’s, The Goldfinch in the way that the story of a mother who is really only briefly actually present in either of the books is told by their sons, sick with longing ofr their presence and their maternal love.
All the Lives We Never Lived is a beautiful work of literary prose told by the memory of Myshkin, nicknamed after one of Dostoevsky’s characters. Now in his mid sixties this horticulturalist looks back upon his youth and the betrayal he felt when his mother left him for an Englishman. Attempting to understand the reasons for his sudden abandonment, the reader is swooped into a long history of the narrator’s childhood growing up in India. We meet a long chain of family members and friends, all the while being immersed in a war torn country under an strong patriotic influence with the innocent falling under the hand of the powerful. Woven beneath a narrative of sadness and familial conflict is also a tale of suppression of women in a country where voice only has one gender. Set in the 1930’s and early 1940’s the reader is met with the ugliness of the rise of World War II and India’s tumultuous fight for independence. Freedom, one of the main themes in the book, is delved into in multiple respects. Freedom for women from men, freedom from a powerful and corrupt system of oppression, and even freedom, as we see with the narrator, from one’s own backward looking thoughts.
Myschkin’s mother, Gavarti, is a strong willed character. Her voice and desires are not tolerated in her culture where she is expected to marry young, give up on her ambitions and remained housed in a world of acquiescence to men and their desires. Her strong will and refusal to be silenced leads to her, as well as many others’ sufferings in the story. Growing up, she was taken all over the world, alongside her father to discover new peoples, new cultures, new ideas of what “life” meant to people outside of her own country.
It’s sort of reminiscent of The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt in that the narrator is a man in his mid-sixties looking back on his life. However, he is not really telling his story but rather the story of the mother that left him when he was 6 or 7 years old. He tells the stories of his mother, a rebellious and tough-spirited woman who’s adventurous soul was to be tamed at the death of her father when she was young and then sent to marry a man 16 years her senior. It is definitely not a flowing and “as it happens” narrative. Instead, each chapter or segment tells the story of one of Myshkin’s (the narrator) family members such as his great grandfather or his mother’s father. About fifty pages in we are introduced to a German by the name of Walter Spies who had known Gayatri (Myshkin’s mother) and her father and had taught them many things about his culture. He comes to India in search of her and, eventually, this is the man Gayatri will leave her family behind for in pursuit of the long lost spirit she had left behind with the death of her father.
It does not become completely clear why Gayatri decides to abandon her family until about 200 pages into the novel. Through letters Gayatari draws a portrait of the intellectual and spiritual freedom that she longs for and only has the opportunity of ever finding if she leave. Her suffering is raw and deep with an ending that left me torn between forgiving her or thinking her selfish for leaving behind a family that still loved her.
The writing style is really dense with description and flowery language so it does take a bit of concentration to absorb so I found myself having to reread a few sentences here and there. With that being said, I did feel absorbed in each of the characters and found the transition from one story to the next beautifully done.
I also think this book is especially a good pick for these later months as the holidays are coming because the family theme and the importance of values is very prevalent. Usually around fall and winter readers are looking for that “cozy” that leaves them warm inside, but still with enough drama to keep them reading, and I think this book (at least so far) does just that!
All the Lives We Never lived is a breathtaking story of a child’s abandonment by his mother and the motives that drew her to leave behind the comfort of stability on a quest for freedom in a war torn country where women are not only expected to be caged but also brought up to be caged willingly. This is one of those books that is sure to linger with me, having left me questioning humanity: what really does it take to cage a person ? Love? Hatred? Both?
All the Lives We Never Lived is a beautiful work of literary prose told by the memory of Myshkin, nicknamed after one of Dostoevsky’s characters. Now in his mid sixties this horticulturalist looks back upon his youth and the betrayal he felt when his mother left him for an Englishman. Attempting to understand the reasons for his sudden abandonment, the reader is swooped into a long history of the narrator’s childhood growing up in India. We meet a long chain of family members and friends, all the while being immersed in a war torn country under an strong patriotic influence with the innocent falling under the hand of the powerful. Woven beneath a narrative of sadness and familial conflict is also a tale of suppression of women in a country where voice only has one gender. Set in the 1930’s and early 1940’s the reader is met with the ugliness of the rise of World War II and India’s tumultuous fight for independence. Freedom, one of the main themes in the book, is delved into in multiple respects. Freedom for women from men, freedom from a powerful and corrupt system of oppression, and even freedom, as we see with the narrator, from one’s own backward looking thoughts.
Myschkin’s mother, Gavarti, is a strong willed character. Her voice and desires are not tolerated in her culture where she is expected to marry young, give up on her ambitions and remained housed in a world of acquiescence to men and their desires. Her strong will and refusal to be silenced leads to her, as well as many others’ sufferings in the story. Growing up, she was taken all over the world, alongside her father to discover new peoples, new cultures, new ideas of what “life” meant to people outside of her own country.
It’s sort of reminiscent of The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt in that the narrator is a man in his mid-sixties looking back on his life. However, he is not really telling his story but rather the story of the mother that left him when he was 6 or 7 years old. He tells the stories of his mother, a rebellious and tough-spirited woman who’s adventurous soul was to be tamed at the death of her father when she was young and then sent to marry a man 16 years her senior. It is definitely not a flowing and “as it happens” narrative. Instead, each chapter or segment tells the story of one of Myshkin’s (the narrator) family members such as his great grandfather or his mother’s father. About fifty pages in we are introduced to a German by the name of Walter Spies who had known Gayatri (Myshkin’s mother) and her father and had taught them many things about his culture. He comes to India in search of her and, eventually, this is the man Gayatri will leave her family behind for in pursuit of the long lost spirit she had left behind with the death of her father.
It does not become completely clear why Gayatri decides to abandon her family until about 200 pages into the novel. Through letters Gayatari draws a portrait of the intellectual and spiritual freedom that she longs for and only has the opportunity of ever finding if she leave. Her suffering is raw and deep with an ending that left me torn between forgiving her or thinking her selfish for leaving behind a family that still loved her.
The writing style is really dense with description and flowery language so it does take a bit of concentration to absorb so I found myself having to reread a few sentences here and there. With that being said, I did feel absorbed in each of the characters and found the transition from one story to the next beautifully done.
I also think this book is especially a good pick for these later months as the holidays are coming because the family theme and the importance of values is very prevalent. Usually around fall and winter readers are looking for that “cozy” that leaves them warm inside, but still with enough drama to keep them reading, and I think this book (at least so far) does just that!
All the Lives We Never lived is a breathtaking story of a child’s abandonment by his mother and the motives that drew her to leave behind the comfort of stability on a quest for freedom in a war torn country where women are not only expected to be caged but also brought up to be caged willingly. This is one of those books that is sure to linger with me, having left me questioning humanity: what really does it take to cage a person ? Love? Hatred? Both?
September 8, 2020
Anzeige | Unbezahlte Werbung | Rezensionsexemplar
An dieser Stelle herzlichen Dank an das BloggerPortal und den Luchterhand Verlag für das Zusenden dieses Rezensionsexemplars.
Die Geschichte spielt kurz vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Während Indien darum kämpft, der englischen Macht zu entfliehen, kämpft Myshkin Mutter Gayatri darum, sich aus ihrer unglücklichen Ehe zu befreien und sich als Künstlerin zu verwirklichen.
Seit dem Tag, an dem seine Mutter ihn zurückgelassen hat, ist sein Leben geprägt vom Warten auf die Rückkehr der Mutter und der Wut, dass sie ihn verlassen hat. Aus den Briefen seiner Mutter, welche er Jahrzehnte später erhält, und seinem eigenen inneren Monolog, erfahren wir aber, dass sie beabsichtigt hatte, ihn mitzunehmen. An dem Tag ihrer Abreise hatte sie in darum gebeten, direkt nach der Schule nach Hause zukommen, weil etwas Wichtiges geschehen würde. Aber Myshkin kam nicht wie vereinbart nach Hause und so musste die Mutter die Entscheidung treffen zu gehen, um Ihre Träume zu verwirklichen. Immerhin konnte sie ihren Sohn ja nachholen ... Und so wartet er jeden Tagen auf ihre Rückkehr oder Nachrichten von ihr.
Aus der Sicht des Kindes ist die Geschichte unglaublich herzzerreißend. Aus Sicht der Mutter wird deutlich, dass sie diesen extremen Schritt für ihr eigenes geistiges Wohlbefinden tun musste. Im Verlauf der Geschichte muss man sich jedoch fragen, ob sie dies getan hätte, wenn sie nicht von Freunden dazu angeregt worden wäre. Persönlich finde ich es allerdings egoistisch, die eigenen Bedürfnisse über die eines Kindes zustellen. Vor allem wenn man weiß, dass das Kind danach allein sein wird, weil der Vater die Bedürfnisse anderer nur selten wahrnimmt. Circa ein Jahr, nachdem Gayatri die Familie verlassen hat, verlässt auch er diese, um sich der Freiheitsbewegung anzuschließen. Danach nimmt das Leben des Jungen eine andere Form an und er widmet sein Leben Dingen, die Wurzeln schlagen und still stehen – Bäumen und Blumen.
Der sympathischste Charakter ist Myshikns Großvater, der die einzig wirklich zuverlässige Person für das Kind in diesem äußerst unbeständigen Haushalt ist.
Roy bringt neben Fiktion auch einige historische Figuren in ihr Buch mit ein: Dichter Rabindranath Tagore, der deutsche Künstler Walter Spies und die englische Balletttänzerin Beryl. Ebenfalls spielen die Nazis, Juden, die Holländer und Mahatma Gandhi eine Rolle. Dadurch wirkt das Buch etwas lebhafter. Roys Recherchen über den Zweiten Weltkrieg werden durch die Art und Weise deutlich, wie sie die Notlage ihrer fiktiven und historischen Figuren in verschiedenen Teilen der britischen Kolonien zwischen 1917 und 1942 darstellt.
Auch wenn ich das Buch historisch lehrreich und interessant fand, so fand ich die Geschichte selbst, wegen der sehr ruhigen und langsamen Erzählweise eher fade. Natürlich ist Myshkin, nachdem seine Mutter gegangen ist wütend, aber ich hätte mehr Emotionen erwartet. Auch die Emotionen des Vermissen seitens der Mutter kommen eher flach beim Leser an. Dabei spielt es keine Rolle, wie oft sie in ihrem Briefen beteuert, dass sie ihn vermisst. Obwohl das Buch mit etwas über 400 Seiten nicht wirklich lang ist, hatte es seine Längen und hat sich gezogen. Alles in Allem hatte ich mir von dem Buch etwas mehr erwartet und habe es durchaus etwas enttäuscht beendet.
An dieser Stelle herzlichen Dank an das BloggerPortal und den Luchterhand Verlag für das Zusenden dieses Rezensionsexemplars.
Die Geschichte spielt kurz vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Während Indien darum kämpft, der englischen Macht zu entfliehen, kämpft Myshkin Mutter Gayatri darum, sich aus ihrer unglücklichen Ehe zu befreien und sich als Künstlerin zu verwirklichen.
Seit dem Tag, an dem seine Mutter ihn zurückgelassen hat, ist sein Leben geprägt vom Warten auf die Rückkehr der Mutter und der Wut, dass sie ihn verlassen hat. Aus den Briefen seiner Mutter, welche er Jahrzehnte später erhält, und seinem eigenen inneren Monolog, erfahren wir aber, dass sie beabsichtigt hatte, ihn mitzunehmen. An dem Tag ihrer Abreise hatte sie in darum gebeten, direkt nach der Schule nach Hause zukommen, weil etwas Wichtiges geschehen würde. Aber Myshkin kam nicht wie vereinbart nach Hause und so musste die Mutter die Entscheidung treffen zu gehen, um Ihre Träume zu verwirklichen. Immerhin konnte sie ihren Sohn ja nachholen ... Und so wartet er jeden Tagen auf ihre Rückkehr oder Nachrichten von ihr.
Aus der Sicht des Kindes ist die Geschichte unglaublich herzzerreißend. Aus Sicht der Mutter wird deutlich, dass sie diesen extremen Schritt für ihr eigenes geistiges Wohlbefinden tun musste. Im Verlauf der Geschichte muss man sich jedoch fragen, ob sie dies getan hätte, wenn sie nicht von Freunden dazu angeregt worden wäre. Persönlich finde ich es allerdings egoistisch, die eigenen Bedürfnisse über die eines Kindes zustellen. Vor allem wenn man weiß, dass das Kind danach allein sein wird, weil der Vater die Bedürfnisse anderer nur selten wahrnimmt. Circa ein Jahr, nachdem Gayatri die Familie verlassen hat, verlässt auch er diese, um sich der Freiheitsbewegung anzuschließen. Danach nimmt das Leben des Jungen eine andere Form an und er widmet sein Leben Dingen, die Wurzeln schlagen und still stehen – Bäumen und Blumen.
Der sympathischste Charakter ist Myshikns Großvater, der die einzig wirklich zuverlässige Person für das Kind in diesem äußerst unbeständigen Haushalt ist.
Roy bringt neben Fiktion auch einige historische Figuren in ihr Buch mit ein: Dichter Rabindranath Tagore, der deutsche Künstler Walter Spies und die englische Balletttänzerin Beryl. Ebenfalls spielen die Nazis, Juden, die Holländer und Mahatma Gandhi eine Rolle. Dadurch wirkt das Buch etwas lebhafter. Roys Recherchen über den Zweiten Weltkrieg werden durch die Art und Weise deutlich, wie sie die Notlage ihrer fiktiven und historischen Figuren in verschiedenen Teilen der britischen Kolonien zwischen 1917 und 1942 darstellt.
Auch wenn ich das Buch historisch lehrreich und interessant fand, so fand ich die Geschichte selbst, wegen der sehr ruhigen und langsamen Erzählweise eher fade. Natürlich ist Myshkin, nachdem seine Mutter gegangen ist wütend, aber ich hätte mehr Emotionen erwartet. Auch die Emotionen des Vermissen seitens der Mutter kommen eher flach beim Leser an. Dabei spielt es keine Rolle, wie oft sie in ihrem Briefen beteuert, dass sie ihn vermisst. Obwohl das Buch mit etwas über 400 Seiten nicht wirklich lang ist, hatte es seine Längen und hat sich gezogen. Alles in Allem hatte ich mir von dem Buch etwas mehr erwartet und habe es durchaus etwas enttäuscht beendet.
June 10, 2024
3.5 stars
May 26, 2018
কোথাও আমার হারিয়ে যাওয়ার নেই মানা...
I can only remember this song while writing a short review of this exceptional piece of art.Recently I have read Chinatown which was like an epic and now "All the lives we never lived".The best part of this book is the overlap of history and fiction.The content of a tormented tortured nation, world war, love story , ruins and remnants of war, famous personalities evokes a sense of peculiar attachment with the read. Anuradha Roy's immaculate research , vivid description of the locales of our country and Bali with the nature binding prose is very similar to poetry. I always feel creating characters for any novel is a humongous task and when a reader can relate to those characters, with their flaws and mistakes, with their happiness and hatred, that palpable sense of loss and longings; there lies the success of an author.
This novel has much to offer. Readers will get a glimpse of deep sense of human emotions, bonding , principles at the utmost torrid times; freedom from a woman's perspective and the story of a boy who has lost everything. The story of Myshkin and his mother Gayatri, its rebellious, alluring artist-heroine who is driven to abandon home ,marriage and follow her primal instinct for freedom. What follows is Gayatri's life as pieced together by her son( a semi-epistolary touch makes it more intriguing), a never ending journey and a hope of reunion and love.
So as Sumana Roy has mentioned at the back cover of this novel-
'If you've ever lost something, you must read this novel.If you've ever found something you lost, you must read this novel too.'
I can only remember this song while writing a short review of this exceptional piece of art.Recently I have read Chinatown which was like an epic and now "All the lives we never lived".The best part of this book is the overlap of history and fiction.The content of a tormented tortured nation, world war, love story , ruins and remnants of war, famous personalities evokes a sense of peculiar attachment with the read. Anuradha Roy's immaculate research , vivid description of the locales of our country and Bali with the nature binding prose is very similar to poetry. I always feel creating characters for any novel is a humongous task and when a reader can relate to those characters, with their flaws and mistakes, with their happiness and hatred, that palpable sense of loss and longings; there lies the success of an author.
This novel has much to offer. Readers will get a glimpse of deep sense of human emotions, bonding , principles at the utmost torrid times; freedom from a woman's perspective and the story of a boy who has lost everything. The story of Myshkin and his mother Gayatri, its rebellious, alluring artist-heroine who is driven to abandon home ,marriage and follow her primal instinct for freedom. What follows is Gayatri's life as pieced together by her son( a semi-epistolary touch makes it more intriguing), a never ending journey and a hope of reunion and love.
So as Sumana Roy has mentioned at the back cover of this novel-
'If you've ever lost something, you must read this novel.If you've ever found something you lost, you must read this novel too.'
February 24, 2023
Obiectiv vorbind, e o carte buna și toate temele pe care le atinge se duce în toată complexitatea lor. Dar sincer it's not my cup of tea și chiar mi-a luat destul de mult timp sa trec prin aceasta carte.
Anyways uitați un citat care chiar mi-a placut:
"Cât de contradictorie sunt, Lisa! Războaiele civile din mine sunt continue și obositoare. Încă eram îndrăgostită de el- și totuși voiam să mă eliberez de el. Nu îl iubeam, am ajuns să înțeleg asta, iubeam dependenta lui de mine. Nu sunt făcută pentru iubire. Am nevoie sa fiu complet libera. Sunt dezgustata de indiferenta mea."
Anyways uitați un citat care chiar mi-a placut:
"Cât de contradictorie sunt, Lisa! Războaiele civile din mine sunt continue și obositoare. Încă eram îndrăgostită de el- și totuși voiam să mă eliberez de el. Nu îl iubeam, am ajuns să înțeleg asta, iubeam dependenta lui de mine. Nu sunt făcută pentru iubire. Am nevoie sa fiu complet libera. Sunt dezgustata de indiferenta mea."
June 24, 2018
3.5 stars.
“In my childhood, I was known as the boy whose mother had run off with an Englishman.”
Vacillated between 3.5 to 4 stars. It was a solid 4 stars as I was reading it - lovely prose, thoughtful and almost philosophical writing - but I didn’t particularly seek it when I had put it down, and now that it’s been some time since I’ve finished it, I find it hasn’t lingered in my mind as long as I thought it might. To be fair, I’ve been a bit busy and perhaps didn’t have as much brain space or emotional availability for this at the time.
Still, it kept me engrossed enough to read to the end. An accomplished story told from the perspective of Myshkin, an older man reminiscing on his youth, oblivious to the realities of 1930s India, pre-independence and pre-wartime. At the age of ten, his mother Gayatri leaves him, an event that upends his world, just as India, and the world itself gradually begins to upend itself through instability and the looming threat of war. Gayatri is a woman before her time, as was her father, and when he dies, she ends up married to a man who fancies himself her rescuer, a lecturer and an activist fighting for the county’s freedom, while being an oppressor at home. Then she has Myshkin, and it seemed she felt even more stifled.
“As an old man trying to understand my past, I am making myself read of others like her, I am trying to view my mother somewhat impersonally, as a rebel who might be admired by some, an artist with a vocation so intense she chose it over family and home.
As a child abandoned without explanation, I had felt nothing but rage, misery, confusion.”
This is the story about reckoning with your past, shaping it to suit you, and making peace with the life that you then choose to live. It highlights how no one is left unscathed in times of turmoil, be it on a personal level or on a global scale such as in wartime (“I suppose when countries are at war, our lives are not our own any more even if the war is a million miles away.”). Yet, art and creativity can be a source of beauty, a balm, no matter the circumstance, even as it may be seen to be frivolous by others.
I found it to be a unique story as I was reading it, thinking wow what made the author want to write a story based across borders like this. India and Bali? I really didn’t know too much about this period in India’s history. But then by the end, I realised that the foreigners that had arrived in India to seek out Gayatri were based on actual historical figures (Walter Spies, Beryl de Zoete...), and that there were a few other fictionalised versions of real historical artists besides (Rabindranath Tagore, Begum Akhtar). That was a pleasure to learn and then read up about, but I was also glad to not have known about them prior to reading this. I don’t think it would have made too much of a difference if I had either.
By the end of the book, we get more of a perspective on the woman Gayatri was. This is again at a distance, via letters she had sent her best friend. This feels poetic, since Myshkin has lost the opportunity to truly know her himself (though personally, I wouldn’t mind a break from epistolary plot devices!).
“In my childhood, I was known as the boy whose mother had run off with an Englishman.”
Vacillated between 3.5 to 4 stars. It was a solid 4 stars as I was reading it - lovely prose, thoughtful and almost philosophical writing - but I didn’t particularly seek it when I had put it down, and now that it’s been some time since I’ve finished it, I find it hasn’t lingered in my mind as long as I thought it might. To be fair, I’ve been a bit busy and perhaps didn’t have as much brain space or emotional availability for this at the time.
Still, it kept me engrossed enough to read to the end. An accomplished story told from the perspective of Myshkin, an older man reminiscing on his youth, oblivious to the realities of 1930s India, pre-independence and pre-wartime. At the age of ten, his mother Gayatri leaves him, an event that upends his world, just as India, and the world itself gradually begins to upend itself through instability and the looming threat of war. Gayatri is a woman before her time, as was her father, and when he dies, she ends up married to a man who fancies himself her rescuer, a lecturer and an activist fighting for the county’s freedom, while being an oppressor at home. Then she has Myshkin, and it seemed she felt even more stifled.
“As an old man trying to understand my past, I am making myself read of others like her, I am trying to view my mother somewhat impersonally, as a rebel who might be admired by some, an artist with a vocation so intense she chose it over family and home.
As a child abandoned without explanation, I had felt nothing but rage, misery, confusion.”
This is the story about reckoning with your past, shaping it to suit you, and making peace with the life that you then choose to live. It highlights how no one is left unscathed in times of turmoil, be it on a personal level or on a global scale such as in wartime (“I suppose when countries are at war, our lives are not our own any more even if the war is a million miles away.”). Yet, art and creativity can be a source of beauty, a balm, no matter the circumstance, even as it may be seen to be frivolous by others.
I found it to be a unique story as I was reading it, thinking wow what made the author want to write a story based across borders like this. India and Bali? I really didn’t know too much about this period in India’s history. But then by the end, I realised that the foreigners that had arrived in India to seek out Gayatri were based on actual historical figures (Walter Spies, Beryl de Zoete...), and that there were a few other fictionalised versions of real historical artists besides (Rabindranath Tagore, Begum Akhtar). That was a pleasure to learn and then read up about, but I was also glad to not have known about them prior to reading this. I don’t think it would have made too much of a difference if I had either.
By the end of the book, we get more of a perspective on the woman Gayatri was. This is again at a distance, via letters she had sent her best friend. This feels poetic, since Myshkin has lost the opportunity to truly know her himself (though personally, I wouldn’t mind a break from epistolary plot devices!).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 9, 2020
Recenzia integrală: https://ancazaharia.ro/2020/12/maitre...
De la un punct încolo, așteptarea întoarcerii mamei este înlocuită de așteptarea scrisorilor ei. În acest timp, copilul își croiește o realitate alternativă și se inserează ca personaj potențial activ în ce citește despre viața mamei, cea care nu-l mai include, făcându-l doar un spectator distant.
În vreme ce istoria mare se întâmplă altora (ascensiunea lui Hitler în Europa, de exemplu), istoriile personale sunt răvășitoare (la fel ca viața pe care o duce mama și pe care Mîșkin consideră că i-a răpit-o).
De la un punct încolo, așteptarea întoarcerii mamei este înlocuită de așteptarea scrisorilor ei. În acest timp, copilul își croiește o realitate alternativă și se inserează ca personaj potențial activ în ce citește despre viața mamei, cea care nu-l mai include, făcându-l doar un spectator distant.
În vreme ce istoria mare se întâmplă altora (ascensiunea lui Hitler în Europa, de exemplu), istoriile personale sunt răvășitoare (la fel ca viața pe care o duce mama și pe care Mîșkin consideră că i-a răpit-o).
February 12, 2019
I had not read Roy’s work before, but when I saw this galley—with an arresting cover and the promise of a Man Booker nominated author—I jumped on it. Thanks go to Net Galley and Atria Books for the review copy. It’s for sale now.
I’m months late with my review, and the cause of my tardiness is my ambivalence about this book and my confusion as to why it fizzled for me. It starts out well, and at the outset I love Gayatri, the nonconformist mother of Myshkin, our other main character. Every stereotype ever built about Indian women is utterly crushed as she screams with joy while riding downhill on her bicycle. Her sari is torn, her hair is a mess…and her husband adores her.
The story is set just prior to World War II as well as the Indian quest for independence. But as India struggles to break free of the British Empire, Gay struggles to break free of her marriage.
Myshkin is extremely close to his mother, and when we meet him he is elderly, retired from working as the town’s landscape director and gardener, and living alone in greatly reduced circumstances compared to the ones in which he grew up. His whole life has been nothing but sorrow and loss since his mother abandoned him. We see in her letters to friends and in his own inner monologue that she had intended to take him with her, but the timing was right down to the wire. She told him not to be late coming home from school because something important was happening; but then his teacher was unhappy with the class and kept them all after school, and faced with the choice to fish or cut bait, Gay left without her little boy.
Usually when I don’t like a book, I also know exactly why I don’t like it. This time I had to mull it over. On the one hand, I heartily dislike the mother here; I’m a diehard feminist, but child abandonment is child abandonment. However, a flawed or even villainous protagonist shouldn’t be a deal breaker. Think of Hannibal Lector! Think of The Talented Mr. Ripley! And of course we also know that for Gay to leave her marriage was a dicey proposition during this time period when an Indian woman was legally little more than chattel. Nevertheless, I resent this character, who is portrayed as flawed and yet heroic. Why doesn’t she keep Myshkin home from school, have him feign illness or hide somewhere, rather than set up this failure? Her love for him is supposedly tremendous, and yet she chooses to leave without him; when she becomes a famous painter and openings exist to find and reclaim her son, she has endless excuses.
In addition to my frustration with the character, I also see pacing problems. Rather than experiencing the powerful range of feelings that the book’s teaser promises, after I was twenty-five percent of the way in, I was mostly just weary, depressed, and watching the page numbers crawl by.
Is it over yet?
Another reviewer suggested that although there is a long, slow part during the book’s first half, once we get to a certain point—which he identified, but I have forgotten where it was—the whole thing would gel and make it worthwhile. And so I soldiered on, reached his benchmark and then past it for a few pages more, just in case. But no.
Having forced myself along this far, I resolved to skip to the last 25% so that I would be able to write a fair review. Sometimes the way a book ends can completely change how I feel about it. But I found that so much change had occurred in the portion I had skipped that I couldn’t regain the thread, so with a heavy sigh I flipped back to where I’d been and saw it through. But the ending is worse than the middle, with Gay’s entire narrative attached to it in the form of detailed letters to a third party, the friend that helped her sneak out of India.
I once met someone that had added onto his home in a do-it-yourself way that had nothing to do with building codes, and the floors sloped precariously, the style of the addition resembling a hillbilly patchwork job more than a suburban home. And that’s what the end of this book is like. It’s as if a deadline was nearing and the writer tacked something on quickly to get it done in time.
How did something that started so well turn into such a mess? It’s perplexing. All I know is that when I was done with it, I felt as though spring had arrived, and there was an added bounce to my step, not because the book made me feel that way, but because the book was over, and I would never have to read it again.
All this said, the initial character sketch of Gayatri is wonderful. I could see using a cutting from it in a creative writing class. But get it free or cheap unless your pockets are deep; I cannot recommend the book as a whole.
I’m months late with my review, and the cause of my tardiness is my ambivalence about this book and my confusion as to why it fizzled for me. It starts out well, and at the outset I love Gayatri, the nonconformist mother of Myshkin, our other main character. Every stereotype ever built about Indian women is utterly crushed as she screams with joy while riding downhill on her bicycle. Her sari is torn, her hair is a mess…and her husband adores her.
The story is set just prior to World War II as well as the Indian quest for independence. But as India struggles to break free of the British Empire, Gay struggles to break free of her marriage.
Myshkin is extremely close to his mother, and when we meet him he is elderly, retired from working as the town’s landscape director and gardener, and living alone in greatly reduced circumstances compared to the ones in which he grew up. His whole life has been nothing but sorrow and loss since his mother abandoned him. We see in her letters to friends and in his own inner monologue that she had intended to take him with her, but the timing was right down to the wire. She told him not to be late coming home from school because something important was happening; but then his teacher was unhappy with the class and kept them all after school, and faced with the choice to fish or cut bait, Gay left without her little boy.
Usually when I don’t like a book, I also know exactly why I don’t like it. This time I had to mull it over. On the one hand, I heartily dislike the mother here; I’m a diehard feminist, but child abandonment is child abandonment. However, a flawed or even villainous protagonist shouldn’t be a deal breaker. Think of Hannibal Lector! Think of The Talented Mr. Ripley! And of course we also know that for Gay to leave her marriage was a dicey proposition during this time period when an Indian woman was legally little more than chattel. Nevertheless, I resent this character, who is portrayed as flawed and yet heroic. Why doesn’t she keep Myshkin home from school, have him feign illness or hide somewhere, rather than set up this failure? Her love for him is supposedly tremendous, and yet she chooses to leave without him; when she becomes a famous painter and openings exist to find and reclaim her son, she has endless excuses.
In addition to my frustration with the character, I also see pacing problems. Rather than experiencing the powerful range of feelings that the book’s teaser promises, after I was twenty-five percent of the way in, I was mostly just weary, depressed, and watching the page numbers crawl by.
Is it over yet?
Another reviewer suggested that although there is a long, slow part during the book’s first half, once we get to a certain point—which he identified, but I have forgotten where it was—the whole thing would gel and make it worthwhile. And so I soldiered on, reached his benchmark and then past it for a few pages more, just in case. But no.
Having forced myself along this far, I resolved to skip to the last 25% so that I would be able to write a fair review. Sometimes the way a book ends can completely change how I feel about it. But I found that so much change had occurred in the portion I had skipped that I couldn’t regain the thread, so with a heavy sigh I flipped back to where I’d been and saw it through. But the ending is worse than the middle, with Gay’s entire narrative attached to it in the form of detailed letters to a third party, the friend that helped her sneak out of India.
I once met someone that had added onto his home in a do-it-yourself way that had nothing to do with building codes, and the floors sloped precariously, the style of the addition resembling a hillbilly patchwork job more than a suburban home. And that’s what the end of this book is like. It’s as if a deadline was nearing and the writer tacked something on quickly to get it done in time.
How did something that started so well turn into such a mess? It’s perplexing. All I know is that when I was done with it, I felt as though spring had arrived, and there was an added bounce to my step, not because the book made me feel that way, but because the book was over, and I would never have to read it again.
All this said, the initial character sketch of Gayatri is wonderful. I could see using a cutting from it in a creative writing class. But get it free or cheap unless your pockets are deep; I cannot recommend the book as a whole.
December 17, 2020
I enjoyed reading every word, every line, every page of this book. There wasn't a moment where I thought this is getting boring. Let me skip a few paras. No! This book had me from its beginning. What an interesting plot, what interesting, charming, intricately carved characters. This was my best fiction read of 2020. And now I wonder why didn't it win the JCB Prize 2018 where it was LONGLISTED.
January 4, 2019
A book you *can* judge by its cover - it’s beautiful !
I’ve loved Anuradha Roy since I read #anatlasofimpossiblelonging. The relation between the protagonists, intense, flawed and arresting. I was so taken with it that I named our honeymoon album after the book.
In this novel, it’s wonderful to watch how much more mature Roy’s writing has become. An aging horticulturist tries to understand why his mother left him and ran away with a foreigner when he was just a child. The scene is pre-independence India, stretching into a World-War era Indonesia. As Myshkin Rozario pieces together his mother’s life through memories and her letters to a friend, we take a nostalgic journey with him.
Gayatri, his mother, is a restless spirit. An oft-repeated character in fiction, an adventurous, talented, almost-flighty young woman unable to bear the mundaneness of domesticity. 90 percent of the time, she has a staid, righteous, practical husband. Equal chances that she has a dalliance on the side, an outrageous fling with an unsuitable person. I love this character, it’s a necessary and true one, but I also have a reservation against the supposedly ‘bad’ woman regretting and repenting, seeking forgiveness and diminishing. When can we have a character unapologetic of herself and her desires, who isn’t punished and doesn’t need to atone for it? Who will not justify her lack of maternal instincts? That is my dissatisfaction with Gayatri’s character.
But the language, descriptions, style the writer confidently uses - it’s a wondrous work of art. You want to keep reading for vivid pictures that come alive before you, eccentric characters, historical anecdotes. The mastery Roy has, the control and freedom she allows words, is a delight. A joy to behold, this rush of energy and emotions. Thank you, writer, for making reading an escape.
I’ve loved Anuradha Roy since I read #anatlasofimpossiblelonging. The relation between the protagonists, intense, flawed and arresting. I was so taken with it that I named our honeymoon album after the book.
In this novel, it’s wonderful to watch how much more mature Roy’s writing has become. An aging horticulturist tries to understand why his mother left him and ran away with a foreigner when he was just a child. The scene is pre-independence India, stretching into a World-War era Indonesia. As Myshkin Rozario pieces together his mother’s life through memories and her letters to a friend, we take a nostalgic journey with him.
Gayatri, his mother, is a restless spirit. An oft-repeated character in fiction, an adventurous, talented, almost-flighty young woman unable to bear the mundaneness of domesticity. 90 percent of the time, she has a staid, righteous, practical husband. Equal chances that she has a dalliance on the side, an outrageous fling with an unsuitable person. I love this character, it’s a necessary and true one, but I also have a reservation against the supposedly ‘bad’ woman regretting and repenting, seeking forgiveness and diminishing. When can we have a character unapologetic of herself and her desires, who isn’t punished and doesn’t need to atone for it? Who will not justify her lack of maternal instincts? That is my dissatisfaction with Gayatri’s character.
But the language, descriptions, style the writer confidently uses - it’s a wondrous work of art. You want to keep reading for vivid pictures that come alive before you, eccentric characters, historical anecdotes. The mastery Roy has, the control and freedom she allows words, is a delight. A joy to behold, this rush of energy and emotions. Thank you, writer, for making reading an escape.
September 11, 2019
You have one life to live. What do you do with it? Do you live it the way expected of you, confirming to the norms, all the while suffocating yourself with the futility of living the way you don't want to? Or do you break free of the intangible shackles and be the true owner of your life, even if it comes at the cost of the wrath of the world?
All through the book, there's a profound sadness that settles upon you, reminding you of the time or occasion when you have been in a similar position as one of the characters. No character is perfect and they all hurt each other in some or the other way. Yet, try as you might, you cannot pick sides. How do you berate Gayatri who has only know freedom of living before it was brutally cut short by the death of her father? Nek Chand's idealism is reminiscent of that of history books, even if it serves as a prison sentence for his wife. And poor Myshkin whose only fault was to have been born is a dysfunctional family, suffers the brunt of it all through his life.
All The Lives We Never Lived packs a punch and makes you wonder that for all the trouble you go through to make your life worthwhile, how much of what you already have are you losing.
All through the book, there's a profound sadness that settles upon you, reminding you of the time or occasion when you have been in a similar position as one of the characters. No character is perfect and they all hurt each other in some or the other way. Yet, try as you might, you cannot pick sides. How do you berate Gayatri who has only know freedom of living before it was brutally cut short by the death of her father? Nek Chand's idealism is reminiscent of that of history books, even if it serves as a prison sentence for his wife. And poor Myshkin whose only fault was to have been born is a dysfunctional family, suffers the brunt of it all through his life.
All The Lives We Never Lived packs a punch and makes you wonder that for all the trouble you go through to make your life worthwhile, how much of what you already have are you losing.
May 11, 2020
Set in pre-independent India and Dutch-held Bali during the Second World War, Anuradha Roy's 'All the Lives We Never Lived' (pub. MacLehose Press), is a dazzling account of lives stranded across two continents, dealing with loss, uncertainty, and abandonment. She deftly brings out the chaos, confusion, and resentment in the inner life of a child whose mother, struggling for independence against tradition and longing for artistic freedom, mysteriously elopes with a foreigner, leaving her family in turmoil.
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