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Into The Suburbs
In Calcutta we were crammed in among crowds, traffic and pollution. We had visions of breathing fresh, clean air and living in a classless society where everyone was your mate.
Christopher Raja was eleven years old when his father, David, decided to move the family to Australia in pursuit of the idyllic lifestyle. They brought their hopes and aspirations to a bungalow in Melbourne’s outer suburbs. On the surface, the Rajas appeared to be living a ‘normal’ Australian life.
Throughout his teenage years, Christopher embraces the freedoms of his adopted country, while his father becomes more and more disenchanted. Just as Christopher is settling into university, the family is rocked by a tragic and unexpected loss.
Exploring topical issues of race, class and migration, Into the Suburbs is an affecting portrait of one family’s search for home.
Christopher Raja was eleven years old when his father, David, decided to move the family to Australia in pursuit of the idyllic lifestyle. They brought their hopes and aspirations to a bungalow in Melbourne’s outer suburbs. On the surface, the Rajas appeared to be living a ‘normal’ Australian life.
Throughout his teenage years, Christopher embraces the freedoms of his adopted country, while his father becomes more and more disenchanted. Just as Christopher is settling into university, the family is rocked by a tragic and unexpected loss.
Exploring topical issues of race, class and migration, Into the Suburbs is an affecting portrait of one family’s search for home.
188 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2020
82 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Raja
2 books12 followersChristopher Raja migrated from Kolkata to Melbourne in 1986. He has lived and worked in Alice Springs since 2004. His writings (short stories and essays) have appeared in numerous publications. His co-authored play (with Natasha Raja) – ‘The First Garden’ – was performed in botanical gardens around Australia and published by Currency Press in 2012. His debut novel – The Burning Elephant (published by Giramondo, 2015) was written under a New Work grant awarded by the Literature Board of the Australia Council. He has been twice shortlisted for the Northern Territory Writers Centre’s Chief Minister’s Book of the Year award. In 2016, Chris appeared at the Ubud writer’s festival in Bali and ‘The Burning Elephant’ was launched in China at the 9th annual international conference of the Asia Pacific Writers and Translators, Guangzhou.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
abandoned
July 6, 2020I quite enjoyed the first part of this book, but pubescent fumbling with girls doesn't interest me at all. However, I highly recommend The Burning Elephant by this author. That is an excellent book, see my review at https://anzlitlovers.com/2016/11/25/t...
PS I do not rate books that I don't finish reading.
PS I do not rate books that I don't finish reading.
January 2, 2022
3.5 - 4 Stars.
I will write more about this book, but I have to say that it reads like a YA novel/memoir and that was a disappointment for me. It is enjoyable and easy to read, but the last 50 pages (which are worth the price of admission alone) end up leaving deeper reflections untouched after a a terrible tragedy strikes Christopher and his family. It feels rushed and unfinished—I wanted to know more about how the adult Christopher has grown and been formed as a man, as a parent, by his childhood as an immigrant. Perhaps that is another book?
I will write more about this book, but I have to say that it reads like a YA novel/memoir and that was a disappointment for me. It is enjoyable and easy to read, but the last 50 pages (which are worth the price of admission alone) end up leaving deeper reflections untouched after a a terrible tragedy strikes Christopher and his family. It feels rushed and unfinished—I wanted to know more about how the adult Christopher has grown and been formed as a man, as a parent, by his childhood as an immigrant. Perhaps that is another book?
August 13, 2020
Christopher Raja - Into the Suburbs
Christopher Raja is the author of plays, essays and a novel The Burning Elephant. His memoir Into the suburbs is Christopher’s story of leaving Calcutta and beginning a life in Melbourne.
I do not read a lot of memoir, perhaps to my detriment, but there was something about the cover and conceit of Into the Suburbs that drew me in. This is not an exhaustive tale of Christopher Raja’s life to the present day, but rather an exploration of what it means to be dislocated and to search for meaning and an idea of home in a new place.
Chris was eleven years old when his mother and father moved the family from Calcutta to Melbourne in the 1980s. The contrast is immediate; from the densely populated streets of Calcutta he is transported to a world that is almost unbearably quiet. Where previously he had family surrounding him, not even his relatives keep to their manicured quarter acre blocks.
There is something in the title that suggests an expedition. A journey of discovery of lands uncharted or poorly understood. At least that’s how I understood it. I grew up in the suburbs and I’ve never felt I really understood these liminal zones between city and country. Here in Sydney we are so territorial of our suburban allegiances but how does this culture come into being, let alone become exclusive?
The young Chris is thrown headlong into a world of school and peers that will exert forces subtle and brutal to extract conformity. He reflects that “in Australia it seemed boys were brought up to self-destruct and be reckless” and it breeds in him a shift towards rebellion. In this world he will face racism for being brown even as he is taught that the indigenous people of the land he lives on look more like him. In the history classes of the eighties he is taught that Aboriginal people are dying out while he befriends a new boy at school who is Aboriginal and far from fading away.
As the adolescent Christopher faces down this world that dangles acceptance before his eyes, he moves farther away from the values and opportunities his parents want him to embrace. These values are not the shield he needs to deflect racist assaults nor to become one with the mix of his peers.
At a family BBQ Chris overhears a relative confess “Not all of us can become Australians. However hard we try.” Whether this is the result of individual effort or white gatekeeping it highlights one of the core themes of Into the Suburbs; this strange and malleable notion of Australianness does not exist equally for all.
Into the Suburbs is a fascinating exploration of a life, a time and the idea that home is simply there waiting to be found.
Loved this review?
You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!
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Christopher Raja is the author of plays, essays and a novel The Burning Elephant. His memoir Into the suburbs is Christopher’s story of leaving Calcutta and beginning a life in Melbourne.
I do not read a lot of memoir, perhaps to my detriment, but there was something about the cover and conceit of Into the Suburbs that drew me in. This is not an exhaustive tale of Christopher Raja’s life to the present day, but rather an exploration of what it means to be dislocated and to search for meaning and an idea of home in a new place.
Chris was eleven years old when his mother and father moved the family from Calcutta to Melbourne in the 1980s. The contrast is immediate; from the densely populated streets of Calcutta he is transported to a world that is almost unbearably quiet. Where previously he had family surrounding him, not even his relatives keep to their manicured quarter acre blocks.
There is something in the title that suggests an expedition. A journey of discovery of lands uncharted or poorly understood. At least that’s how I understood it. I grew up in the suburbs and I’ve never felt I really understood these liminal zones between city and country. Here in Sydney we are so territorial of our suburban allegiances but how does this culture come into being, let alone become exclusive?
The young Chris is thrown headlong into a world of school and peers that will exert forces subtle and brutal to extract conformity. He reflects that “in Australia it seemed boys were brought up to self-destruct and be reckless” and it breeds in him a shift towards rebellion. In this world he will face racism for being brown even as he is taught that the indigenous people of the land he lives on look more like him. In the history classes of the eighties he is taught that Aboriginal people are dying out while he befriends a new boy at school who is Aboriginal and far from fading away.
As the adolescent Christopher faces down this world that dangles acceptance before his eyes, he moves farther away from the values and opportunities his parents want him to embrace. These values are not the shield he needs to deflect racist assaults nor to become one with the mix of his peers.
At a family BBQ Chris overhears a relative confess “Not all of us can become Australians. However hard we try.” Whether this is the result of individual effort or white gatekeeping it highlights one of the core themes of Into the Suburbs; this strange and malleable notion of Australianness does not exist equally for all.
Into the Suburbs is a fascinating exploration of a life, a time and the idea that home is simply there waiting to be found.
Loved this review?
You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!
https://player.whooshkaa.com/shows/fi...
October 19, 2020
"We are exiled from the womb, from our homes, from our schools, our work. If our sense of safety is removed, we are exiled. The power of memory plays a significant role in our sense of identity and belonging."
August 11, 2020
This is an important book and also a delight to read. Raja's spare and conversational style belies the uncovering of the darkness of the racism that flows beneath Australian society. He writes of the everyday experiences of childhood and adolescence with remarkable candour but also the tragedy of being out of place and treated as an outsider. I was stunned by the depth of this tragedy and its inevitability in the commitment of this family who determined to make this transition to a new country with the opportunities being offered but unaware of the enormous cost. It has alerted me at a deeper level to the evils of casual racism and prejudice. A lesson I won't forget and I am grateful to Raja for his courage in opening up his family story in this book. Read it!!
October 19, 2020
"We are exiled from the womb, from our homes, from our schools, our work. If our sense of safety is removed, we are exiled. The power of memory plays a significant role in our sense of identity and belonging."
July 18, 2021
Without wishing to be rude - and I am sorry his father died - but this is possibly the dullest, least evocative memoir I have ever read.
September 24, 2020
On love, coming of age, grief and exile. The author writes about not being at home in the country of his birth, India or the new place in Melbourne, Australia.
The writing exposes Australian culture - the clean empty streets and parks of outer Melbourne.
His adolescence of defiance and later scholarship in a private school.
The beauty of a good memoir is that it takes you to places you never knew.
This was not my Melbourne, but the stories by Christopher Raja are vivid, brash and also painful.
It must have been hard to write about the family struggles.
There are some gaps towards the end of the book. Almost like the author was writing a detailed diary for the first 6 or 7 years and then eased off on writing, the stories jump forward and we lose the sense of being as involved. This was mainly a teenage narrative, but I would have liked to have seen some more of the authors life in the present day to reference back to.
The writing exposes Australian culture - the clean empty streets and parks of outer Melbourne.
His adolescence of defiance and later scholarship in a private school.
The beauty of a good memoir is that it takes you to places you never knew.
This was not my Melbourne, but the stories by Christopher Raja are vivid, brash and also painful.
It must have been hard to write about the family struggles.
There are some gaps towards the end of the book. Almost like the author was writing a detailed diary for the first 6 or 7 years and then eased off on writing, the stories jump forward and we lose the sense of being as involved. This was mainly a teenage narrative, but I would have liked to have seen some more of the authors life in the present day to reference back to.
March 4, 2021
Sorry, Christopher, I don't really care about the "stiffy" you cracked over the poor Greek girl from Dandenong. And please, I hope your cousins didn't mind you describing their bodies the way you did. Also, you jump years chronologically. At one stage you are 11 and then you are "pashing" girls in the graveyard in Springvale. Also, we know that you went to St John Vianney's (no need to disguise the name, because St James is definitely not the patron saint of priests). And you either attended Heatherhill or Springvale Secondary... or your book should have just had a disclaimer at the start that stated that "names and places have been disguised etc."I also believe that "Melbourne Central" station was known as "Museum" station for the period of time you have set your memoir in...
December 7, 2020
I really loved this book. I discovered how beautiful Chris' writing is in his first book 'The Burning Elephant'. This book was equally as compelling and because it's a true story, particularly stirring and emotional with a twist I did not see coming. All too often we read books about travelling and living in different countries but very few on what it's like immigrating to our home country and how it looks through an outsider's lens. It was really interesting to see Chris' take on Melbourne, Australia in the eighties through a young boys eyes from Calcutta. Highly recommend this to anyone who loves memoir, great writing and a beautiful story of growing up and the harsh realities of life.
October 29, 2025
A middle class family of three, parents and son, move from India to live in a Melbourne suburb. The adolescent son describes his average Australian adolescence, with emphasis on his sexual escapades. Apart from his father's tragic demise, nothing unusual, insightful or extraordinary occurs. An extremely boring, mediocre piece of writing. One senses the author wanted to jump on the lucrative "immigrant memoir" gravy train.
November 16, 2020
I am fascinated in human interest stories. This one did not disappoint, in fact, I wanted more, hence the 4 stars. Thoroughly enjoyed the events that unravelled. The scene setting for suburban life in Melbourne was completely relatable. I laughed, I cried. Thank you to the author for sharing this intimate story of new found life as an immigrant.
August 7, 2022
An easy-to-read, important memoir about migration that bought me to tears in some places. The writing is engaging and warm, and made me laugh out loud at times. A book about being an outsider that needs to be read far and wide in the hope the world can become a more welcoming place.
August 7, 2020
Newtown Review of Books. 6Aug20.
April 8, 2023
Felt a bit rushed towards the end
March 10, 2025
I rate this about a 2 1/2 stars. Some parts of the book were okay, others ho-hum.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews