海角大神

Two weeks short of the 19th anniversary of the bombing of Air India Flight 182 鈥� which disintegrated off the Irish coast on June 23,1985 鈥� psychologist Ashwin Rao makes the reverse journey from Delhi to Vancouver. He鈥檚 on his way to conduct research for his next book, 鈥渁 study in comparative grief鈥� in which he hopes to explore 鈥渉ow 鈥� the [surviving] families coped up? How have their lives progressed?鈥� What he hasn鈥檛 revealed to his colleagues nor his interviewees is that of the 329 crash victims, he intimately knew three: his sister and her two young children.

Almost two decades after the tragedy, Rao concedes, 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 only the need for scholarship that was motivating me. It wasn鈥檛 only the desire to give the victims a voice.鈥� It was, as much as anything, my desire to understand what had happened to me. I had not recovered.鈥� I had, in some way, stopped my life.鈥�

Thus begins The Ever After of Ashwin Rao, the 2014 Giller-shortlisted second novel from Canadian-born (now a resident of Arkansas) Padma Viswanathan; her debut, "The Toss of a Lemon" (2008), was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize Best Fiction Book Award Canada and Caribbean.

Her protagonist鈥檚 quest to understand the bombing鈥檚 aftermath 鈥� Canada鈥檚 鈥渓argest mass murder鈥� according to the Canada Broadcasting Corporation 鈥� mirrors Viswanathan鈥檚 own: Although the majority of the victims were Canadian citizens, 鈥溾�檛his tragedy was not owned 鈥� by Canadians at large,鈥欌�� Ashwin comments. 鈥溾�橧t wasn鈥檛 owned by the government either,鈥欌�� his (former) brother-in-law adds. That 18 years passed before two suspects were finally brought to trial, and another two years passed before there was a not-guilty verdict, provided justification for those who believed that Canadian lives of Indian descent were not considered equal to that of other, paler Canadians.

In order to somehow reclaim his life 鈥� so much of it is now spent alone, without family, without a partner, without the possibility of a next generation 鈥� Ashwin attempts to find some comfort in answers. His research requires extensive travel, but he finds himself repeatedly drawn to the Sethuratnam family in Lohikarma, British Columbia, whom he meets in June 2004; they are his seventh family in the fourth city of his research, but they will become much more than mere subjects over the months that follow.

Although the immediate Sethuratnam family remains intact, Seth鈥檚 close friend and distant relative, Venkataraman, lost his wife and son; since the bombing, the Sethuratnams have been Venkat鈥檚 main support. Venkat, like Ashwin, has never recovered. Working with him proves challenging at best, and Ashwin instead grows closer to Seth, who escapes into his fervent devotion to a faraway guru to make sense of the unknowable, and to the oldest daughter Brinda who initially reminds Ashwin of who his lost niece might have become, who entreats him for advice about her troubled marriage.

The town鈥檚 name, an homage to the founder鈥檚 mispronunciation of the Finnish word for 鈥榙ragon,鈥� couldn鈥檛 be more prescient: inaccurate phonetics aside, try 鈥榣ow-high-karma.鈥� This is where Ashwin experiences a pivotal epiphany: that he is 鈥渁 man thrice-struck by lightning鈥� but he is, 鈥渕ore accurately, Thrice-Missed.鈥� Three times, he brushed up closely against near-fatal conflagrations: the anti-Muslim pograms after Indira Ghandhi鈥檚 assassination in 1982; the Air India bombing in 1985; the Coach S-6 Ghodra train burning of Hindu pilgrims in 2002 and the ensuing riots. Yet here he returns to Lo-hi-karma to be confronted with a challenge: 鈥�You must change your life鈥� 鈥� and so marks Ashwin鈥檚 own journey towards healing, redemption, and even the possible renewal of neglected love.

Family. Death. Race. Identity. Betrayal. Justice (and lack thereof). Faith. God. All the Really Big Topics are included, spanning both sides of the globe. Between the pages are the types of literary references that certain readers will acknowledge with self-satisfaction, from the chummy interruptions of 鈥淒ear Reader鈥�; to arguing with Bharati Mukherjee and husband/co-author Clark Blaise鈥檚 post-bombing book, 鈥淭he Sorrow and the Terror鈥�; to off-handedly quoting from the poem, 鈥淭he Road Not Taken,鈥� without mention of title or author.

Beyond a well-read community, however, Viswanathan鈥檚 narrative suffers from over-layered sprawl as it combines family saga, didactic history, socio-political analysis, terrorism, spiritual pilgrimage, religious expos茅, and even more. The novel meanders in too many directions, unable to sustain clear navigation. While Viswanathan鈥檚 ambition is to be lauded and her prose admired 鈥� she will make you think deeply 鈥� be warned: impatient readers may not last through to the unanticipated, bittersweet final pages to fully appreciate her probing explorations.

Terry Hong writes 听, a book blog for the .