[ilds] An Indian View of an Indian View: Durrell’s India

[James Gifford]

Good points on all sides...  He spoke of India often in interviews -- 
there's a fascinating one with Lyn Goldman in which she calls him on it 
(they laugh it off, both knowing what it really was).  India's also 
there in the Quintet, "From the Elephant's Back," and right at the very 
beginning in /Pied Piper of Lovers/ (his most autobiographical novel).

Rather than being reluctant to return, either because he didn't know 
anyone in India anymore or because his British work might create 
trouble, I'd suggest something a bit more uneasy -- maybe Durrell didn't 
like travel?  How often did he move to new places because he wanted to 
rather than needed to?

There's also the real possibility that he knew the India of his memories 
wasn't real.  How many of us know the same thing about our own 
childhoods, no matter where we spent them?  Going back would make him 
confront that unreality...  There's something akin to this in his story 
"Oil for the Saint; Return to Corfu."

For David's point, was France his favorite place, or just the first one 
he wasn't made to leave?

There's also that matter of his non-patrial status as a British subject. 
When the British immigration act went through amendments in the 1960s, 
like so many of those from the West Indies, India, & Pakistan, he became 
a non-patrial.

All best,
James

On 2015-11-17 6:51 PM, Kennedy Gammage wrote:
> Did he have any close friends there?
>
> Cheers - Ken
>
> On Tue, Nov 17, 2015 at 5:52 PM, sharbani banerjee(mukherjee)
> <sharbanibm at gmail.com <mailto:sharbanibm at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     David has a point there. With the British Raj ending in 1947.  and
>     Durrell being an employee of the British High Commission....it could
>     have been a deterrent.
>     Best
>     Sharbani
>
>     On 18-Nov-2015 1:48 am, "Denise Tart & David Green"
>     <dtart at bigpond.net.au <mailto:dtart at bigpond.net.au>> wrote:
>
>         It is interesting then that Durrell never went back to India.
>         Are there theories, scholarly or otherwise about this? Was a
>         Tibet of the mind enough?did Indian independence have anything
>         to do with it?
>
>         David.