The Book of Secrets by M G Vassanji - 1994 Giller Prize Winner

When I decided to write this blog, I thought it would be easy. After all, I always have opinions about the books I read. I soon found out it is not as easy I thought it would be. I have to tell a little about the book, and give reasons for my opinions. And it should be clear and concise and make sense. I found this especially difficult for The Book of Secrets which changes point of view, travels from location to location, and moves from 1988 to 1913 and back, with various stops at the years in between.

The book begins in 1988 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Retired schoolteacher Pius Fernandes meets a former student who asks him to take on the project of recording and researching the contents of an old diary found in the back room of his shop. It was written in 1913 by a young British Colonial Administrator, Alfred Corbin. Pius becomes immersed in the story he is transcribing. I did not find it easy to become immersed in the story. I kept putting it down, and until the second half, felt no urgency to pick it up again! 

As Pius begins the process of trying to understand the unwritten story between the lines in the diary, he embarks on a journey that takes him from the beginning of Indian settlements in British East Africa to a post-colonial, independent Tanzania. Please take a look at the plot outline on Wikipedia. It presents the basic story of the novel and I see no reason to try to duplicate it myself.

In the Epilogue our narrator, Pius Fernandez, in describing what he had discovered and recorded about the lives of the people he encountered through the diary, calls his research: “…what I have come to think of as a new book of secrets. A book as incomplete as the old one was, incomplete as any book must be. A book of half lives, partial truths, conjecture, interpretation, and perhaps even some mistakes. What better homage to the past than to acknowledge it thus, rescue it and recreate it, without presumption of judgement, and as honestly, though perhaps as incompletely as we know ourselves, as part of the life of which we all are a part?” 

I think this is a very good description of The Book of Secrets itself. Some of the stories are incomplete, we never know the truth about some events, we have to interpret what we know and wonder what really happened. I appreciate the ambiguity.  While I was not immediately enthralled with the book, by the end I had come to enjoy it. There are many things to like about the book, including the fact that Mr Vassanji is a good writer.

• It had beautiful writing and lovely descriptive phrases. He brilliantly captures how young Muslim men and women can relate in their protective society: "To joke with a girl is to become intimate - to embrace and cuddle with words when bodies and even looks cannot but remain restrained, hidden. Joking, you can be a child, a brother, a lover. As a lover you embarrass, cause her to shift her eyes, to lose control in a peal of laughter and then stop, blushing as if kissed."
• He included a great Glossary at the end which explained the many African and Indian words and phrases that were used in the book. Usually they were explained in context, but it helped to have this resource when things were not quite clear.
• I liked the comparison of the characters Rita and Ali to Hollywood actress Rita Hayworth and Ali Khan, playboy son of the Aga Khan - and how people in their community saw them in these roles. It also showed how the community's view affected their view of themselves. In some ways they had to live up to these roles.
•  Fernandez writes to a scholar in Toronto to try to get more information about Corbin. This scholar writes that he had given a talk titled " What is not observed does not exist." - a thought provoking title.  I couldn't help thinking how this applies to our world where everything is observed and commented upon via Twitter, blogs, Instagram etc.
• I learned more about the Indian community in East Africa and how those individuals thought of themselves and how they fit into Africa. He describes what it was like for them as colonialism ended and their world changed forever.
  
  
  I would have liked a map included in the book; to show East Africa in the colonial period and then after independence. I wanted to be able to see where Mount Kilimanjaro was located in relation to Dar and the relationship between the other cities and towns mentioned (without having to go and look it up elsewhere). 
  
  
  There was an emotional barrier between the narrator, Pius Fernandez, and the reader. But I decided that this was intentional because Pius was not in touch with his own feelings. He hid from himself in many ways, so he was hidden from the reader as well.
  
  
  Would I recommend The Book of Secrets to other readers? Mr Vassanji also won The Giller Prize in 2003 for his book The In-Between World of Vikram Lall. I read that book and remember liking it much more than this book.  I think I will wait until I re-read that book and make my recommendation then. 
  
  
  If you have read this book, please share your opinions. If you are going to read it now, please come back and post your comments.
  
  
  NEXT: 1995 - A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry