The Assassin's Song

THE ASSASSIN’S SONG
By M.G. Vassanji
Canongate. 313 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978-0-385-66351-9

My husband found this book for me in a book-end bargain shop; what a good discovery, deserving better attention than it seemed to have there.

Vassanji is an African of Indian heritage and his work returns repeatedly to themes of identity and alienation.

This novel is no different, being narrated by the son of a guru, the one to inherit the title Saheb, Lord and keeper of the shrine and, what is more, due to become the god-incarnate avatar on whom the devotees pin their hopes.

Karsan’s story weaves back and forth in time, recounting the tales of the founder of the sect, a mystic Muslim sufi, and interspersing them with details of his childhood and subsequent desertion of the shrine for a scholarship to 1960s Harvard, family life in Canada, and a return to Gujarat in 2002 in the aftermath of dreadful riots.

In this way national history from partition is lightly told, as more than a backdrop to the characters’ lives; the violence, radicalism and compromise of India’s story create, to a significant degree, the characters’ identities.

Karsan’s uncle leaves in the partition for Pakistan, his father refuses to call himself Hindu or Muslim, claiming that the universal spirit worshipped at the shrine is greater than all, though includes all. Karsan’s brother becomes a Muslim and is suspected of terrorism, finally seeking refuge in Karsan’s academic community.

As I read the book I was forced to think about ideas of calling and identity, and especially about conviction and knowledge. The narrator’s wrestling with ideas of duty, tolerance and truth seem reflective of our British culture today; they represent the world’s uneasy regard for the spiritual, but hatred of the certain. Again and again I was forced to hold the gospel up to the beliefs and practices of those in the book: what are the differences, where the similarities, how does the Bible’s message fit here?

So I commend this book; it is fascinating, briskly written and engaging. It should do you good.

Sarah Allen

© Evangelicals Now - June 2010
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Main Articles

• Cloud of ash to cloud of witnesses
• The Commentary
  Healing the nation?
• Breadwinner challenge
  Coping when the traditional roles have to be reversed
• A pastoral approach to bereavement and miscarriage
• God's gangster
  From street gang member to Christian role model
• What's in a name?
  Barnabas as a role model
• Evangelicalism with a broad brush
  The editor's personal overview of where we are now
• Technology boulevard?
  An article linked to the Lausanne Global Conversation
• Cohabitation?
  New insights into current trends
• Monthly media and arts column
  The Burj Khalifa
• The Music Exchange
  P.A.: everyone needs a Rhodri
• Letter from America
  Western evangelicalism and 'postmodernism'
• Mark Ashton, 1948-2010
  Obituary
• Earle Ellis, 1926-2010
  Obituary
• 60 years of ministry to children
  CEF in Britain

Other articles

• Cemetery Junction
• Robin Hood
• What wondrous love is this (CD)
• The Assassin's Song - Shelf life: Looking at secular books
• Gospel-centred life - Sixth of a series of extracts
• Peacemakers - Building stability in a complex world
• The unquenchable flame - Introducing the Reformation
• The intercession of Christ
• Dominion over wildlife?
• Love & War - Finding the marriage you've dreamed of
• The message of holiness
• The word of God?
• The breeze of the centuries - Introducing great theologicans
• Darwin's racists
• David Brainerd - A flame for God
• Rediscovering Roy - Roy Joslin
• A history of Christianity
• How to save a life - Becoming a Christian
• Filling up the afflictions of Christ