Book: SUPER: A NOVEL
Author: Lindsay Pereira
Published by: HarperCollins
Price: Rs 699
Lindsay Pereira’s latest work of fiction tells the story of the immigration of Sukhpreet Gill from Jalandhar, Punjab, to Brampton, Canada. In doing so, it lays forth the reality of desperation and helplessness ruling the lives of youth in Punjab while also addressing the problems faced by locals in Canada as a result of such heavy migration.
Sukhpreet moves to Jalandhar in 2015 from a village and follows his cousin, Dan, alias Deepanshu, to Toronto. Even as he navigates his college life, the International English Language Testing System, and receives updates from Dan on the latter’s life in Canada through various Instagram posts, Sukhpreet meets Harneet, an 18-year-old woman who is set on the same path. However, unlike Sukhpreet who believes he’ll create a better life in Canada, Harneet questions the dream of immigration. Her concerns include IELTS score deciding her desirability as a wife in the migrant marriage market spread across Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. She wants to have the agency to create a life of her own irrespective of the reality she’s born into.
Pereira also chronicles the life of a Canadian, Maynard Wilson, a middle-aged, unemployed man with a dog as his only companion. He questions the rise of immigrant families in the country, wondering how anyone can make a living in the current economy. He is also deeply bothered by the “faceless mass on the periphery” taking over blue-collar jobs across Canada.
Super explores immigration through all the characters without passing any judgment. Pereira’s nuanced writing creates a sense of empathy as he explores the past and the present of each character. The dreams and the hopes associated with migrating towards a better life are expressed through Sukhpreet; the anxieties of the communities at the receiving end of such migration are explored through Maynard. In between, there is Harneet who is bothered by her inability to find the roots of such chosen displacement. Why is Punjab not safe for its inhabitants? If people have to leave, why do they have to go abroad and not to Delhi or Mumbai to make a living? The answer is simple: dollars will repay the debt faster than the rupee can — or so believes Sukhpreet.
The author also explores the friction caused by such aspirations by contrasting Maynard’s childhood with those of working-class Punjabis. Maynard feels entitled to be taken care of, with ample opportunities for sustenance, in the land of his ancestors. He traces the rise of immigrants to the rising hate online and the hate crimes in real life while actively playing a part in it.
The ending is the beginning in Super. Pereira’s depiction of this cycle of aspiration and disillusionment manifests itself in the structure of narration that keeps the pages turning. The reader might feel let down by the absence of a concrete resolution but that’s precisely the beauty of this fiction.