Rohinton Mistry (born 1952) is an Indian – Canadian writer, who has written several short stories, chapbooks, and novels like, Such a Long Journey (1991), A Fine Balance (1995), Family Matters (2002), Tales from Firozsha Baag (1987), Searching for Stevenson (1994), and The Scream (2006). Rohinton Mistry explores both the heterogeneous nature of one community’s identity and its dynamism, in his stories. The elements associated with Parsi culture in his writing are the history of emmigration from Iran, the search for asylum in India, the colonial elitist attitude of the Parsis, and their feeling of malaise in a decolonised India.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Rohinton Mistry was born on Thursday, 3 July 1952 (71 years old in 2023) in Bombay, India (now Mumbai). In 1974, he graduated with a BA degree in Mathematics and Economics from St. Xavier’s College, Bombay. In 1975, he moved to Toronto, Canada, where he worked as a bank clerk. In 1982, he attained his another BA degree in English and Philosophy from University of Toronto (Woodsworth College). In a literary journal Rungh (1993), Mistry confessed,
After finishing college in Bombay or elsewhere in India, one had to go abroad for higher studies. If possible, one had to find a job after finishing a Masters or a Ph.D. in the States or in England, find a job and settle in the country. That’s how success is defined by Indians. So that is why I say that coming to Canada was in some ways decided for me.”
Family
He is a Zoroastrian Parsi whose ancestors were exiled by the Islamic conquest of Iran.
Parents & Siblings
His father Behram Mistry, was into advertising and his mother Freny Mistry, was a housewife. His grandfather owned a bookshop. His brother, Cyrus Mistry is an Indian playwright and award-winning novelist, whose novel Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer won the DSC Prize for South Asian literature in 2014.
Rohinton Mistry’s brother-Cyrus Mistry
Wife & Children
Rohinton Mistry is married to Freny Elavia. In an interview, he talked about his wife and said,
I met my wife when we were both 19 or 20, at a music school where she was taking voice and piano lessons and I was doing classes in music theory and composition.”
Signature/Autograph
Career
While Rohinton Mistry was in the University of Toronto, he won two Hart House literary prizes for stories published in the Hart House Review, and Canadian Fiction Magazine‘s annual Contributor’s Prize for 1985. After three years, his collection of eleven short stories, Tales from Firozsha Baag got published by the Penguin Books, Canada, which was later published in the United States as Swimming Lessons and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag. It describe the daily life of the Parsi people in Bombay. The stories in the book are concerned with the tribulations of Bombay Parsis. His second novel ‘Such a Long Journey’, was published in 1991, which won the Governor General’s Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, and the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award.
Novels
- Such a Long Journey (1991)
Short stories and chapbooks
- Tales from Firozsha Baag (1987), also published as Swimming Lessons and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag (1989)
- Searching for Stevenson (1994)
Controversies
The content in his book Such a Long Journey (1991) caused a controversy in 2010, at Mumbai University because of the content written against Bal Thackeray (leader of Shiv Sena), and Maharashtrians. In 2007 – 2008, the book was in the syllabus of second year Bachelor of Arts (English) as an optional text, which was later withdrawed from the syllabus by Dr. Rajan Welukar (Vice-Chancellor of University of Mumbai) by using emergency powers in the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994.
Awards, Honours, Achievements
- 1983 – Hart House Literary Contest, ‘One Sunday’
- 1984 – Hart House Literary Contest, ‘Auspicious Occasion’
- 1985 – Annual Contributors’ Prize, Canadian Fiction Magazine
- 1991 – Booker Prize, shortlist, Such a Long Journey
- 1991 – Governor General’s Award, Such a Long Journey
- 1991 – Commonwealth Writers Prize, Such a Long Journey
- 1991 – W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award, Such a Long Journey
- 1991 – Trillium Award, Such a Long Journey
- 1995 – Giller Prize, A Fine Balance
- 1995 – Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, A Fine Balance
- 1996 – Commonwealth Writers Prize, A Fine Balance
- 1996 – Booker Prize, shortlist, A Fine Balance
- 2002 – Booker Prize, shortlist, Family Matters
- 2002 – James Tait Black Memorial Prize, shortlist Family Matters
- 2004 – International Dublin Literary Award, shortlist, Family Matters
- 2012 – Neustadt International Prize for Literature
Facts/Trivia
- His second book Such a Long Journey (1991), was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and for the Trillium Award and has been translated into different languages like, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Japanese.
- In an interview conducted by Nermeen Shaikh of Asia Society, he talked about his favourite authors and said,
At university, I remember reading Hard Times, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, and I think that was it, really. I have not undertaken any special study, nor am I particularly drawn to these authors. In fact, if I were to choose my favorites, what I enjoy most, they would probably include some American writers, like Cheever, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, and Updike. Of course I do enjoy Chekhov and Turgenev – these 19th-century writers – but I do not have any special attachment to that period. But I’m not an expert in all this so if the critics think my writing is Dickensian or Tolstoyan I will thank them, and say I am flattered.”
- In 2002, Rohinton Mistry and his wife were targeted by security agents at every airport because they thought that he is a Muslim and thus, he had to cancel his United States book tour for his novel Family Matters in 2002.
- In his novel A Fine Balance, he said,
Money can buy the necessary police order. Justice is sold to the highest bidder”
- His second book Such a Long Journey (1991), was adapted for the 1998 film Such a Long Journey.
- Rohinton Mistry has also experimented with linguistic hybridity in his writings.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn