Rohinton Mistry
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Chronology i 1 Rohinton Mistry Mistrey_00_prelims1 9/6/04, 4:05 pm ii Chronology CCONTEMPORARY WWORLD WWRITERS series editor john thieme already published in the series Peter Carey bruce woodcock Kazuo Ishiguro barry lewis Hanif Kureishi bart moore-gilbert Timothy Mo elaine yee lin ho Toni Morrison jill matus Alice Munro coral ann howells Les Murray steven matthews Caryl Phillips bénédicte ledent Ngugi wa Thiong’o patrick williams Derek Walcott john thieme forthcoming Anita Desai shirley chew Hanif Kureishi bart moore-gilbert Les Murray steven matthews R. K. Narayan john thieme Caryl Phillips benedicte ledent Wole Soyinka abdulrazak gurnah CWW Mistrey_00_prelims2 9/6/04, 4:05 pm Chronology iii Rohinton Mistry PETER MOREY Manchester University Press Manchester and New York distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave Mistrey_00_prelims3 9/6/04, 4:05 pm iv Chronology Copyright © Peter Morey 2004 The right of Peter Morey to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester m13 9nr, uk and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, usa www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, usa Distributed exclusively in Canada by ubc Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall, Vancouver, bc, Canada v6t 1z2 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for Cu isbn 0 7190 6714 6 hardback ean 978 0 7190 6714 3 isbn 0 7190 6715 4 paperback ean 978 0 7190 6715 0 First published 2004 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 10 987654321 Typeset in Aldus by Koinonia, Manchester Printed in Great Britain by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow reaso Mistrey_00_prelims4 9/6/04, 4:05 pm Chronology v 1 For Ami with love reasoning in public Mistrey_00_prelims5 9/6/04, 4:05 pm vi Chronology Mistrey_00_prelims6 9/6/04, 4:05 pm Acknowledgements vii 1 Contents acknowledgements viii series editor’s foreword x list of abbreviations xi chronology xii 1 Contexts and intertexts 1 2 ‘Throbbing between two lives’: the structures of migration in Tales from Firozsha Baag 27 3 Mistry’s Hollow Men: language, lies and the crisis of representation in Such a Long Journey 69 4 Thread and circuses: performing in the spaces of city and nation in A Fine Balance 94 5 Running repairs: corruption, community and duty in Family Matters 125 6 Critical overview 152 7 Conclusion — Rohinton Mistry: international man of stories 171 notes 178 select bibliography 197 index 205 Mistrey_00_prelims7 9/6/04, 4:05 pm viii Acknowledgements Acknowledgements So many people have helped this study on its way that it seems invidious to single out individuals. However, certain colleagues and friends old and new have had a direct impact on what follows. They include Ken Swindell, who first introduced me to the work of Rohinton Mistry, and Roger Bromley, Shirley Chew and Elleke Boehmer who, quite apart from their perennial support, gave their various seals of approval to the project in its early stages. In London, Roberta Garrett and Kate Hodgkin, colleagues from the University of East London, offered practical help by locating some early reviews of Family Matters while I was out of the country. Likewise, Angela Atkins furnished material which gave me a head start on that particular novel. Thanks are also owed to William Radice and Narguess Farzad from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London: the former for allowing me to refine some of the ideas relating to Such a Long Journey in a guest teaching slot on his South Asian Literature course; and the latter for her patient explication of the Iranian literary heritage and its relation to Zoroastrianism (needless to say, any errors of fact or interpretation in the study are entirely my own). I also wish to single out Stacey Gibson, Associate Editor of the University of Toronto Magazine, who was unstintingly helpful on several occasions, particularly in providing a copy of the magazine’s interview with Mistry. Unfortunately for her, this courtesy, promptness and efficiency ensured that I returned to her with quite unrelated queries subsequently, which she nevertheless fielded with patience and cheerfulness. (Thanks also to Prem Poddar for giving me this lead in the first place.) I acknowledge with gratitude the assistance of Richard Gasee at McClelland and Stewart for providing additional information to help make the volume complete. Likewise, thanks go Mistrey_00_prelims8 9/6/04, 4:05 pm Acknowledgements ix to Rohinton Mistry himself for providing details of his education. I wish also to take this opportunity to thank John Thieme, whose help has been invaluable as the project has come together. He has never been too busy to answer enquiries about any number of issues pertaining both to the Contemporary World Writers Series or Mistry more generally. Equally supportive and forthcoming were Matthew Frost and the team at Manchester University Press, without whom, of course … At an institutional level, I would like to thank the School of Cultural and Innovation Studies, University of East London, for the sabbatical period which allowed the book to gain momentum, and the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) for the generous funding which enabled completion. Part of the chapter on Family Matters has previously appeared in the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 38:2 (2003). Finally, I would like to thank Amina Yaqin for her patience, support and steaming cups of tea. Mistrey_00_prelims9 9/6/04, 4:05 pm xChronology Series editor’s foreword Contemporary World Writers is an innovative series of authorita- tive introductions to a range of culturally diverse contemporary writers from outside Britain and the United States or from ‘minority’ backgrounds within Britain or the United States. In addition to providing comprehensive general introductions, books in the series also argue stimulating original theses, often but not always related to contemporary debates in post-colonial studies. The series locates individual writers within their specific cul- tural contexts, while recognising that such contexts are themselves invariably a complex mixture of hybridised influences. It aims to counter tendencies to appropriate the writers discussed into the canon of English or American literature or to regard them as ‘other’. Each volume includes a chronology of the writer’s life, an introductory section on formative contexts and intertexts, discussion of all the writer’s major works, a bibliography of primary and sec- ondary works and an index. Issues of racial, national and cultural identity are explored, as are gender and sexuality. Books in the series also examine writers’ use of genre, particularly ways in which Western genres are adapted or subverted and ‘traditional’ local forms are reworked in a contemporary context. Contemporary World Writers aims to bring together the theoretical impulse which currently dominates post-colonial studies and closely argued readings of particular authors’ works, and by so doing to avoid the danger of appropriating the specifics of particular texts into the hegemony of totalising theories. Mistrey_00_prelims10 9/6/04, 4:05 pm Chronology xi 1 List of abbreviations AFB A Fine Balance FM Family Matters SLJ Such a Long Journey TFB Tales from Firozsha Baag I have used the editions published in the United Kingdom by Faber and Faber. All page numbers refer to these editions. Mistrey_00_prelims11 9/6/04, 4:05 pm xii Preface 1 Chronology 1952 Rohinton Mistry born in Bombay on 3 July, the second of four children. 1955–58 Enrolled at Villa Theresa Primary School, Bombay. 1958–69 Attends St Xavier’s High School, Bombay, a Jesuit foundation with an anglicised curriculum. 1969–73 Studies at the University of Bombay for a BSc in Mathematics and Economics. 1970–71 Briefly considers a career as a folk singer, and is described as ‘Bombay’s Bob Dylan’. 1972 Meets Freny Elavia at music school. 1975 Emigrates to Canada and settles in Toronto. Finds job as a clerk (later customer service supervisor) in the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Toronto. Marries Freny. 1979–83 Studies part-time at Woodsworth College, University of Toronto, for a BA in English and Philosophy. 1983 Enters and wins the first Hart House Literary Contest with his story ‘One Sunday’. 1984 Wins second Hart House Literary Contest with ‘Auspicious Occasion’. The short stories that will later comprise Tales from Firozsha Baag begin to be anthologised in Canadian journals and publications. 1985 Awarded a Canada Council Grant enabling him to leave his bank job and become a full-time writer. Wins Canadian Fiction Magazine’s annual Contributor’s Prize. Mistrey_00_prelims12 9/6/04, 4:05 pm Chronology xiii 1987 Tales from Firozsha Baag published by Penguin Books, Canada, Faber and Faber in the UK, and by Houghton Mifflin in the USA where it is re-titled Swimming Lessons and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag. 1991 Such a Long Journey published. Novel wins Governor General’s Award for Fiction, Commonwealth Writers Prize, W.H. Smith Prize. Also shortlisted for the Booker Prize. 1995 A Fine Balance published. Novel wins Governor General’s Award, Giller Prize, Royal Society for Literature’s Winifred Holtby Prize, Los Angeles Times Award for Fiction. Again shortlisted for the Booker Prize. 1999 Such a Long Journey made into a film by Sturla Gunnarson, starring Om Puri and Roshan Seth. The film wins three Genie Awards. 2001 A Fine Balance chosen to feature as a Book of the Month on the Oprah Winfrey Show. The programme is transmitted early in 2002 with Rohinton Mistry as a studio guest.