Christopher Raja's Into the Suburbs

Christopher Raja - Into the Suburbs Christopher Raja is the author of plays, essays and a novel The Burning Elephant. His memoir Into the suburbs is Christopher’s story of leaving Calcutta and beginning a life in Melbourne. I do not read a lot of memoir, perhaps to my detriment, but there was something about the cover and conceit of Into the Suburbs that drew me in. This is not an exhaustive tale of Christopher Raja’s life to the present day, but rather an exploration of what it means to be dislocated and to search for meaning and an idea of home in a new place. Chris was eleven years old when his mother and father moved the family from Calcutta to Melbourne in the 1980s. The contrast is immediate; from the densely populated streets of Calcutta he is transported to a world that is almost unbearably quiet. Where previously he had family surrounding him, not even his relatives keep to their manicured quarter acre blocks. There is something in the title that suggests an expedition. A journey of discovery of lands uncharted or poorly understood. At least that’s how I understood it. I grew up in the suburbs and I’ve never felt I really understood these liminal zones between city and country. Here in Sydney we are so territorial of our suburban allegiances but how does this culture come into being, let alone become exclusive? The young Chris is thrown headlong into a world of school and peers that will exert forces subtle and brutal to extract conformity. He reflects that “in Australia it seemed boys were brought up to self-destruct and be reckless” and it breeds in him a shift towards rebellion. In this world he will face racism for being brown even as he is taught that the indigenous people of the land he lives on look more like him. In the history classes of the eighties he is taught that Aboriginal people are dying out while he befriends a new boy at school who is Aboriginal and far from fading away. As the adolescent Christopher faces down this world that dangles acceptance before his eyes, he moves farther away from the values and opportunities his parents want him to embrace. These values are not the shield he needs to deflect racist assaults nor to become one with the mix of his peers. At a family BBQ Chris overhears a relative confess “Not all of us can become Australians. However hard we try.” Whether this is the result of individual effort or white gate-keeping it highlights one of the core themes of Into the Suburbs; this strange and malleable notion of Australian-ness does not exist equally for all. Into the Suburbs is a fascinating exploration of a life, a time and the idea that home is there waiting to be found.