China Room Discussion Points

[Rikeesh Sharma]

Dear All,

We met online as decided earlier to discuss Sunjeev Sahota's latest book, China Room, a Booker long listed book, on Saturday, 25 Sep 21. The book had been proposed by Harsaran and she kicked off the proceedings to analyse the book by the Book Club members.

Harsaran brought out the plot and sundry details of the book during her review while also introducing the main protagonists. (In my opinion, this could be the SOP for future wherein book, plot and protagonists are spoken about only by the proposer and not the subsequent critics to save time.) She felt that the two stories told by Sahota  were generations apart and that not enough time was devoted to the love story of Mehar and Suraj. The book was coloured with prejudice and discrimination and yet, was not as gut wrenching as The Year of the Runaways. She also felt that the characterisation of Mai and Jeet was not strong enough and that it was a half baked storyline. She was disappointed with the read.

Brishti, by her own confession, went in blind for her first Sahota read and found the book had a weird set up, with a sadistic Mother-in-Law, who was on a power trip. But she relished the imagination (as exhibited in the romantic hook ups) and the unusual setting. She found the mystery element interesting, but unsettling with lots of cliches in a surreal landscape. Her second round comments about the book however, were truer to heart when she acknowledged the incest which could happen in a joint family and how it was, more often than not, hushed up to maintain the family izzat. (Bravo for calling a spade a spade, with due encouragement and support from Meenakshi.)

Mohan thereafter, took centre stage to unravel the mystery behind Booker Prize book nominations and apprised everyone how publishers got together to make the list (and bolster sales at the same time). It was therefore not surprising to know that sometimes the best books actually missed the bus. He found the book sketchy and commented upon the inspiring effect the great grandmother photograph had on Sahota - so much so that he wrote a book on it. He also felt that the year chosen (1929) was to give a time frame to the story and hence, coincided with the Indian Freedom Movement (and also gave a convenient avenue for bumping off Suraj) and consequently, spoke about child marriage, casteism and the fact that it was ok for a wife not to know her husband. He brought out the symbolism of whitewash - to clean the house and also to clean out human memory, and walked away with the impression that sketchy details sketch a sketchy book.

Preeti read the book with great anticipation as she is rooted in Punjab and knows its culture inside out. And found it hard to swallow the incredulous plot unravelling. She found the patriarchy and domineering values of the household hard to swallow. But she loosened up and continued reading the book to enjoy its prose in split narrative and economical prose.

Rikeesh, on the other hand, found a variance in the staccato prose of the beginning and almost lyrical prose towards the end of the book, which was more like the Sahota we know and read. He also opined that the book spoke about alienation, system disenchantment, patriarchy, good prose, platitudes, forbidden love and felt that women in the book had no choice, no voice and no power. He also commented that the impact of English phrases usage lost out against vernacular and rustic comments, which were conspicuous by their absence. He found the novel to be a societal, physiological, emotional and complicated novel which ended on an optimistic note through the emergence of the rainbow. He also reflected on the karmic nature of life cycle as seen through the two parallel love stories of the two generations.

Sonya too had not read Sahota earlier, and found the book undeserving of being included in the Booker Long List. She commented on the themes of incarnation and freedom running in the book and found Mai, patriarchal and who carried the story forward as a strong mother figure. She felt that the two stories had been yoked together forcibly and that the themes of drugs and alienation were par for course. Patriarchal mindset still continues and felt that the drug addict finding salvation brought about a forced ending to the book and everything got wrapped up too fast in the end.

In complete contrast, Meenakshi exhilarated in the power of storytelling ensconced and showcased by China Room as she was of the opinion that it was more important than the overall intellectual capacity of the book in toto. And as per her, Sahota delivers a hundred percent on the story telling front. She adored the metaphors used in the book, particularly the symbolism of using the prison house to portray oppression. She gave examples of how normal it was in the days of yore to not know who one was marrying and in the process, motivated Brishti to come out with her second thoughts. For her, the parallel stories made sense with a separate British and Punjabi look at prejudice. She cited excerpts of Sahota's interview at the JLF to bolster her case against prejudice and paranoia. She found the genesis of the book from a photograph to be an awesome event and felt that the optimistic end of the story reinforced the feeling that the way forward is not as bad as what had transpired. She felt that women tend to pressurise other women to follow beaten paths and that needs to be addressed.

Sudarshan opined that the book was a good example of diaspora literature and talked about the desire for belonging, love, acceptance and ambition. She particularly liked the role of the grandson and echoed Mohan in seeing 1929 as a year of reference. She too felt that suffering can be countered and felt that Mehar was lucky not to have a Father-in-Law in addition to Mai to handle. She commented on the eroticism in Mehar and Suraj's relationship and loved the lyrical description in prose of the tea spout incident.

We also had Sarita, Neena and Rubina with us in the meeting and we decided on Normal People as the next Book Club read.We would be meeting at 6 pm on Saturday, 30 Oct 21 to take the discussions forward. 

Thanks for being there and making your presence felt, even as we missed the members not present. Take care, be safe and enjoy your read of the month like normal people. Cheers!

Best regards,
Rikeesh Sharma

Mobile: +919910097651/+919711699189

[Mohan Gulrajani]

Dear Capt. Rikeesh,

Highly appreciate your comprehensive summary of views expressed by the reviewers on Sunjeev Sahotra's third book 'China Room'.

Thank you.

Best regards, 

Dr. Mohan Gulrajani 

President, DLF City Senior Citizen Council

601 B, Hamilton Court, DLF Phase - 4

Gurugram - Haryana - 122009
Ph. 9818253979, 0124-437676

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