Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry
"Such a Long Journey" by Rohinton Mistry is a poignant novel that explores the life of a well-meaning man named Gustad Noble, who embodies a strong sense of duty amidst personal and familial challenges. Set against the backdrop of 1970s India, the narrative delves into Noble's struggle with the remnants of his family's once-thriving businesses, now lost to mismanagement and financial ruin. Despite these hardships, Noble maintains a sense of optimism, appreciating his family's strengths, including his supportive wife and intelligent children.
As the story unfolds, Noble faces a series of crises: his son Sohrab's educational aspirations are cast aside, his daughter Roshan suffers from a mysterious illness, and he becomes embroiled in a morally complex dilemma involving a letter from an old friend that leads him into dangerous territory. The narrative intertwines personal struggles with broader social issues, such as the repression of Bengalis in East Pakistan. Ultimately, Noble's journey is one of disillusionment; he grapples with the implications of his choices and the stark realities of a corrupt political landscape. By the novel's conclusion, he emerges changed, having lost his innocence and facing an uncertain future marked by the fragility of trust and hope.
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Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1991
Type of work: Novel
The Work
Gustad Noble, the protagonist of Such a Long Journey, is a well-meaning man with a highly developed sense of duty. Lesser men might well have become embittered by the losses that his family has incurred. Noble’s grandfather had a thriving furniture business; his father, a successful bookstore. Mismanagement by Noble’s dissolute uncle resulted in bankruptcy and the loss of everything the family had accumulated over the years. Though Noble sometimes recalls those earlier days of relative luxury, he tries to make the best of his modest circumstances.
As the novel opens, he is praising Ahura Mazda and contemplating his own good fortune. At fifty, Noble is healthy; his wife, Dilnavaz, is attractive, good-natured, and efficient; his son, Sohrab, has just been admitted to the Indian Institute of Technology (ITT); and both his younger son, Darius, and his daughter, Roshan, are intelligent, obedient children. Noble’s only worries are the stench outside his apartment building, caused by passersby urinating on the wall; the repression of the Bengalis in East Pakistan; and, more immediately, a letter from his old friend, Major Jimmy Bilimoris, asking Noble to make bank deposits that will provide relief for Bengali refugees.
That very day, things begin to go wrong. Sohrab announces that he no longer wants to go to ITT, and his frustrated father evicts him. Roshan develops a stomach disorder, and her parents cannot agree as to how to treat her. Neither the folk remedies of Dilnavaz nor the expensive medicines of a backstreet doctor whom Noble trusts seem to help. Noble’s only success in that troubled period of his life involves the wall: he hires an artist to cover it with religious figures representing every faith, and immediately the urination ceases.
When packets of bills begin arriving from the major, Noble begins to think that he has made a mistake. At first, he hides the money in his apartment, thinking that it might be best to return it, but vandalism and explicit threats change his mind. Then Noble is informed that the major has been arrested, and he discovers that the money was never meant to aid refugees but was intended to swell the coffers of high officials, including the prime minister herself.
In the end, though the major is executed, Noble escapes prosecution and keeps his job; his daughter gets well; and Sohrab and he are reconciled. However, Noble has lost his innocence. He can no longer be certain about the future. It seems as unreliable as the wall he had preserved and beautified, which in the final pages of the novel is being knocked down in accordance with a government order.