Summary
The novel begins with the speaker remembering his childhood in Calcutta. He is a young man from a middle-class family. He mentions his relationship with his uncle Tridib and how he was enthralled by his stories about historical events and distant places. He also says that his grandmother disapproved of Tridib's refusal to use his family's status to move ahead in his career.
He then leaps forward in time, describing a trip to London where he meets up with May Price, a family friend who knew Tridib well. She is a professional oboist with a British orchestra. He attends a performance of Dvorak's Cello Concerto she is part of, and they have dinner afterward. He discovers that she had a longtime epistolary exchange with Tridib. It is suggested that there were romantic feelings between them. The narrator moves back into the more distant past and describes Tridib's habit of spending time at tea stands and chatting with men in the neighborhood of Gole Park. He recounts a time when Tridib went away for an extended period and then returned. During an exchange with some of the men, the speaker realizes that Tridib has a certain degree of mystery surrounding his life.
The narrator then pivots and begins to describe his cousin Ila. He says that she is beautiful and wealthy. Specifically, he mentions that she treats travel and foreign places very flippantly, as she has been all over the world. He adds that she has an inclination to fabricate details about her life to make it appear more glamorous than it actually is. In one instance, she claims to be dating a boy at her school, but when the narrator points out that there are no pictures of them together in her yearbook—only one in which he has his arms around two other girls—she dismisses him and later tears out the page. Her mother is nicknamed "Queen Victoria" as she often puts on airs and treats their servants poorly. The narrator recounts a time when an alligator wandered into their garden, as well as another time when Ila was almost bitten by a snake.
Going further back, the narrator describes one of Ila's earlier visits to Calcutta. Here, the narrator highlights some of the complex class dynamics at work. His mother asks his grandmother if they can accompany Ila's family on a drive, but she warns her not to ask for too much. His grandmother also criticizes Tridib's father Shaheb for being too Europeanized in the way he dresses. During the drive, Tridib mentions that his brother Robi got in trouble at school for fighting another boy. While the family is initially taken aback, he adds that he was defending a disabled child from a bully. This story impresses the narrator's grandmother, as it shows, in her view, that he has moral resolve. She then tells the story of a radical student who was arrested in one of her classes at school, expressing admiration for the way he showed no fear when he was taken. She adds that she wishes she had known him beforehand, as she would have killed him, in an act of mercy, before they could jail him.
During Ila's visit, on a trip to Ila's family's house, the narrator rummages around a house with her, and eventually they find their way into an underground area. The narrator admires a large, expensive table that is tucked away. Ila mentions her interest in Nick Price, May's brother, and the narrator describes his various encounters with Nick over the years. Leaping forward in time, he describes one of his visits to London as a young man. He is eager to see the places that Tridib told him about. Nick and Ila treat him somewhat condescendingly, believing his outlook to be provincial and naive. The narrator feels deeply jealous of Nick, as he is acutely aware of Ila's interest in him.
The narrator goes further back in time and tells the story of Lionel Tresawsen, Nick and May's grandfather, who befriended the narrator's great-grandfather. He describes Tresawsen as an entrepreneur who slowly rose up in the ranks of various mines and warehouses, transitioning from being a worker to an overseer to an owner. The narrator says that later in life he became increasingly interested in homeopathy and alternative medicine. Moving forward again, the narrator recalls another, later, visit to London with Ila and Robi. He asks to see a street that Tridib described to him as being scarred by bombing from World War II. They do so and he discovers the street is very much unblemished; but he still believes that something of what Tridib said about it remains true. He meets Mrs. Price, Nick and May's mother, and describes a photograph from the war. In the picture are various people living in the Price household years prior including Tresawsen's son, Mayadebi, Tridib's mother, Francesca Halevy, Tresawsen's caretaker, and some of his housemates.
Finally, the narrator goes back to the time when Ila was in the basement with him. She tells him a story using her doll Magda. She says that Magda was being chased by some bullies at school who called her racial slurs and pushed her to the ground. But then, she says, Magda was saved by Nick Price. The narrator correctly assumed that Ila is Magda, but May informs him that she changed the ending of the story. Nick Price didn't like to be seen at school with her and actively avoided her, abandoning her to be tormented by these bullies.
Analysis
A major theme of the first part of the book is the nature of memory. The narrator makes it immediately clear that the book will not progress in a linear fashion but instead will jump back and forth through time, shifting its focus onto different characters and moments. This follows the shape of memory in that it loosely associates scenes and events without making their connection explicit. By describing different visits with Ila at different points in time, the narrator builds a composite image of her character as well as their relationship. The structure of the story itself indicates how the narrator is thinking about these events.
In the same way, the narrator uses place in this first section to highlight another main theme. When the speaker visits a house that Tridib described as having a hole in it, he cannot quite believe what he sees. What is reflected in this scene is the speaker’s perception that the past still lingers over the present. Even as places change, the events that transpired there cannot be wholly buried in the past. While the house may not be damaged from the bombings during the Blitz, the people changed by those events continue to be affected. The connections forged between Tresawsen and the narrator's relatives still remain and have a lasting effect on his life. While Ila and Nick are dismissive of the narrator's way of thinking, he is later shown to be correct in this perception, as many of the main events of the book hinge on Ila's relationship with Nick and Tridib's relationship with May. This theme is amplified later, in the book’s second half.
Another major aspect of the novel’s first section is class. The narrator is constantly taking note of the status of others, particularly in instances when it impacts their perception of him. Both Ila and Nick treat his wonder and excitement about different places as embarrassingly naive. This seems largely influenced by the fact that they have been able to travel often as a consequence of their wealth, and see no novelty or excitement in it. Similarly, he notes the way in which his mother is careful to ask about attending only certain events when Ila’s mother is around. This is because, as his grandmother says, it is important that they not be seen as a burden by the wealthier members of the family. These moments in which he flags the subtle distinctions that separate them are major, as they show how quickly he became aware of his place in the social order.
This issue of class also has a significant bearing on the narrator's outlook on the world. At the beginning of the novel, he emphasizes his fascination with foreign cities and towns. He describes the excitement that Tridib's stories would instill in him. Even as he begins to visit some of these places, like the neighborhoods in London he tours with Nick and Ila, he maintains this same sense of wonder. While this is partially the result of the narrator's curious nature, it is also a function of class. He says that Ila, and other members of her family, take travel for granted, as their wealth allows them to do it frequently and without much consideration. When discussing the city of Cairo, Ila mentions the bathroom at the airport. The narrator realizes that, for her, all these cities are just stops that have been reduced to their amenities, like bathrooms. She sees no significant distinguishing factors between them. In this way, he finds that luxury and comfort can warp people's perception of place and cause them to lose sight of the meaning of different places.
Finally, one of the themes seeded here is love. While none of the romantic narratives reach their climax in this section, they are all hinted at. Ila displays her crush on Nick, speaking to the narrator about him in glowing terms with great frequency. In turn, the narrator shows his intense interest in Ila and envy of Nick. Finally, May Price implies that she and Tridib had been very close at different points in time, when the narrator asks about their letters. Cumulatively, these moments suggest the strong pull that love has over the characters and foreshadows the way these relationships will profoundly shape the rest of their lives.
