Salaam Stanley Matthews - Softcover

Subrata Dasgupta is the director of the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

The cultural scars inflicted by colonialism have been so well chronicled that it comes as almost a surprise—and perhaps a relief—when the reader realizes that this memoir, about the author's boyhood sojourn in 1950s England, is light on emotional baggage. Dasgupta certainly knows the unpleasant historical connection between England and his native India, but the focus here is on his youthful perspective. His parents, a doctor and a singer, may have pined for Kolkata, but young Subrata (or "Poupeé" as he was nicknamed) adapted to his adopted country quickly and enthusiastically. A cricket fan, Dasgupta soon thrilled to soccer, idolizing gentleman player Matthews as the personification of what was best about both the sport and England. Dasgupta's narrative is also gentlemanly—sometimes a trifle dry—but while he doesn't plumb his own emotional depths, it is a very interesting portrait of a pre-YouTube time, when a boy's fanaticism could be stoked by reading newspapers. This won't be mistaken for Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch (1992), but as a coming-of-age tale it has its pleasures. Graff, Keir