It’s been nearly a decade since I read Paul Scott’s The Raj Quartet. I read the first two novels in Beate Ruhm von Oppen’s preceptorial at St. John’s College, Annapolis during the final semester of my first M.A. program. Before finishing the program in December 2003, I also bought the remaining two novels as well as Scott’s Booker Prize-winning coda to The Raj Quartet, Staying On.I took these books with me when I moved that Christmas to England. With the momentum of The Jewel in the Crown and The Day of the Scorpion under my belt, and under my skin, I right away read The Towers of Silence and, then, the final novel of the series, A Division of the Spoils.But despite my tutor-friend Beate’s having told me back then that she’d read the whole of Staying On during a flight from Britain to the U.S., unable to put it down and laughing much of the way, I’d started reading this much-slimmer book right after having finished the whole of The Raj Quartet, but then, myself, did put it down — never to pick up again until having seen an early (Panther) paperback edition, well-yellowed, on a friend’s bookshelf a couple weeks ago while house- and cat-sitting for her and her husband.This time I did finish it, and recall not having done so the first time round for reasons having far more to do with my wanting, after months of carefully reading The Raj Quartet, to move onto something new, something non-Raj-related.But with a weeklong house-sit ahead, and no book of my own on hand to read, it took me about a nanosecond after noticing the book on Ruth’s bookshelf to decide to finally read Scott’s follow-on to The Raj Quartet, his final book, first published in 1977 and winning the Booker Prize in November of that year. A few months thereafter Scott died of colon cancer.And while he’s reported to have had a number of unfinished writing projects left at the time of his death (what writer doesn’t?), the completion of Staying On was the culmination of an especially fine literary career, and served as the final capstone perfectly fitted to round off the whole of The Raj Quartet, a likewise especially majestic edifice carefully crafted from 1964 through to 1977. Others have said, too, that Scott’s earlier novels were part of the writing process that would ultimately give birth to The Raj Quartet.But while Staying On follows on from The Raj Quartet, the couple who serve as the story’s protagonists — retired colonel “Tusker” Smalley and his wife Lucy — were plucked from obscurity as minor characters in the latter to take the lead in this book, set after India had gained its independence and most British had long ago returned home, particularly the better heeled amongst them.You can read scores of synopses of the story via Goodreads and Amazon. Suffice to say, here, that Tusker and Lucy are scarcely getting by, Tusker, we learn in the opening sentence of the book, dies of a heart attack, and Lucy — just as she suspects throughout the brief sweep of time covered in the novel — is destined to be left not only alone, with no heartfelt friends in the hill town community within which they’ve spent Tusker’s retired years, but, too, with little money to live on.I’ll bring this brief review to a close by adding that Staying On seems a beautifully appropriate novel for Scott to have written shortly before his own death, as a carefully considered study of one’s final days, complete with the rough edges of regret, a life trajectory leading to a place far afield from one’s early-on hopes and ambitions, and the twin horrors of impoverished circumstances and existential isolation from one’s own spouse, still living alongside you but separated by a vast canyon carved out over the course of decades by way of an almost imperceptibly slow tectonic shift brought about not by earth-shattering revelations but by the daily grind of dreams gone unfulfilled, communications gone awry, and thoughts, aspirations and feelings gone unspoken, left too late to do anyone any good. That said, there are redemptions of sorts, a certain coming to terms with one’s self and lifelong partner, for all their and one’s own foibles and frailties, just before the final curtain draws to a close.
Memo to Kingsley Amis: This is how you write a book about aging that is comic, eccentric, and touching without looking like you’re trying too hard. Plus, the cover of my copy has an awesome reference to: “Now a Major Grenada TV Drama” (sadly, the publication company is Grenada so it refers to that, not to the country of Grenada, but still). I was surprised by how much I liked this book. It takes place in post-independence India and centers largely on the twilight of two expatriots, Tusker and Lucy, who had long stayed on past their welcome and past their financial ability to leave, in a world that changed enormously around them, and which they could no longer leave. They sort of fell back into Pankot, like a building that collapses but which no one tears down or repairs, and which squatters still visit, and which remains part of the town, however unimportant or unattractive. The book starts with Tusker’s death and then jumps backwards to play out the last months of Tusker’s life and of Tusker and Lucy’s marriage – which was as middling as Tusker’s unillustrious career in the British Army and then as a civilian contractor. Also staying on, in a different way, is Tusker’s friend and the manager of the hotel in which they live, Bhoolabhoy, whose wife owns the hotel and has ambitions of business growth in the burgeoning Indian economy. Lila, his wife, is a comic villain-like character – the foil against which the other characters bounce off into their stories; she moves the story along. There is a great deal of color in the book; where I thought Amis failed in his pretentions about Wales, Scott succeeded, subtly weaving together the hotel, the town, its people, behind the story of a marriage. It is a lovely book. As I mentioned, the characters are quite eccentric and Scott portrays them as unique and odd without making them caricatures of his own pretension (Lila possibly excepted). But the comic aspects are subtle, and help smooth the ruffles of a sometimes uncomfortable book about a failed marriage that finds its footing in its waning days, the failed expectations of that marriage, and a woman who fears being alone and may, indeed, have nowhere to go, even as we the readers know that she will, in fact, soon be alone: and indeed, in our minds is already alone. This book is a fitting successor to the Farrell books, I think: the fully waned moon of an always ill-fitting empire, rightfully gone but having left bits of leftovers in its wake, like hermit crabs left behind by a tide. Scott has told a story about expectations, almosts, and lives with too much regret. It seems a recipe for sentimental disaster, but Scott is subtle, deft, and funny, and willing to write a great deal about the quest for blue hair tint; and because of this the book succeeds.
What do You think about Staying On (1999)?
I went to a marvelous English Literature course run by Anne Scott, lecturer at Glasgow University, Scotland. At the end, one of the other students, who was moving house, was giving away some of her books. Just what I needed - more books! I could not resist, and this was one of the books I chose. I had read The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott many years ago, so when I saw his book Staying On, I thought I would enjoy it. I was right. Paul Scott was born in London, England in 1920. He died in 1978. Scott served in the British Army during mainly in India and Malaya during World War II from 1940 to 1946. This book, Staying On, won the Booker Prize in 1977. It is both hilarious and touching. It deals with the end of an Empire and the end of a forty year love affair. I really enjoyed this book. I cannot imagine anybody not enjoying it: the novel is so beautifully written and the characters so beautifully drawn.The novel tells the story of Tusker and Lucy Smalley who stayed on in India when most of the British left the country and returned to the UK. Tusker had been a Colonel in the British Army but has now retired. He was given an opportunity to return home to the UK, however, he and his wife chose to stay in India living in the small hill town of Pankot. They are the only permanent British residents left in the village. Their financial position allows them to live more comfortably in India than they would in the UK.The book begins and ends with Tusker's death. During the story the reader watches his health deteriorate and comes to understand the life Tusker and Lucy value despite, or maybe because of the many eccentric inhabitants of the town. Tusker's health and the tyranny of their landlady, Mrs Bhoolabhoy, albeit as softened by her long suffering husband, are the only things that threatens to upset their quiet, predictable lives. Lucy does consider what the future might hold for her in India if she were widowed.The story is not always pleasant but the story moves from funny to upsetting. I enjoyed the book very much and now plan to re-read The Raj Quartet. I highly recommend Staying On.
—Valerie
Staying On is a novel which is at times very funny, but ultimately it's very sad. Tusker and Lucy are an English couple who remained in India after the country becomes independent in 1947. The book is set in 1972, ostensibly on one day, but the story of their entire courtship and life together, especially the last few months, unfolds. Tusker, who has ruled the household roost, is unwell. Lucy is afraid he might die, and then what will become of her? She has no real idea of their financial situation, and she has no real friends. She longs for England where she is sure she would be more at home, but in truth, she has no friends or family there either. Tusker does have a friend, Mr. Bhoolabhoy, to who he refers as Billy-Boy, married to the ample and domineering hotel owner. Mrs. Bhoolabhoy is engaged in financial machinations around the sale of the hotel and has no qualms abour kicking Tusher and Lucy out of a bungalow they rent on the hotel grounds. The story plays out as expected, and at the end, you're left with questions not only about the vividly drawn characters but about England's role in India and the the relevance of the remnant of its culture that continues to exist there.
—Barbara
Ran out of books to read on a Goa holiday and this was one of the few english titles on a shelf of books left behind by previous guests. Had no expectation whatsoever and loved it. Slight but well-written, the two main characters superbly voiced, no gimmicks or twists. Can't think of anyone I know who would choose to read such a rambling uneventful tale about an old couple who decide to stay on in India post-Empire but if you have spare time on your hands it is a faultless portrait of a colonial mindset suddenly out of sorts with the modern world and highly memorable. Has some of that wry sadness found in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads tv series and perhaps in Grey Gardens, the Maysles Brothers documentary. Also reminds me of the Molly Dineen documentary about Hilary Hook returning to England in 1987, 'Home from the Hill'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Fro....Perhaps if I'd read the novel with higher expectations (eg having read the Raj Quartet or known that it won the Booker Prize) I might not have enjoyed it so much.
—Drahcir10001
