London. A young student falls in love with her University tutor. Married Dr Ben Martin, advocator of women\u2019s rights and author of titles such as \u2018Daughters of Africa\u2019 and \u2018Gender and Law Reform in Africa\u2019, is a respected member of the academic Faculty. Rita Kalungal, Nineteen, is a first year Anthropology student, and his tutee.<\/p>\n
Their affair, they convince themselves, is inevitable. But when an unexpected turn of events brings their relationship to a final, and abrupt, end, it is Rita who is left alone to deal with the consequences of both their actions.<\/p>\n
Whilst this initial premise of the novel may sound predictably familiar, Sheena Kalayil\u2019s second novel, The Inheritance<\/em>, is anything but. Kalayil\u2019s elegant narrative deftly leads its readers away from the well-trodden path of the student-teacher affair clich\u00e9, belying its opening chapters, to explore complex issues on themes of family, migration and identity. It is a love story at heart, but Kalayil\u2019s nuanced and layered narrative elevates the ordinary subject matter and moves beyond it.<\/p>\n Split into a five-part structure, the novel\u2019s poetic opening paragraph sets the stage for the ensuing drama.\u00a0 Rita and Ben, almost twenty years her senior, are children of migrants. Ben\u2019s family, we\u2019re told, have wandered from England, to India, to Rhodesia, and finally Harare, whilst Rita\u2019s family from Kerala to London. Beyond the physical attraction, the lovers are drawn together by a shared sense of longing to belong somewhere. Each seeks their own kind of solace in the other\u2019s arms.<\/p>\n Their growing attraction to each other is filtered through Rita\u2019s eyes. Her almost constant stream of consciousness, especially in the early stages of the affair, the self-doubt and hesitant second guessing, the questioning of every word said and trivial action enacted by \u2018Ben Martin\u2019, capture the insecurities of a young woman: \u2018you choose the music,\u2019 he suggests, and she \u2018search[es] the radio stations, unsure what her selection would reveal about herself.\u2019<\/p>\n The passionate and short-lived affair leaves Rita suspended. Unable to move forward, not quite stuck in the past \u2013 she hovers in an in between state, trying to come to terms with what they did, and the ramifications were their families to discover the truth of their relationship. It\u2019s a fear that is realised early on when Francois, Ben\u2019s older brother, learning of the affair, tracks down Rita in the vague hope that, perhaps, seeing her, knowing her, will help him somehow understand the brother lost to him.<\/p>\n The narrative alternates between Rita and Francois, a gentle rhythm, as it oscillates and intersperses moments in time from the character\u2019s lives. We view the same events from Rita\u2019s and Francois\u2019s perspective, the subtle shifts in voice unravel a complex web of relationships, parents, siblings, lovers past and present, and always with Ben at the heart of them: son, brother, husband, and lover.<\/p>\n \u2018His brother wrote about women; he painted them\u2019, Rita wryly observes to Francois, early on in their uneasy acquaintance. The more Francois learns of Rita, the more he finds himself attracted to her, just like his younger brother was,\u00a0 whose absence is felt in every look, every gesture and word \u2013 spoken or unspoken. Excerpts of Ben\u2019s academic work, research on African societies, the Land Reform Act, marriage and inheritance \u2013 a brother\u2019s wife passed to a brother, intrude on the painful memories of childhood opportunities lost. Perhaps, Francois muses, Rita\u2019s entrance in their lives is a chance for him to put things right, to finally lay old grievances to rest, and begin again.<\/p>\n Kalayil is not as interested in engaging with the cultural nuances of her characters\u2019 situation, as she is in developing her variation on the traditional romance.\u00a0\u00a0 Not unlike the work of \u00a0her fellow Manchester graduate Meera Syal, The Inheritance<\/em> is a sensitive mediation on love in its many forms, on guilt, and loss, as Kalayil raises questions on what it is that we really inherit from those we love. What does it mean to belong in a world, to a family, where we are as transient as our emotions, where relationships, people, can simply be \u2018picked up and dropped\u2019?<\/p>\n Usma Malik<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" London. A young student falls in love with her University tutor. Married Dr Ben Martin, advocator of women\u2019s rights and author of titles such as \u2018Daughters of Africa\u2019 and \u2018Gender and Law Reform in Africa\u2019, is a respected member of the academic Faculty. Rita Kalungal, Nineteen, is a first year Anthropology student, and his tutee. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[13,283,18],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n