There are two photographs on the dust jacket of Arundhati Roy鈥檚 new memoir, 鈥淢other Mary Comes to Me.鈥
The first shows Roy in her early 20s, taken around the time she was an architecture student living in a tin-roofed hut in a shanty settlement built along what was left of a 14th- century fortress in Delhi. She鈥檚 smoking a cigarette, gazing off into the middle distance, a picture of bohemian cool that belies her struggle to survive after leaving home as a teenager.
鈥淕od knows what I was thinking,鈥 says Roy of the picture, taken by a friend, the journalist and photographer Carlo Buldrini, in his room above a garage. 鈥淚t was a very intense time of my life. I had nothing. No money, no family, nothing.鈥
“Mother Mary Comes to Me,” by Arundhati Roy, Scribner Canada, 352 pages, $39.99.
Nick Lachance/海角社区官网StarThe second is of Roy as she is now: In her 60s, the internationally acclaimed author of the Booker Prize-winning 鈥淭he God of Small Things鈥 and 鈥 published after a two-decade gap in fiction writing 鈥 鈥淭he Ministry of Utmost Happiness.鈥
There鈥檚 something about the way the images are placed, with the older Roy on the back cover seeming to smile with great kindness 鈥 and a hard-won kind of knowing 鈥 at her younger self on the front, that speaks to the nature of the text inside.
鈥淣othing is not intentional,鈥 says Roy of this cover design. 鈥淭hat image of me that鈥檚 on the front cover was floating around on the internet, and (the publishing team) almost unanimously said, 鈥榊ou have to have that. That is the spirit of this book.鈥欌
She says she agreed, but with a condition: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to be this young girl I鈥檓 not. I鈥檓 a woman now, and I want that story to be there too.鈥
Roy is in coastal British Columbia, snatching a few days of respite in the midst of an international book tour, at the home of a friend, author and activist Naomi Klein.
鈥淚t鈥檚 so beautiful, but I鈥檓 so tired,鈥 she says. 鈥淲e鈥檝e gone on walks in the forest, looking at sea lions, laughing a lot.鈥
And while the sheer physical intensity of promotion has taken its toll, Roy says that actually talking about this extremely personal book has an element of catharsis, a kind of 鈥渢he truth shall set you free鈥 release for someone who, thanks to the phenomenal success of her debut novel and subsequent political activism, has spent much of her life in the public eye, with no shortage of opinions aired about her.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a little bit of me that鈥檚 an inside-out person,鈥 Roy says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 almost a relief to be able to integrate all of it 鈥 the writing, the things that people didn鈥檛 know, and not just my mother, but things like money, not having any, then having too much. It鈥檚 something of a relief to talk about it.鈥
As the title suggests, the central figure in this memoir is her mother, Mary Roy. In these pages, she emerges as a woman who is as extraordinary as she is complicated, a trailblazer who battled misogyny (and severe asthma) to set up her own school in a conservative village in Kerala, India, as well as a single parent who鈥檇 left Roy鈥檚 alcoholic father, but whose relationship with her own daughter was fraught with long silences, secrets and a propensity for cruelty.
Arundhati Roy signs her new book, “Mother Mary Comes to Me,” inside Convocation Hall at the University of 海角社区官网on Sept. 12.
Nick Lachance/海角社区官网Star鈥淭he Gangster,鈥 as Roy calls her, could deliver dagger-sharp insults 鈥 she often told her daughter that she should have been 鈥渄umped at an orphanage on the day you were born鈥 鈥 and lashed out physically when, Roy says, 鈥渕y very existence seemed to enrage her.鈥
鈥淭o bridge the chasm between the legacy of love that she left for the lives she touched and the thorns she set down for me, like little floaters in my bloodstream 鈥 fish hooks that still catch on the soft tissue as my blood makes its way to and from my heart 鈥 is why I write this book,鈥 Roy explains, with typically gorgeous prose, in the first chapter.
鈥淏ecause she was such a severe asthmatic, and because I could never talk to her or ask her or argue with her, this is almost that conversation I could never, ever have with her,鈥 Roy says. 鈥淚t started off by my bewilderment, and a little bit of shame, at how devastated I was when she died. Given how complicated our relationship was, I was shocked at myself.鈥
Roy says she still finds it hard to read the very last chapter of this book, which details her mother鈥檚 death, and concludes with an image of her mother she holds in her head: walking on water, calmly navigating storms and passing ships in her signature high-top basketball sneakers. 鈥淭hat image is still with me all the time,鈥 she says.
It was a hard chapter for Roy to read for the audiobook, an otherwise easy process that she wrapped early because of the way she crafts her texts. 鈥淲hen I write, I hear what I write as much as I see what I write,鈥 Roy says. 鈥淭he book is an audio track for me anyways.鈥
While some memoirists might need to go back and consult old diaries or photographs to summon remembrances, Roy had no such difficulty.
鈥淚 think the world is going to change so much in the next few years, we won鈥檛 know what the hell hit us,鈥 says Arundhati Roy.
Nick Lachance/海角社区官网Star鈥淚f I didn鈥檛 have details seared into my memory and into my soul, I wouldn鈥檛 have written a memoir. I wouldn鈥檛 have bothered to write a memoir in which I had to actually research or dredge up stuff,鈥 she says. 鈥淲hen (my mother) passed, I could not do anything but write, and it was no problem for me because these memories are so sharp to me. They鈥檙e emotional memories that are somehow the pegs on which the person that I am is wrapped.鈥
There are certainly things she doesn鈥檛 remember, Roy says, adding, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 worth writing about the things that I have forgotten.鈥
And while she is known for her novels, Roy says that she was never tempted to fictionalize this story.
鈥淚 really felt that my Mrs. Roy, the Gangster, needed to be a woman in literature and history, a real woman who just unleashed everything onto the world, who was not playing to be a good woman or a nice woman or even a good mother,鈥 she says. 鈥淚t wouldn鈥檛 have been believable in some parts if it was fiction.鈥
This isn鈥檛 an indictment of her mother, Roy adds, but a celebration of her in her entire complexity as a human being.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what made her her. The amazing thing was that she was all these things. I thought that she should be shared with the world. The point of this book is to say, 鈥楲ook at this amazing woman who felt all right to be all these things,鈥欌 she says. 鈥淎nd OK, I survived 鈥 and I do understand that so much of this darkness also helped me become stronger, be a survivor.鈥
鈥淚f I didn鈥檛 have details seared into my memory and into my soul,” Arundhati Roy says. “I wouldn鈥檛 have written a memoir.”
Nick Lachance/海角社区官网StarThe lessons her mother taught her, Roy says, 鈥渟ometimes in rage, sometimes in love,鈥 are all received by her as gifts. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not an indictment of her at all. Quite the opposite,鈥 she says. 鈥淭he point of it all is that everyone has the right to be imperfect. We鈥檝e become so judgmental, so accusatory.鈥
As for whether she might have another memoir in her? Roy says she鈥檚 not one to plan too much, especially in the times we live in.
鈥淚 think the world is going to change so much in the next few years, we won鈥檛 know what the hell hit us,鈥 she says of the way artificial intelligence is reshaping society in real time. 鈥淲e are going to suffer this crisis where we don鈥檛 know who we are.鈥
Even now, she鈥檒l regularly stumble across AI-generated content that is pretending to be her, like roundups of 鈥渢he five best Arundhati Roy quotes鈥 that don鈥檛 contain a single thing she鈥檚 ever said.
鈥淲ill there be a self anymore? I don鈥檛 know. It is a moment of complete craziness that we are standing on the precipice of,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 think we are going to be a place that we simply do not understand. Nothing of the coordinates of the past are going to be easily available to us.鈥
She might address this impending 鈥渕ayhem鈥 one day in her writing, but she鈥檚 averse to committing either way.
鈥淚 have no clue at all about what I will do next,鈥 she says. 鈥淔or me it鈥檚 important not to know what I will do next. It leaves me open to possibility.鈥
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