I work with people who want something different than they have: more money, better business, a life. In some cases, being unhappy in their current circumstances, they are looking to re-invent themselves. In M.G. Vassanji’s book, Nostalgia, the characters have a chance to do that not through hard work and dedication, but through money. If you have enough money, you can buy a new personality and a new life in the future that Vassanji has created.
I see this bringing up, at least, two moral questions: is it right that the rich can choose a different life and the poor are stuck with their lot; and what happens to the young/not re-invented who are not able to get jobs because the others don’t die or retire?
These are just two questions that are raised in this fascinating book about a possible near future where part of the world is barricaded behind a wall. Living in these times, the book does seem to be an extrapolation of a possible future give our current trajectory: nuclear accidents, a great income divide, separations of us vs them, engineered immortality.
These thoughts are woven through the novel that follows a doctor who patches re-invented clients whose past leaks through into their current life.
A very special childhood, very dear to me, and poignant, but it is fake–my fiction. There must be components of real memory in this narrative, themes that were preserved from my previous life, others that were invented exclusively for this one. My previous data of course was destroyed. There’s a thriving industry promising to connect people to their real origins. People end up unhappy with their current lives, and some even desire to go back to what they are told they were. But I loved the happy childhood of my memory. Recalling it was like reading a portion of some classic novel. From that idyllic foundation of my current GN life I have looked ahead, and achieved my successes in my own quiet way. I have served society.
Page 55, Nostalgia, M.G. Vassanji
This book has so many layers that a close reading or at least a book club discussion should be a requirement.