The In-Between World of Vikram Lall

Divided in four parts - "The Year of Our Loves and Friendships", "The Year of Her Passion", "The Years of Betrayal", and "Homecoming- The In-Between World of Vikram Lall is a bold attempt at telling the epic of Asian people in Africa. It is a novel concerning themes of love, passion, commitment and more importantly, identity. The narrator, Vikram Lall, is a Kenyan born Indian who grows up in an era where rebellion, confusion, and disruption were all prevalent. In this journal, you will learn about the characters, themes, and settings in the first half of this book.

Part One: The Year of Our Loves and Friendships

In the first section we are introduced to the Lall family, who are residents of Kenya. At once the reader is introduced to the idea of cross-racial and cross-cultural love. Vikram and his younger sister Deepa have befriended the son of their gardener, Njoroge. It is immediately apparent that Deepa and Njoroge have romantic feelings for one another. What makes this unusual is the fact that Njoroge is black. B y doing this it is apparent that Vassanji is illustrating that even in a time where inter-racial love was not socially acceptable, it still existed. He further emphasized this through the portrayal of Vic's romantic relationship with Annie, a British girl whose brother was friends with Vikram. This alludes to the "in-between" portion of the title, for intertwining of several different races can be viewed as "in-between". The fact Vassanji consistently refers to a time where racism was predominant it forces the reader to think back to the time where East Africa was very "confused". Both of my parents are from East Africa and lived in here the precise time that Vassanji is referring to. They witnessed first hand the lack of identity that existed at that time. Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya were ruled by the British, run by the Indians and populated by the Africans. Because everyone played a different role they all felt like visitors on a foreign land. The Africans, whose land it was initially, were very angered by these circumstances and tribes like the Mau Mau went to great lengths to get back their land. Bloodshed was not an uncommon tactic for they resorted to it quite often. In fact, in the novel, Annie and Billy's family are murdered by the Mau Mau for they were of British decent. Annie's Death marked the moment where Vikram lost his love. He had given his heart to Annie and when she died she took his heart with her. This made me question the characters believability because going to Tanzania, I can say that even presently races don not co-mingle. It is rare to see blacks hanging out with Indians or whites, for segregation is still common. On the other hand, Vassanji did an impressive job of developing these relationship and used outside figures, such as Vic's mom, to depict the un-accepting aspect of their friendships. These children were clearly ignoring racial barriers that were in place in that time but their bonds and love for one another was real and truly genuine for the relationships which are formed in the beginning of the novel are intact throughout the entire of the story.

Part Two: The Year of her Passion

Vic tells his story in small snippets of recollection. For example, his encounter with Seema at the library creates some curiosity for what had occurred in East Africa that opened him to migrate to Canada. It is obvious that Vikram has committed some sort of crime which forced him to flee, but were not told much more beyong that. This technique at times can be frustrating but more often than not just urges the reader to read further in hope to gain some more insight on the past and there is therefore successful. After briefly touching upon the present, Vic then proceeds with telling the story of his past. After returning to Kenya from Dar-es-salaam, Njo and Deepa's love is indeed rekindled. Unfortunately, this entire section is basically a battle between love and politics, and politics undoubtedly prevails. The first occasion where politics appears is when Njo and Vic meet for the first time since his return. Vic clearly has no interest for politics, but not because he is ignorant, which one may quickly assume, but I think it is more because he is confused. Njo is loyal to Jumo (black leader) because he, like Jum, is a native of Africa. Annie and Billy are loyal to the queen because they are British. Vic is neither and so he has no idea what to believe. This also is an allusion to the "In-Between". When Vic musters up the courage to say, "They [Mau Mau] are evil, those who kill children" Njo dismisses it immediately by saying "And what about those who kill our grandfathers? Innocent people die in war, this is the reality." (Page 167) The author does a great job at depicting the conflicting viewpoints.