The Gunny Sack

Read this many years ago and reread it to see if it was as good as I remembered. It's definitely still one of my favorite books set in East Africa. This is the story of an extended Asian family who live in Tanzania. The story covers several generations, but mainly through the eyes of the narrator, which helps keep it coherent. Lively characters and a humorous touch kept me wondering what would happen next. There is also sadness and disappointment in the story, but it is always kept light and somewhat distant. It really does read like listening to family tales from an elder relative. Wonderfully rich and gentle.

Good, but one of those books which requires a second or third reading in order to understand its complicated mix of characters, relationships and events. I'm not sure that Vassanji's prose is quite good enough to make me want to devote all that additional time to this book, but it's still worth the read, if only for the fictionalised introduction it gives to the history of Indian settlers in eastern Africa.