‘Arrival’, the opening story of Gurnaik Johal’s collection We Move, functions as several things. A love story, a mystery, a suburban farce. A picture of the mild hell that is contemporary living and the small comforts available to those able to afford such luxuries. Carless couple Chetan and Aanshi live near the airport, and let people leave their cars on their drive (“some relatives only seemed to visit for the parking space”). When a friend of a friend takes up the offer, Chetan takes the car to pick her up upon her return, only the woman never arrives. The car sits on the driveway. The couple decide to use it for their weekly shop. Their usual trek on the bus takes far longer, they are able to carry far less. Now they have privacy, a radio, an empty boot. Life is suddenly easier. Better. “They spent the evenings cooking lavish meals,” Gurnaik writes. “They froze the leftovers, wanting something new each night.”
The end of the story comes in the opening paragraphs. The jilted fiancé of the car’s owner knocks the door, asking for the vehicle back. The new convenience closing as quickly as it opened, a thing sealed off to be remembered fondly and perhaps pined for. The pessimist might be resentful of such an experience, but Johal chooses a different direction. As though the situation was proof things are given just as readily as they are taken away.
Echoes of this feeling resonate across Gurnaik Johal’s stories. Characters who have been denied so much—be it the luxury of a car or the immigrant’s sense of belonging—living and hoping in spite of everything. What results are tales less interested in definite statements on identity and history, but more the possibility within circumstances as they have been dealt. Be that making the best of what is present or refusing to accept the present as the only available thing.
A subtle interconnection threads the pieces, allowing Johal to create and then subvert expectations within his own individual characters, to further widen their sense of possibility on the page. We Move might span half the globe and multiple generations, but the same openness to joys both future and past shine through all the same.
We Move is out now via Serpent’s Tail, including a new paperback edition.