A review by sarahmatthews
Western Lane by Chetna Maroo

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Western Lane by Chetna Maroo

Read on audio

Narrator: Maya Saroya

Picador

Pub. 2023, 176pp

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“A clean hit can stop time, sometimes it feels like the only peace there is.” Gopi is grieving for her mother and at 11 she’s the youngest of three sisters and this new world is difficult and confusing. Their father is struggling, as an electrician he’s letting his customers down and has started talking to his wife late at night. The only way he can think of to connect with his daughters at this turbulent time is to immerse them in the world of squash (which he played with his brother growing up) at their local leisure centre, Western Lane. They all train hard after school but it’s only really Gopi who shows promise. She’s soon in need of more challenging opponents than her sisters and starts playing with Ged, the son of a woman who works at Western Lane. I really enjoyed reading about their friendship: 

“In the court with Ged I had the feeling that we were making something, and it wasn’t anything we could see or touch. I hit well, I saw the ball, it was as big as a tennis ball.i couldn’t help but hit it well, I changed direction and lunged…i moved easily and without effort. It was all Ged. He wasn’t pushing me exactly, but I felt he was completely aware of me. He was also aware of the walls and the red outline, and of the glass behind us and the corridor and the whole of the sports centre building…I felt his awareness of it all becoming mixed up with mine.”

As the story moves on Gopi finds that the discipline and intensity of training at Western Lane is helping. In the evenings she stays up late with her father to watch clips of a famous Pakistani squash player, Jahangir Khan, which both motivates her and brings her closer to him. So much is unsaid, with the family being unable to express their grief with one another. A squash competition comes up that both Gopi and Ged want to enter and their training intensifies. I know nothing about squash but found it didn’t matter as this story is very much about Gopi and her relationship with those around her and how they are all coping without Ma. It’s very touching and poignant:

“I got up early in the mornings, not to be alone, but because the whole night I’d been waiting for the day to begin. I stopped thinking of Ma,. The world seemed big and luminous, with some secret that would soon be known to me.”

Gopi’s previously safe world has fallen apart and in squash and the wider life of the sports centre she finds purpose and belonging again. This was an affecting exploration of grief that was both shortlisted for The Booker Prize and longlisted for The Women’s Prize.