AustLit

'Christopher Raja’s memoir, Into the Suburbs: A Migrant’s Story, takes readers on several kinds of journeys: from India to Australia (and later, back again); from the city into the suburbs; from childhood through adolescence to adulthood; and from ignorance and naivety to understanding and acceptance. Raja’s memoir has a limited narrative focus, with most of its 185 pages devoted to a seven-year period of Raja’s life between 1986, when his family emigrated from Calcutta to Melbourne, and 1992, his first year at the University of Melbourne. Nevertheless, the memoir deals with a wide range of subject matter, including immigration, belonging and unbelonging, cultural differences, racism, violence, adolescence, father-son relationships, exile, grief, sex, class, religion, masculinity and healing.' (Introduction)

'This memoir begins in a somewhat shriveled corner of the world—Kolkata and a little boy, young Chris Raja, who is learning the meaning of his surname. The reason Rajatnaram has been shortened to Raja is simple enough. It was a hard name for the people at the convent to pronounce, and so Chris's grandfather changed it to make it easier on them. It is not Chris's parents who are telling the seven-year-old boy the origins of his surname. Rather, an auntie, who is in the middle of spilling a bunch of other family secrets, feels like telling this one as well. Chris's father only comes out in the middle of the scene, to interrupt: "What are you saying?" he asked. "Some things are best left alone" (5).'  (Introduction)