~ Atlas of Unknowns, by Tania James ~
Tania James’ first novel has a vivid and powerful beginning: two sisters, Linno and Anju, in a small town in Kerala, whose father buys them fireworks for a celebration only to see Linno’s hand burst into flames in a firework accident. Linno loses her right hand, the hand that used to constantly sketch the people and places around her. Anju continues life unscathed as the star student of the school, and with a bit of cheating, manages a scholarship to a school in New York.
As a novel about Syrian Christians from Kerala, Atlas of Unknowns will undoubtedly be compared to Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, but this comparison does a disservice to both novels. There are few similarities beyond the initial location, and about half of Atlas of Unknowns is set in the United States. Roy’s novel was complex, dark and layered, while James writes about a realistic, modern Kerala where people have straightforward ambitions such as money and US visas.
James is a perceptive and original author. The travails of culture confusion when Indians travel to the US have been extensively novelized, but James finds original and very realistic thoughts to put into her characters’ minds. For example, Anju arrives in New York:
[Anju’s taxi driver] is a young black-American. Or is it black-African? African-black? She experiments with several more hyphenates, all in her head, though none seems correct and her driver seems exactly the wrong person to ask. [p44]
The culture conflicts do not venture into cliches or slapstick, and the characters are not condescended to. Even if Anju is unfamiliar with the showerheads in the New York bathroom, she is not stupid, and learns fast. I did wonder, however, how someone whose English was so distinctively Malayali could become top of the class in a fancy New York school, where presumably she was writing English essays and term papers along with solving math problems and remembering history dates. Here’s Anju speaking at the end of the book:
“There is one woman. I was calling her like a big sister or auntie, because she was family to me almost. She was helping me very much.” [p302]
Were Anju’s essays like her spoken English?
Both Kerala and New York are described in terms that are very appropriate for the characters, with fresh language and without hackneyed formulas. The plot too avoids easy stereotypes. Anju does not instantly find freedom in her move to New York, and Linno is not married off by her parents at 16 or abused by a drunken husband. This is a novel about two fascinating characters who have complex thoughts, opinions and dreams.
The book is often gently funny:
[Miss Schimpf is] dressed in an out-of-fashion salwar, too short for the times, with a shawl bound around her neck like a noose. Her green glass bangles clink when she presses her hands together in a Namaste. “What a lovely home,” she says to Ammachi, bowing low like a geisha girl. After a moment’s hesitation, Ammachi tries to bow even lower. [p26]
“No, it is the fashion with children here, taking time off. As they say, to ‘find’ themselves.” Using her fingers, Mrs Solanki makes peace signs around the word ‘find’. With nothing else to break the silence, Anju replies “Okay, yes.” And with her left hand, adds a peace sign of her own. [p48]
Anju and Linno form the core of the book. Each is a strong, distinct character, and their complex sibling relationship is well detailed. A less well-drawn character is Bird, a middle-aged woman who lives in New York and has old connections to Anju’s family. In fact, the story of Bird often seems like a distraction to the main story, and I found myself waiting for the novel to get back to Anju and Linno. It is tempting to conclude that as a young author, James finds it easier to get into the heads of characters closer to her own age. Of the minor characters, the Solankis are the best delineated, and their film-maker son Rohit is always entertaining in his complete self-absorption.
The book hits a slump around the midpoint, when Anju moves to the seedier side of New York and Linno develops her artistic talents. There are hints dropped about the mystery surrounding Bird. The apparent love story at the center of the book is somewhat unconvincing, as it is not at all obvious to the reader what draws the two characters together. Some of the threads that seem loaded with portent earlier in the book rather fizzle out towards the end. Perhaps this is by design: as in real life, not all secrets emerge and not all ends are neatly tied up.
Minor criticisms aside, this is a pleasantly clever book, worth reading.
Atlas of Unknowns, by Tania James. Random House, 2009
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