[Days and Nights in Calcutta is] an extraordinarily rich and complex investigation by the Montreal-based writers Blaise and Mukherjee, of the meaning to each of them, individually, and to their marriage, of the hitherto largely-ignored Bengali presence in their linked lives…. (p. 38)

The Montrealers start with an enormous advantage here, and, not to hedge, it's an advantage they make the most of and never lose. Its basis is Mukherjee's early life in Calcutta, the endless relatives and friends they spend their time with there, and her husband's moving awareness of previous complacencies on his part ("But what have you given up? Is it worth it?," he recalls Bengali visitors asking his wife in their Montreal home, and remembers his own comfortable, near-incredulous snicker).

It's a unique achievement, this record of their year on the subcontinent: Blaise's half of the book, crackling with energy and generosity of spirit, with...