The plot is set in a future North America, Toronto, to be specific. Here, people who are rich can achieve immortality, so to speak. They can treat their bodies to look younger, be rid of illnesses, and get rid of old memories and give themselves a completely new memory and move on with a brand new life. The whole process is still under continual development, and therefore, not rid of its chinks. "Nostalgia" is a symptom among these immortal humans when old memory seems to threaten the well being of the humans with new memories. This nostalgia syndrome can be quite insignificant at times, but left unattended, can even threaten a person's life.
In this new world, a memory doctor called Frank is our protagonist. His life in this seemingly perfect world, in some odd way, gets tangled with a patient with nostalgia syndrome, and with a journalist in a faraway land who has nothing to do with Frank. Or does she?
What really intrigued me was the parallel with so many things that are happening all around us. The part of the world called Region 6 in Vassanji's futuristic world can easily be compared to the Middle East. Then there's the "Long Border" which is synonymous to the talks of "The Wall" separating the USA and Mexico. The synonymity of the refugee crisis in both our world and the world created by Vassanji gave me goosebumps!
But by what throw of the Dice of Life are you born here and not there in the other? You might as well ask why you were born a human and not a fly. But if found yourself there in that bottomless misery, wouldn't it be natural, as part of life's programmed struggle to survive, through osmotic pull to strive to get here, the prosperous North Atlantic?In another passage, Vassaji writes:
Long ago these people had lived here with their families, children ran about and played in their innocence, and there was food in the town. Meat and chicken and produce. Vegetables and fruits grew here. There were shops where you could buy clothes and toys and things for the home. Such were the stories told about those good times. Now the street was empty except the militias came during their predatory raids.If you pay attention to the current state of affairs here and in the East, if you are an enthusiast of the futuristic and dystopian, and intellectual reads, I'm certain you will appreciate Nostalgia as much as I did! In any case, I strongly recommend this book to those who have not read Vassanji before. This was my first Vassanji book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Nostalgia wasn't an easy read, but definitely a thought provoking and intriguing one.
Nostalgia
by M.G. Vassanji
Hardcover. 258 pages. Doubleday Canada. September 20, 2016.
Literary Fiction, Sci-fi, Dystopian