When She Was Queen

When She Was Queen is a book that examines the hauntingly familiar tales of Indian diaspora across three continents. Vassanji shines a slender beacon into the lives of people who’ve left the subcontinent and settled elsewhere, in places like Africa, the US and Canada. Eager to start a new life, but fettered by colonial baggage in some cases and always mindful of projecting their mores onto alien shores, these tales provide that most precious of insights: the inner workings of people simply trying to make their lives they want them to be. There is the story of the man who gambled his wife away, the tale of the new bride whose wedding night’s pleasure is sullied by a voyeur, the tale of a young wife forced to wear the burqa because of an edict issued 9000 miles away. The stories are good, and there is even that rarest of creatures thrown into the mix: a Pakistani atheist.

Vassanji’s prose is lucid, the point is made and the prose moves on, seeking a fresh emotive target. This is a book that might resonate with all first-generation immigrants, whether from Asia or not. All that sentimental stuff aside, the stories within are really just stories of the human condition, nothing more, nothing less. Bereaved wives, separated lovers, forbidden trysts, societal bigotry and nostalgia are some of the topics you’ll find in these tales. Pick this one up for a dozen short stories that end almost too quickly.

ISBN: 0-385-66176-2