The colonial experience of my generation was almost wholly without violence. It was a terror of the mind!

A relentless rebel to the likes of Shelley, and a fierce satirist to the likes of Marston and Hall – sums up Soviet writer Mikhail Zoshchenko [Em Zee] and his impactful oeuvre of sorts. 

And we – this once – shall call him Em Zee for short!

Well, Em Zee was part of the renowned literary group titled, “The Serapion Brothers,” which had such a sway over a vast majority of the literati of the era. Yes! Victor Shklovsky was also part of this august group!

He was a rebel, no doubt! But again, because of his constant ‘exposays’ in the realms of poor housing, sanitation, clothing and shelter, he was pressurized heavily to conform! Yesss! The Soviet regime wanted him to conform to their socialist brand of realism! Hence it was, that he, from then on, started writing children’s books which soon became immensely popular with the masses. Then came up his famed and controversial autobiographical novella titled, Before Sunrise, that was published in 1943 and was banned quite promptly enough! Very soon, and sadly at that, he was also expelled from the Soviet Writers’ Union.

In this, his autobiographical novella, Before Sunrise, Em Zee throws light on his battle with melancholy, his depression, and his nagging fear of life. He feels that he has always had a wonderful childlike disposition on him - all of the time - with an amiable, cheerful and vibrant world-view that has always been his forte! And it was highly unfortunate, as he adds, that the fear and sadness that have cropped up onto his very consciousness were nayver his domain at all! Hence the title Before Sunrise could also infer to mean, ‘before consciousness’! It was just a mental illness from which he was sure he would recuperate and sprightly bounce back yet again, to resume on his vibrant joie de vivre and josh there is to his life and living!

Therefore, in order to regain his child-like vibrancy yet again, he feels that it’s necessary for him to get rid of some of his harsh memories from the past - the saddy-gloomy memories of his youthful life! That includes the suicide of a classmate, the first gas attack that he had witnessed, his broken love-life, and a host of such gloomy memories.

But quite interestingly, in spite of all these irreconcilable struggles within himself, that’s been grappling his mind and heart for this long, Em Zee had taken a resolve of sorts! A noble resolve at that! He convinces himself that, come what may, he can and he should love people around him at all costs, by all means! This he feels is of paramount importance, to advance boldly ahead on his beautiful outlook towards life - A healthy lifestyle coupled with a healthy worldview!

Yesss! A healthy lifestyle coupled with a healthy worldview!!! And that’s how Em Zee managed to come out so triumphantly, from off his depression, he says! Well, and that’s when your sweet, positive attitude towards life helps you overcome any kinda depression, and that too, with such suave elegance and gusto!

The noblest of lifestyles, and the noblest of worldviews! Ain’t it! That’s why we say, Em Zee rocks!

Next, in our tryst with the autobiographical novel, shall we move ahead to yet another landmark read from the pen of George Lamming, titled, In the Castle of My Skin.

In this profound autobiographical novel, published in 1953, Lamming explores with such intense detail, his experience of growing up in a West Indian village under colonial rule. Sandra Pouchet Paquet in her insightful book, Caribbean Autobiography: Cultural Identity and Self-Representation, describes In the Castle of My Skin as ‘an autobiographical novel of childhood and adolescence written against the anonymity and alienation from self and community the author experienced in London at the age of twenty-three.’

This autobiographical novel was greatly appreciated by famous literary minds including the likes of the legendary Sartre and Wright. The story spans nine years of the narrator G’s life from the ages of nine to seventeen! Hence an autobiographical bildungsroman it is!

At a time when G (the writer’s persona) is much inclined to proceed to Trinidad, his buddy Trumper returns from his studies abroad in America and shares with G about his life and experiences there across the Atlantic! He tells him about some of the wonderful luxuries that America afforded him, like electric fans, telephones et al and convinces him on the need to leave the island once and for all, in order to have an impactful understanding about his race and heritage as such, and to achieve for himself an identity of his own! And thus Lammy (Lamming) set sail to England!

Reminiscing on this, his intense autobiographical novel, Lammy says: When I sailed with other West Indians to England in 1950, we simply thought we were going to an England that had been painted in our childhood consciousness as a heritage and a place of welcome... It was not a physical cruelty. Indeed, the colonial experience of my generation was almost wholly without violence. It was a terror of the mind; a daily exercise in self-mutilation. This was the breeding ground for every uncertainty of self!

Interestingly, as he’s done many a time, Derek Walcott lends the title for Lamming’s autobiographical novel, from one of his awesome collection of poems titled, Epitaph for the Young: XII Cantos which he had published as a young lad of nineteen years, in 1949. One of his mighty lines from his Epitaph for the Young goes thus: “You in the castle of your skin / I the swineherd.”

Added grace to Lamming’s autobiographical read of sorts!

To be continued…

All images are from amazondotcom