This review is part of the Literature World Tour.
When I was a child, what I read was dictated by reading material my parents purchased for their own entertainment. I tended to eschew children's books and go straight for the novels that looked 'grown up'. The City of Joy was one of these.
This month the LWT is visiting India, and The City of Joy was instrumental in developing an understanding of poverty and realisation that I really had it very good.
Nothing really prepares you for a visit to India. Like many fast-developing countries, there are neighbourhoods of great wealth and the most hideous and heart-wrenchingly poor slums. Most people are now familiar with the real-life stories of the kids in Slumdog Millionaire (I mean to read Q&A at some point), but you don't really get a picture of slum life in India that is quite as complete as The City of Joy.
(I have not read much contemporary Indian fiction, and I am happy to be corrected on my last point.)
In the novel, the slum Anand Nagar is seen through the eyes of a priest, doctor and rickshaw driver. Author Dominique Lapierre skilfully takes us through the slum, telling the stories of its inhabitants - their small triumphs and huge tragedies, and the incredible injustices of a system that is struggling to keep up with the country's development. There are many stories within the novel that tug at the heartstrings, but the most memorable by far (and not in a good way) is the disfigurement of the young prostitute. The film starring Patrick Swayze may have dramatised this horrible act, but I didn't need it to imagine it and feel utterly horrifed — and I was only in primary school when I first read the novel!
In the quarter-century since The City of Joy was written, many things have changed in India for the better. The country's increasing economic and political role on the world stage has called attention to the lives in India that desperately need to be improved. The Lapierres set up a foundation — partly funded by royalties from book sales — to provide aid to the needy in Calcutta (where the book was set) and rural Bengal. The City of Joy is a story of India's recent past, and I hope that it serves as a reminder and inspiration to those who aspire to help the poor around the world.
Next in India: Meghan Burton's review of The Blue Notebook
Next stop on the Literature World Tour: Southeast Asia!
