RYAN Bachoo’s debut novel (set in the 1970s in Trinidad), captures you from the onset.
‘An Unending Search’ tells the story of 15-year-old ‘Tar’ who dreams of life overseas. Buoyed by his uncle (who tells him that a better life awaits him), ‘Tar’ finally makes it out of Trinidad but everything is not what it seems.
Bachoo penned this story 16 years ago.
“I started this book in 2009… [but] I didn’t think it was good enough to publish and I didn’t have enough money to publish it anyway. I put it down for a little bit and then I picked it back up 10 years later,” he told THE VOICE in an interview this week.
After showing the book to an editor, “I must tell you it was like writing an entirely new book… because we did a lot of work on it [last year]. I could tell the difference in… how I had matured as a writer and as a person,” he said.
The book explores various themes like racism and classism.
“I grew up in a small town and remnants of the sugar industry… still lived with me because my dad was a factory worker and the people around our village worked in sugar cane fields,” the author revealed.
“I got a lot of inspiration from watching their lives and out of that I was able to put them into this imaginary world with imaginary characters and tell a story of a boy in the 1970’s… and his struggle to get out the cane fields and ultimately out of Trinidad,” he added.
The main character who is nicknamed ‘Tar’ “because he’s so black, drops out of school when he’s ten… and he goes into the cane fields and he’s influenced by ‘Uncle Sundar’ [who] tells him the government is racist,” Bachoo explained.
The book takes another interesting turn from there.
Bachoo has always been an avid reader. In fact, for him, it was kind of mandatory.
“My parents made us read very often but I think going into secondary school and reading West Indian literature that’s where things really kicked up a notch,” he said.
“You realise that… the life that you’re living is actually in books like ‘Miguel Street’ [V.S. Naipaul], ‘In the Castle of My Skin’ [George Lamming] and you’re living it on a day-to-day basis here in the Caribbean region,” the author added.
Bachoo knew he had to pursue a career in writing. Now, he’s an award-winning journalist and the lead editor at Guardian Media.
“I started as an intern… 15 years ago and slowly moved up the ranks,” the writer told us.
According to him, “Whether it’s fiction… or whether it’s journalism, I think what I enjoy most is that I’m able to tell stories. I love reading but to be able to tell stories is something that I’ve really had a passion for. Writing this book allowed me to tell stories differently – in a fictional way, and there is so much interest in fictional writing these days.”
Bachoo said the most difficult part of the writing process for ‘An Unending Search’, was being a ‘newbie’.
“Because it was my first time writing a novel, I did not know where the book was going… if I was doing it right… and I just kept writing [and] doing as best as I could. Sometimes you’re stuck [and] you worry at times if people will appreciate this… but then by the time I got to the final paragraph I must tell you that I was satisfied with what I was able to accomplish,” the author stated.
The book has received rave reviews online since it was launched on January 18.
“What surprised me most about writing this book was that an author could start writing a novel and have an idea of where he wants to go, [and] while you might think that that author is in charge, dictating where the story goes that’s not true… the story sometimes takes on a life of its own,” he said, adding that he had to kill characters, burn down a house “and… it’s almost like the story [unravelled on its own]. I was shocked.”
Bachoo had no idea how the book would end when he started writing.
“The book [has] 12 chapters [and] I realised where I wanted this book to end around chapter nine,” he revealed.
“I spent the first two years talking to a lot of elderly people from that era and still got some things wrong. My editors had to fix it in the end because I wasn’t around, they were… it did take a lot of research,” he admitted.
The main character and ‘Uncle Sundar, face a harsh reality along their journey.
Bachoo said they’re his favourites, and “I really like how I painted both of those characters.”
“Uncle Sundar is supposed to be an old man with an old way of thinking. He stokes ethnic division wherever he goes and he doesn’t even know… I like that character because it really showed what some old Indian people were like from that era,” he explained.
And then there’s ‘Tar’, “who is this young Indian boy, he’s not edified himself and so his education depends on ‘Uncle Sundar’ who is also not educated. I think they’re my favourites simply because the book paints a story of two people from a small town… with nothing, and [it’s] almost like they’re being blown in the wind,” the author said.
The ending is ambiguous [it ends with a cliffhanger] and some of Bachoo’s fans have even requested a sequel. But he has no intentions of pursuing one.
What exactly is Bachoo hoping to achieve with this book? Two things, according to him.
“If you skip the first page you’d see the most important page which… is dedicated to my mother and father. This book was [meant] to immortalize my parents and myself. Books live on for a lot longer than human beings ever do and I want somebody somewhere to pick this book up when we’re long gone and wonder for [a few] seconds who these people [were],” he said.
It’s also his contribution to Caribbean Literature and another way to leave an indelible mark. (The book will be available on Amazon soon).
A young boy from Princes Town, Trinidad, and now an acclaimed journalist and editor, Bachoo, at 35, is living out his dreams.
“You really have to just be brave enough, put your words on paper, publish it, and deal with the consequences,” he told us.
For Bachoo, it’s paying off handsomely.