Another long pause between books. Not because Staying On was long and boring. On the contrary on both counts: it's quite short and a constant joy to read. However, it was difficult to just sit down and read over the holidays. Limitless potential for distraction.
Staying On is a sequel of sorts to Scott's famous Raj Quartet, which I have not read before, but have placed on my future reading list. The main characters, retired Colonel 'Tusker' Smalley and his wife Lucy, are apparently minor figures in two of the Raj novels, while other characters from the earlier works are mentioned.
The book opens with Tusker's death on April 24, 1972--it's in the first sentence of the book, so it hardly counts as a spoiler. After explaining in some detail what each of the main characters was doing at the precise moment of the death, the book then travels back in time a number of months so that we see how they were led to that moment.
Tusker and Lucy stayed in India after it became an independent nation--transitioning from the military to a civilian career in business. They stayed as their countrymen either returned to Britain or died, eventually becoming the only remaining English couple in their home city of Pankot. As they've gotten older, Tusker has grown more surly and less communicative, while Lucy has become less inclined to put her husband on a pedestal. She's also grown more independent, though their fixed income gives her precious little chance to exercise any sort of independence.
A third main character is Frankie Bhoolabhoy, the manager of the hotel the Smalleys home is a part of. They live in what is called "the Lodge", a former bungalow that had been annexed to the neighboring Smith Hotel. Bhoolabhoy is good-natured and enjoys the company of the Smalleys. As a Christian in India, he feels a kinship towards them that he does not towards other Indians. To his chagrin, he is also a go-between between his ambitious wife, who owns the hotel and is trying to get the Smalleys to leave so she can redevelop the Lodge, and the Smalleys, who are set in their ways and disinclined to leave.
As I read the novel, I first thought it was yet another novel about the problematic nature of colonialism and empire: six of the previous Booker Prize winners have been about the dangers of empire. However, as I finished, it struck me that the book is not about portraying old age as a symbol for fallen empire, but fallen empire as a symbol of old age. Tusker, Lucy and Bhoolabhoy all have reached ages where the die is cast and little else can be done. In 1947, Tusker was too old to return to England and start from the bottom, and so had to settle for a less than glorious second career in the subcontinent. Lucy was so used to accepting whatever was decided for her, that when she realized she could rebel from that, there was no longer anything to be gained from rebelling. And Bhoolabhoy, several years younger than the Smalleys, realizes that he has become utterly dependent on his wife's money, and his livelihood depends on total obedience to her wishes, however unpleasant they might be to him personally.
Male menopause is a horrible thing: it blighted Tusker Smalley's life, and Bhoolabhoy's future is far from bright. They know they are easily replaced, and that adaptation is, for them, impossible. All that is left is habits.
The novel has some truly spectacular dialogue. I see that it has been adapted in the past as a television movie, and there individual speeches that I could imagine any actor or actress would love to declaim.
Perhaps the greatest indicator that this book is great writing is the fact that I actually enjoyed reading a novel about poverty among the elderly--few subjects can be more dire than that.
Next up: The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
