Two lives – enroute
I bought a copy of Vikram Seth’s Two Lives last week and read about a third of it on my flight to Vegas last night. It brought a couple of interesting thoughts to mind.
Seth writes about his (Indian) uncle Shanti and (German) aunty Henny in the novel. Shanti and Henny meet when Shanti is a dental student in Berlin before the 2nd world war. Henny has a fiance. Shanti and Henny get separated when Shanti goes to London to practice dentistry as Hitler has started curtailing foreigners from working in Germany. Shanti goes on to enlist in the war and describes the allies’ attempt to capture parts of Italy from the Germans. He also undergoes a terrible tragedy while he’s there: he loses his forearm in German shelling.
Seth’s relationship with the couple is intensely moving. He spent his high school and university days in England mostly living with them. Shanti Uncle is perennially worried about Seth’s academics, as he keeps taking an eclectic mix of subjects. Henny is a close friend and mother figure to him.
Two lives is the story of two extremely brave and kind people, passionately in love. Seth is brilliant, as usual. And its a different work from what he has written so far.
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