Kiran Desai Book Rewiew

8/2/2019 Kiran Desai Book Rewiew

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Kiran Desai (born 3 September 1971) is an Indian author. She is a citizen of India and a permanent

resident of the United States. Her novelThe Inheritance of Losswon the 2006 Man Booker Prize[1]

and

the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award.

Early life

Desai is the daughter of the Anita Desai, herself short-listed for the Booker Prize on three

occasions. She was born in New Delhi, India, and lived there until she was 10. She left India at

14, and she and her mother then lived in England for a year, and then moved to the United States,where she studied creative writing at Bennington College, Hollins University, and Columbia

University.[2]

Work

Her first novel,Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, was published in 1998 and received accolades

from such notable figures as Salman Rushdie.[3]It won the Betty Trask Award,[4]a prize givenby the Society of Authors for the best new novels by citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations

under the age of 35.[5]

Her second book,The Inheritance of Loss, (2006) was widely praised by critics throughout Asia,

Europe and the United States. It won the 2006 Man Booker Prize, as well as the 2006 National

Book Critics Circle Fiction Award.[6][citation needed]

In September 2007, Desai was a guest onPrivate Passions, the biographical music discussion

programme hosted by Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3.[7][citation needed] In May 2007 she was the

featured author at the inaugural Asia House Festival of Cold Literature.

Desai's Jemubhai Patel in The Inheritance of Loss and her mother Anita Desai's Nanda Kaul in

Fire on the mountain have some similarities. Both of them want to lead a secluded life. They do

not wish to be disturbed by others. Their grandchild is the first one who disturbs their aloneness.

At first, they feel the presence of their grandchild embarrassing. But, they gradually understandthat there are certain similarities between them and their grandchildren. In the portrayal ofJemubhai Patel, Kiran Desai must have been inspired by the character, Nanda Kaul of her

mother.[citation needed]

Private life

In January 2010, Orhan Pamuk, recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, publicly

acknowledged that he was in a relationship with Desai.[8]
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old Type: What was your process for writing this book--did you start with the characters or with the

plot?

Kiran Desai: I started with a very small idea, really. I'd read a story in the Times of India and heard about

a character from many people, a man who was a very famous hermit in India who really did climb up a

tree, who lived in a tree for many, many years, until he died. He died last year, I believe. So I began to

wonder what it was about someone like this who would do something as extreme as to spend his life in

a tree. So it started really with that character, and then the story built up around it.

When I started writing it I had no idea what the story would be; I had no idea of the plot. It sort of

gathered momentum and drew me along. It was an incredibly messy process and I don't know if it was

the smartest way to go about it because this was my first book, so I had to teach myself how to write as I

was writing it, and I don't know if I went about it the right way but I certainly had a lot of fun. It was very

messy though--I had to throw out many pages--about half the book I think I ended up editing. Once I

was aware of all the different ways to go, all the plot turns to take.

BT: So how did you know when you were done, when the story was complete?

KD: I think that's perhaps the hardest thing, to know when you've finished, because it seems like you can

always go on polishing and polishing and working on it some more. But after a while I think I was so

close to it that I couldn't even see it anymore; it didn't make sense to continue on my own, and so Ifinally showed it to my agent and wanted an editor to help me take it to the next level. But, I also

realized that after a point you can't go on perfecting something and polishing it and making it better,

because you lose something in the process, the freshness of it, and I realized that even if it wasn't

completely perfect I had to leave it; it was enough--I couldn't work on it any more. It's a balance; if you

perfect one thing you lose something else, and that's the stage where I think you have to know when to

stop.
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BT: Which character or part was the most fun for you to write?

KD: It was a fun book to write, certainly. I was so happy the entire time I was writing it. I grew very fond

of all the characters, perhaps Sampath and his sister the most. The characters were what made me

happy, what drew me to the story in a way. What was difficult was the rest of it, balancing the

complicated plots and interweaving them; that was harder and less fun.

BT: Some writers say that their characters continue to live in them after the book is done--do you miss

your characters now that you've finished writing about them?

KD: Yes, you know, you live with these characters for years and you live in the settings--I lived in the

little village that I created for so long that at first I was bereft when the book was finished; I didn't know

what to do. But now no, now I have other ideas in my head; I've moved on. It's been over a year since I

last really looked at it.

BT: Can you give a little background about your life and your education, how you got to where you are

today?

KD: I was born in India, grew up in India, left when I was fourteen and spent a year in England, and then I

moved to the States and I have been studying here ever since. I went to high school in Massachusetts

and then undergraduate in Vermont--at Bennington--and then to a writing program called Hollins, in

Virginia, where I really started writing this book. Then I went on to Columbia but I took two years off to

finish the book; I couldn't go to school and write at the same time. I couldn't write a novel in the writing

workshop environment.

BT: Was your mother a direct influence on your writing?

KD: I'm sure she did have a big influence, because all my life I've grown up hearing her talk about writing

and literature and books. It was wonderful to have her around when I was writing this book, to talk to

her through this whole process. She was wonderful through the whole thing. It's a big risk to take,

spending years of your life doing something that you're not sure how it's going to turn out, and she was

very good through that whole time, not providing critical support as much as emotional support. A very

motherly role, really.

BT: Who are some of your favorite writers, or some of your favorite works?

KD: I read all different kinds of books, but I like Ichiguru's work a lot and Kenzaburo Oe, Gabriel Garcia

Marquez, Narayan. One of my favorite books is Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo, which I read over and over

again. I also read a lot of poetry.

BT: These days a lot of international writers are being published in the United States and a lot of
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American writers are being published abroad--can you comment on these developments in the

publishing industry?

KD: Yes, a lot of Indian writers are being published in this country, more than ever before, which is very

exciting for us, because it is a whole new world for us to be part of. In England, of course, there's been

much more of a tradition of publishing Indian writers. It's interesting when you are writing in a country

where the publishing world is not as well-developed as it is in the west, and I think it's changing now in

India. Suddenly, publishing is growing much quicker; they're publishing many more books than ever

before and more people are buying books than ever before, so it's a change over there as well. It used to

be the case that really you had to be published abroad in order to make a living as a writer and to have

access to this whole machine, this publishing machine of the west--it's a big advantage I think for us in

India who grew up speaking English. It's very nice to have access to this of course, in terms of the

publishing side of things. But otherwise, in terms of the writing it's wonderful because it is more exciting

for writers and when more books are published from other countries it's more exciting for the reader as

well.

BT: Are there American writers who have been influences on your work?

KD: Yes, definitely. I love Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Flannery O'Connor. I read a lot of

American writers. The publishing world is growing smaller, which is very nice.

BT: Do you have any private rituals or special environments that you need to create in order to write

best?

KD: Well, I carried this book around all over the place when I was writing it, just took it with me

everywhere--I was writing in India and in this country and in Mexico and in different environments and

different rooms everywhere. I had to be quite adaptable, I think, to try and work wherever I was. But

now I live with all these roommates, a house full of people, people coming and going, and I find it

impossible to write and I'm becoming really neurotic where I have to just shut myself in and try to get

some work done.

I really like working in the kitchen; I find that wherever I am I work near the kitchen or in the kitchen

itself. I can constantly make myself little things to eat or cups of tea; I find it's the perfect balance, in

that I can write a bit, eat a cookie, and then I write a bit more, eat some ice cream. Reward myself-- it's

constant rewards. And I work best in the morning, as soon as I get out of bed I start writing, and late at

night. I have dead space in the afternoon, which I think comes from growing up with an afternoon

siesta; my brain just shuts off from about two to five.

BT: I loved the role that food plays in the book--Kulfi, the mother's obsession with food, for example--

is this a fascination of yours?
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KD: It's a great interest of mine; it's so much a part of my life. I'm always in the kitchen, cooking and

experimenting--I love it. And every now and then I think, "I should write a cookbook" or, "I should write

for food magazines. And then I get drawn back to writing fiction again. But yes, food is a big part of my

life.

BT: Your characters are so well-rounded--quirky, diverse--were they figments of your imagination or

did you write people you know into the story? Did you write yourself into the book?

KD: They're made up of bits and pieces of people I know--the main characters are--and other characters

are totally imagined. But of course I'm sure they all do have bits of me in them as well, different parts of

my personality.

BT: Are you the narrator?

KD: Yes, I would say so. I do feel very close to this book in one way, but the book is very much a product

of my imagination as well.

BT: How would you classify this book--a comedy, a fable, a combination of styles?

KD: I wouldn't really--it is a comedy and it is satiric in many ways I think, and it's fantastic. It reads very

much like a folktale or a fairy tale so I think it has different sides, different words can be used to describe

it. It depends on how you read it, I suppose.

BT: What type of audience would you like to read your work?

KD: You know, I never thought of the audience; it was written very much for myself, very much for

selfish reasons, I think. But I think anyone with a sense of humor would enjoy it--I hope. That's one of

the basic requirements.

BT: In writing classes one's often taught to flesh out every character and plot twist well in advance,

and you're proof that that's not always the necessary formula. As you said, you had an

unconventional method for writing Hullabaloo; this being your first book, do you have any advice for

aspiring writers?

KD: There are all kinds of theories that you get told in writing workshops--"Write what you know," and

that sort of thing, which I don't believe at all. I think one of the great joys of writing is to try and explore

what you don't know, that's exciting to me. There are all kinds of little things--show, don't tell--I just

wouldn't pay attention to any of that really. I don't think you can write according to a set of rules and

laws; every writer is so different. I can't imagine how they come up with these rules--they're really

ludicrous. You can't learn to write in that fashion. What inspired me really was reading, reading a lot and

learning from other writers. Learning how they are going about something--I was very aware of that
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when I was writing this book. Every book that I read at the same time I'd think, "Hmm--how do they do

this?" Looking at it in that way, from a technical point of view, which we don't usually do as a reader.

But really I think that's for me what was important; I was training myself to look at my work with a

critical eye.

BT: How much research did you do for this book? Is that important for your writing?

KD: Pretty much none for this book--it was all made up. But I can imagine it would be fun to write about

another place and time and do something different. I'm trying to do some research now for the next

thing I want to write. I imagine it's a difficult balance--I'm sure you can over-research something and

have your fiction not really be fiction anymore. It would be hard to know when to stop.

BT: What are your future plans?

KD: I finish university in May, finally. And then I hope I will be able to go away and write, because I miss

it dreadfully.

Photo credit Marion Ettlinger

Writers

Writers Directory About the Directory

Add to researchKiran Desai
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desai#cite_note-Rao2010-02-01-7http://literature.britishcouncil.org/writershttp://literature.britishcouncil.org/writershttp://literature.britishcouncil.org/writers/about-the-directoryhttp://literature.britishcouncil.org/writers/about-the-directoryhttp://literature.britishcouncil.org/my-research?action=add&class=1&target=561http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/audio.htmlhttp://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/pastish.htmlhttp://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0599/desai/index.htmlhttp://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/audio.htmlhttp://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/pastish.htmlhttp://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0599/desai/index.htmlhttp://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/audio.htmlhttp://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/pastish.htmlhttp://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0599/desai/index.htmlhttp://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/audio.htmlhttp://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/pastish.htmlhttp://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0599/desai/index.htmlhttp://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/audio.htmlhttp://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/pastish.htmlhttp://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0599/desai/index.htmlhttp://literature.britishcouncil.org/my-research?action=add&class=1&target=561http://literature.britishcouncil.org/writers/about-the-directoryhttp://literature.britishcouncil.org/writers


7/19

Penguin

Born

India

Genre

Fiction

Biography

Kiran Desai was born in India in 1971 and grew up there before moving to England, aged

fourteen years.

She was educated in India, England and the US. Her first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava

Orchard(1998) won a 1998 Betty Trask Award, and her second novel, The Inheritanceof Loss (2006), set in the mid 1980s in a Himalayan village, won the 2006 Man Booker

Prize for Fiction.

Critical Perspective

As might be expected from the rich input of her cultural background, Kiran Desai, daughter of the

author Anita Desai, is a born story-teller.

Her first novel,Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard(1998), is a pacy, fresh look at life in the

sleepy provincial town of Shahkot in India. The central character of the novel, Sampath Chawla,failed postal clerk and pathological dreamer, escapes from his work and his oppressive family to

live in a guava tree. Here he spends his life snoozing, musing and eating the ever-more exotic

meals cooked for him by his sociopathic mother. He begins to amaze his fellow townspeople byrevealing intimate details about them gleaned from a bit of lazy letter-opening whilst still

working at the post office and by spouting a series of truisms worthy of a Shakespearian fool, or

Forrest Gump. Before long he becomes known as a local guru and attracts such a strong flow of

visitors that opening hours have to be established in the orchard to allow him to rest.

Soon, commercialism, a recurrent theme in Desais work, takes over: Sampaths fast-thinking,

entrepreneurial father Mr Chawla, who at first despaired at his sons inanity, now sees his chance

to make the familys fortune. He sets up his picturesque family in a compound around the guavatree that is soon lined with colourful advertisements for tailors, fizzy drinks, talcum powder and

insect repellent. Visitors bring gifts that Mr Chawla can sell, the family bank account begins to

grow and he looks at investment plans. All goes well until the arrival in the orchard of a group oflangur monkeys who have developed a taste for alcohol and begin to terrorise the town. The tale

continues, with a growing sense of impending doom, as the family and the various officials of
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the town try to resolve the monkey problem.

Like many important works of literature, the book can be read on several levels as an

inventive, fast-moving, delicious tale full of rich descriptions and marvellous comic cartoon-like

personalities, but also as a deeper study of the pathos of familial misunderstanding, the

ridiculousness of hero-worship, the unpredictability of commercialism and the ineptness ofofficialdom.

Many of these themes are explored further in Desais next novel, The Inheritance of Loss(2006). The story revolves around the inhabitants of a town in the north-eastern Himalayas, an

embittered old judge, his granddaughter Sai, his cook and their rich array of relatives, friends and

acquaintances and the effects on the lives of these people brought about by a Nepalese uprising.

Running parallel with the story set in India we also follow the vicissitudes of the cooks son Bijuas he struggles to realise the American Dream as an immigrant in New York.

Like its predecessor, this book abounds in rich, sensual descriptions. These can be sublimely

beautiful, such as in the images of the flourishing of nature at the local convent in spring: 'Huge,spread-open Easter lilies were sticky with spilling antlers; insects chased each other madly

through the sky, zip zip; and amorous butterflies, cucumber green, tumbled past the jeepwindows into the deep marine valleys.' They can also be horrific, such as in descriptions of the

protest march: 'Onejawan was knifed to death, the arms of another were chopped off, a third was

stabbed, and the heads of policemen came up on stakes before the station across from the benchunder the plum tree, where the towns people had rested themselves in more peaceful times and

the cook sometimes read his letters. A beheaded body ran briefly down the street, blood

fountaining from the neck ...'.

The Inheritance of Loss is much more ambitious thanHullabaloo in its spatial breadth and

emotional depth. It takes on huge subjects such as morality and justice, globalisation, racial,

social and economic inequality, fundamentalism and alienation. It takes its reader on a see-saw

of negative emotions. There is pathos - which often goes hand in hand with revulsion forexample in the description of the judge's adoration of his dog Mutt, the disappearance of which

rocks his whole existence, set against his cruelty to his young wife. There is frequent outrage at

the deprivation and poverty in which many of the characters live, including the cooks son inAmerica; and there is humiliation, for example in the treatment of Sai by her lover-turned-rebel,

or Lola, who tries to stand up to the Nepalese bullies.

Against these strong emotions however, Desai expertly injects doses of comedy and buffoon-like

figures. One of these is Biju's winsome friend Saeed, an African (Biju 'hated all black people but

liked Saeed'), with a slyer and much more happy go lucky attitude to life. Whereas Biju finds it

difficult to have a conversation even with the Indian girls to whom he delivers a take away meal,Saeed 'had many girls':

'"Oh myee God!! he said. Oh myee Gaaaawd! She keep calling me and calling me, he clutchedat head, aaaiii...I don't know what to do!!... It's those dreadlocks, cut them off and the girls

will go.'


9/19

'But I don't want them to go!

Much of the comedy also arises from the Indian mis or over-use of the English language.

Result equivocal the young Judge wrote home to India on completing his university

examinations in Britain. What, asked everyone does that mean? It sounded as if there was a

problem, because un words were negative words, those basically competent in the Englishagreed. But then (his father) consulted the assistant magistrate and they exploded with joy .'

Bose, the Judges friend from his university days is a wonderfully optimistic but pompousindividual, made all the more ridiculous by his over-use of British idioms'Cheeri-o, right-o,

tickety boo, simply smashing, chin-chin, no siree, hows that,bottoms up, I say!'

An original and modern aspect of Desais style is the almost poet-like use she makes of different

print forms on the page: she uses italics for foreign words as if to emphasise their exoticness and

untraslatability and capitals for emphasis when someone is angry, expressing surprise or

disbelief (a natural development of the netiquette that to write in capitals is like shouting). She

also exploits our modern mania for lists. In an age where our media is filled with top tens and topone hundredsmost voted-for politician, best-dressed woman, richest man etc. Desai produces

her own array of matter of fact but quite unnerving lists the parts of their bodies which touchwhen Gyan and Sai kiss; the free gifts that you get from a charity if you make a donation to a

cow shelter; the wide variety of puddings that the cook is able to make, the list rattled off with no

spaces as if expressing both the urgency of the speaker to impress and his perplexity at theforeignness of English pudding names.

One of the most thought-provoking lists is 'what the world thinks of Indians':

'In China, they hate them.In Hong Kong.

In Germany.

In Italy.

In Japan.In Guam.

In Singapore.

Burma.South Africa.

They don't like them.

In Guadeloupethey love us there?No.'

The build up of word on word, of country on country and the blank white of the space around thewordswhat better way could there be to describe the desolation of racial prejudice?


10/19

Bibliography

2006

The Inheritance of Loss, Hamish Hamilton

1998

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, Faber and Faber

Awards

2007

Orange Prize for Fiction, The Inheritance of Loss, shortlist

2007

National Book Critics' Circle Fiction Award (USA), The Inheritance of Loss

2007

Kiryiama Pacific Rim Book Prize, The Inheritance of Loss, shortlist

2007

British Book Awards Decibel Writer of the Year, The Inheritance of Loss, shortlist

2006

Man Booker Prize for Fiction, The Inheritance of Loss

1998

Betty Trask Award, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard


11/19

(AP photo)

LONDON: Indian-origin writer Kiran Desai has scooped the 50,000 pound Man Booker Prize

with her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss', a story rich with sadness about globalisationand with joy at the small surviving intimacies of Indian village life.

The 35-year-old author, daughter of well-known Indian novelist Anita Desai -- to whom The

Inheritance of Loss is dedicated -- is the youngest woman to win the award, eclipsing the worksof five other short-listed authors.

"I didn't expect to win. I don't have a speech. My mother told me I must wear a sari... A family

heirloom, but it's completely transparent," Desai, said, while accepting the award at a ceremonyat the Guildhall in London, Tuesday night.

After thanking her publisher, editor and agent, the student of creative writing at ColumbiaUniversity in America added: I'm Indian and so I'm going to thank my parents.

"To my mother I owe a debt so profound and so great, that this book feels as much hers as it is

does mine. It was written in her company and in her wisdom and kindness in cold winters in herhouse... One minute isn't enough to convey it," she said, after accepting the prize.

It is in sharp contrast to her mother's 40 years of writing experience. The elder Desai has wonfive different awards and written 14 novels three of which have been nominated for the Booker,

the last in 1999. One was turned into the Merchant Ivory film In Custody .

Desai came to live in England as a teenager for a year before moving to America. The novel,


12/19

which took eight years to write, draws on her experience of leaving India. It is set in the north-

eastern Himalayas and New York, and is about an embittered old judge who wants to retire inpeace. It interweaves his story with that of his orphaned teenage granddaughter, his cook and his

dog.

Desai beat five other authors, including favourite Sarah Waters to win the 50,000-pound award.The other five books which had made it to the shortlist were Kate Grenville's The Secret River,

M J Hyland's Carry Me Down , Hisham Matar'sIn the Country of Men , Edward St Aubyn's

Mother's Milkand Sarah Waters's The Night Watch .

The Booker Prize is one of the most prestigious prizes in literature which aims to reward the best

writing published in Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth. It has a prize of 50,000 pounds aswell as the 2,500 pounds awarded to each of the six short listed authors.

Revbiew

Book Review: The Inheritance of Loss By Kiran Desai

7 Feb

Reviewed by Kiprop Kimutai

Somewhere below the five peaks ofKanchenjunga(a range section of the Himalays mountains),

a house stands. Built by aScotsmanwhenIndiawas colonized, it boasted excellent workmanshipearlier on-fancy piping and tubing, good tiling and wrought iron gates. but that was then. Now it

is an abode for dead spiders and a scorpions nest, with soot-clumped walls and the pipes all

gone shaky and leaking, bandaged with soppy rags.

It houses a retired judge, his grand-daughter Sai, atimid cook and a dog called Mutt. An

odd crowd whose lack of any defining common identity adds even more to their misery. For Sai,

luck comes in the from of Gyan, an accounting student who comes to serve as her tutor, as her

former tutor, a lady called Noni, gets defeated by the complexities of physics and mathematics.

Gyan is described to carry an unmistakable whiff of ambition despite his humble background,and the idea of that boy alone in a room with Sai, creates a disquiet in both the judge and the

cook. For Sai it is a welcome relief. She has resided in that boring house ever since she waswhisked from aCatholic schoolafter her parents (astronauts training inMoscow) perish in a

terrible accident and the school, mourning its loss of donor funds (from the deceased) start seeing

Sai as a burden, and quickly trace her dwindling relations before finally settling on her grand-father, the judge, to be a guardian. The judge, British-educated like his grandchild is intent that

she does not lose her fine accent and English manners and thus sequesters her from anything
http://literarychronicles.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/book-review-the-inheritance-of-loss-by-kiran-desai/http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=27.7025,88.1483333333&spn=0.1,0.1&q=27.7025,88.1483333333%20%28Kangchenjunga%29&t=hhttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=27.7025,88.1483333333&spn=0.1,0.1&q=27.7025,88.1483333333%20%28Kangchenjunga%29&t=hhttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=27.7025,88.1483333333&spn=0.1,0.1&q=27.7025,88.1483333333%20%28Kangchenjunga%29&t=hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_peoplehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_peoplehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_peoplehttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=28.6133333333,77.2083333333&spn=10.0,10.0&q=28.6133333333,77.2083333333%20%28India%29&t=hhttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=28.6133333333,77.2083333333&spn=10.0,10.0&q=28.6133333333,77.2083333333%20%28India%29&t=hhttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=28.6133333333,77.2083333333&spn=10.0,10.0&q=28.6133333333,77.2083333333%20%28India%29&t=hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_schoolhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_schoolhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_schoolhttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=55.75,37.6166666667&spn=0.1,0.1&q=55.75,37.6166666667%20%28Moscow%29&t=hhttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=55.75,37.6166666667&spn=0.1,0.1&q=55.75,37.6166666667%20%28Moscow%29&t=hhttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=55.75,37.6166666667&spn=0.1,0.1&q=55.75,37.6166666667%20%28Moscow%29&t=hhttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=55.75,37.6166666667&spn=0.1,0.1&q=55.75,37.6166666667%20%28Moscow%29&t=hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_schoolhttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=28.6133333333,77.2083333333&spn=10.0,10.0&q=28.6133333333,77.2083333333%20%28India%29&t=hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_peoplehttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=27.7025,88.1483333333&spn=0.1,0.1&q=27.7025,88.1483333333%20%28Kangchenjunga%29&t=hhttp://literarychronicles.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/book-review-the-inheritance-of-loss-by-kiran-desai/


13/19

undesirable in the enviroment, insisting in tutors and constant observation of her whereabouts

from the cook. Love blossoms between Gyan and Sai. At first it is denied, the two concentratingon the sums before them, dissection of angles and analysis of graphs. Still, like an alien creature,

love reaches out with desperate tentacles and entangles the two. TheyKiss. They fight. They kiss

some more.

The cook is as poor as poor could be, with nothing but a thin mattress, a tiny collection of old

clothes and his culinary skills to his name. Still he dreams of modern amenities-refrigerators,microwaves, telephones-at night he dreams of mobile phones that fly off just before he presses

the dialling pad. His sole hope is in his son, Biju, who flew to America some time back and is

playing a cat and mouse game to be ahead of the immigration police as he looks for low-end,employee-abusing jobs at fast-food joints. The cook talks a lot and is proud of the judge and Sai,

and cooks up fascinating hero-worship stories about working for them. He bears an unusually

high level of timidity, that seems ingrained to the very core of his fibre, an eagerness to please

and give in, whether he is assaulted by the police or robbers alike.

The judge is apparently very cold-hearted, unless to the affections generously shown to his dogMutt. He hides a lot from his past- a murder, estrangement with family, being bown to a lowly-caste, racial abuse inEnglandwhere he was educated, and many more bits and pieces of his life

that slowly unravel as the story moves on. He is an object of wonderment in the region, a relic

whose glory is diminishing with age and whittling resources, but still a pinnacle of achievementto be admired from afar. His desperation and anguish finally spill out at the end, catalysed by the

disappearence of his dog ( the latter beingg stolen by a destitute couple to be sold in the next

town in exchange for food after they had knocked at the judges door and been refused any help).

I have to speak about Biju (the cooks soon), his disillusionment with theAmerican dream, his

deplorable living conditions in America. The book describes his journey to America with

effortless gracethe eagerness to queue at the American embassy, and the falsification of a storyto earn him a visa and the attendant palpitations of his heart as he is unsure of whether his story

would be accepted. It describes how he lives like a rat in America, no health insurance when he

breaks his arm and having to let it heal by itself, his desperate attempts to make phone calls to hisfather, and how his dream of making it in America finally dwindles. He buys a ticket to fly back

home to India, packing modern fanciful amenities for his further in his suitcase. It is his journey

back to their mountain home that gives the story a final cruel twist.
http://kissonline.com/http://kissonline.com/http://kissonline.com/http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.5,-0.116666666667&spn=10.0,10.0&q=51.5,-0.116666666667%20%28England%29&t=hhttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.5,-0.116666666667&spn=10.0,10.0&q=51.5,-0.116666666667%20%28England%29&t=hhttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.5,-0.116666666667&spn=10.0,10.0&q=51.5,-0.116666666667%20%28England%29&t=hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dreamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dreamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dreamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dreamhttp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.5,-0.116666666667&spn=10.0,10.0&q=51.5,-0.116666666667%20%28England%29&t=hhttp://kissonline.com/


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The author: Kiran Desai

Overall,the Inheritance of Lossis a literary masterpiece, unputdownable and unquestionable in

its flair for description, character scrutiny and human emotion mastery. There is more to it than

the story of these four individuals, it speaks of a military insurgency arising, awakening hatredand almost tearing that part of the region from India. It speaks of the attendant anguish-not only

to these four people but to their neighbours as well, and how their spirits are put to test-the

willingness to accept defeat and move on, and the desire to search for the truth, just like the bookdescribes at the end;

The five peaks of Kanchenjunga turned golden with the kind of luminous light that made you

feel, if briefly, that truth was apparent. All you needed to do was to reach out and pluck it.

Currently, the best thing about winning the Booker Prize, as Kiran Desai would have it, is that itbrought her hereto our tiny island in the Indian Ocean. I anticipated my affection for Sri

Lanka, she says smiling. As the sun sinks past the horizon, and a dusky twilight cloaks GalleFort, Kiran and I have what can best be described as a chat; it begins with the promise of ten

minutes, and very quickly stretches to twenty, then half an hour.

Fame sits very easily on her. So much so, that the youngest female author to ever win the

prestigious Booker Prize manages to be the pleasantest of surprisesunaffected, sunny temperedand genuinely sweet.

Kiran took centre stage when her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss won her the prestigiousMan Booker Prize in 2006. Predictably, she is something of a heroine in India and is currently
http://www.amazon.com/Inheritance-Loss-Kiran-Desai/dp/0241143489%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0241143489http://www.amazon.com/Inheritance-Loss-Kiran-Desai/dp/0241143489%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0241143489http://www.amazon.com/Inheritance-Loss-Kiran-Desai/dp/0241143489%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0241143489http://literarychronicles.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/news-graphics-2006-_627911a.jpghttp://www.amazon.com/Inheritance-Loss-Kiran-Desai/dp/0241143489%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0241143489


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the darling of the literary circuit. The question isis it all in the genes? As the daughter of Anita

Desai, Kiran has had much to live up to and at the same time a profound source of inspirationand support to live with. Though the elder Desais flirtation with the Booker Prize was neverrealized, her daughter won it the first time around. The odds of that of both a parent and child

being short listed for the literary worlds most recognized prize are long to say the least.

Reflecting on her mothers influences on her writing, Kiran says that Anita Desai was always

blunt about the ground realities of writingshe would say to me, Never become a writer good advice in a world where isolation, frustration, and pitiful pay are an accepted part of the

profession. And for a while it seemed that Kiran would in fact go the other way choosing to

study science and attempting a career in ecology. However, when she found herself writingpieces like Cannibalism in the Common House Cricket, she decided to switch.

I became a writer because nothing else worked, says Kiran, it was the only time when I was

extremely challengedpushed to the extremes of doubt and yet extremely happy. I was

incredibly happy working every day Kiran would sit at the kitchen table, writing in bursts,

then stopping for a drink or a bite to eat. If I couldnt have been a writer, I would have been acook, she says smiling, and slender though she may be, it turns out that Kiran loves her food.

(So much so that she was embarrassed by how both my books have so much to do withfoodIts all cooks and kitchens and restaurants)

Kiran obviously enjoyed fiction, and would in fact take writing classes in an attempt to master

the art. Ironically, it was only when she opted ou t, reacting to what she considers the sanitized

writing such classes produced, that Kiran found the space for her own approach. Her first book,Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, took four years to write, and was recognized with lavish praise

by numerous readers and critics. But the book was a fable, a light hearted, lyrical peek into the

world of Sampath Chawla who became a holy man the day he climbed into the guava tree and

stayed there. The Inheritance of Loss, on the other hand, though no less lyrical, could never beaccused of being lighthearted.

The Inheritance of Loss is not an easy book to read, (beginning with the title) and though it doesboast many instances of humour, many have accused Kiran of being resolutely pessimistic.

Interestingly, Kiran herself thinks of the title in particular as being too gloomy, and hates

having to tell people what her book is called, admitting it throws a pall over any party.However, when it comes to the book itself, she believes there is a redemption of sorts offered at

the end.

The book, addresses and struggles with some of the most crucial issues of our time despite

being set in the 1980s its relevance to a world still beset by poverty, fundamentalism, terrorism,

globalisation and the frictions of multiculturalism and constant immigration is undisputed. How

does she manage this? I think its because things just havent changed that much, she sayssimply. Initially, I thought I would write a much simpler immigration novel, says Kiran,

explaining how she intended it to be based on her own experience as an immigrant and how it

shaped her identity.


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Sometimes it seems that you have to leave, to step away, before you can really understand where

you were. When I went to England I had my first realization of what it meant to be Indian. It

was a really muddled time, she explains. She like many others adapted to the demands of a newculture. In the writing, however, the book soon stretched to encompass many more stories,

exploring the underbelly of immigration, the painful legacy of a humiliating colonial rule and

the modern malaise of alienation. Set partly in India and partly in the USA, the book exploreswhat it means to live between East and West and what it means to be an immigrant on many

different levels and different perspectives.

The Inheritance of Loss was a long time in the writingit took Kiran seven years to write and

then another year to publish the book. Deeply immersed in her novel, Kiran found that it defined

her life, and as a result, I dont think I can separate my existence from my writing anymore.The result was an intimidating 1,500 pages, which in the end she whittled down to 324. It was

such a struggle, she says, describing the process, it was such a monster by then. In the end it

was the need for money that actually made her get down to it. With only her advance from her

publishers to draw upon, Kiran soon that she was growing poorer all the timeI was living off

my family, and they kept begging me to get a job.

But Kiran chose to stick to her gunswith her mothers support. She went back to Kalimpong in2001, where a part of the books action takes place. Having last been there when she was 14

years old, she wanted to make sure, while she was still writing her book, that memory and reality

didnt diverge too dramatically. Having last seen it through the eyes of a young girl, Kiran foundmuch that was recognizable still. Her descriptions of the fog draping the mountains, the old

wooden houses, and the underlying tensions among the people living in them all that makes

Kalimpong come alive for the readerbespeak of long familiarity. I wanted to write about a

girl growing up there, she reminisces, adding, it was the rainy season, a good time for writing.

As a result, the little detailschocolate cigars and vibrantly coloured fungus that spring upovernight after the rainsfind their way in, adding depth and realism to the narrative. The house

Choya Oyu, where Sai (a young girl around whom much of the plot revolves) lives with the

Judge and their cook, was drawn from Kirans memory of her aunts house. Several characters,including Father Booty and the Judge have been inspired in part by people Kiran actually knew.

Today, it is still the peopleher family in particularwho give Kiran roots in a rapidlychanging India. Though based in New York, she visits her family every year. But saying

goodbye doesnt ever get any easier. Leaving and saying goodbye has an effect that

accumulates, she says, I can hardly stand to do it anymore. However, she says that she finds a

sense of identity and connection with the Diaspora and that the immigrant community provides

her with a strong and constant emotional location.

Kiran frequently finds herself writing about the loss of a subject, the gaps in things. Did shefind herself working with the Booker Jury in mind? No, she says, explaining that the best

reason she had found for writing, is to please herself, besides, if it were fame and fortune she

were after, I wouldnt have taken 7 or 8 years, I would have been quicker. Shes remarkably

grounded and will be the first to point out that theres talent on every street corner.


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Winning the Booker, momentous though it may have been, has changed very little about the way

Kiran evaluates herself. After all, what she wants to do is write, and writing doesnt come from

being famous or happy, it comes from more difficult placesit comes from doubt, worry and allthose more uncomfortable emotions.

Writing Style:The novel is full of stylistic playfulness,touches of comedy,subtlety of logic and naturedescription.The panorama of the novel is very vast.Desai's use of the omniscient point of view has

facilitated the narrative,yet the movements between New York and India sometimes disturb the

readers.There is a juxtaposition of place and time.Desai employs stream of consciousness and flashback

technique,past is contrasted with present.The local words are used very often.

My Thoughts:When I opened the novel I loved it for the descriptions of daily life in Kalimpong as I was

able to clearly picture the surroundings.Even though the plot was heavy and story not as interesting as

expected,I continued reading because of the strength of the descriptions of Indian life and human

predicament.Without the setting the story would struggle to carry a reader along

Summary:Jemubhai,a retired judge,lives alone with his cook and dog Mutt in an isolated house in

Kalimpong,Darjeeling.The arrival of his granddaughter Sai upsets him.Sai is romantically involved with

her Math tutor Gyan.In a parallel narrative we are shown the life of Biju,the son of Cook,an illegal

immigrant in New york.

Mutt and the maths tutor

Natasha Walter immerses herself in the bleak but compelling world of Kiran Desai's impressive

new novel, The Inheritance of Loss

Mutt and the maths tutor

Natasha Walter immerses herself in the bleak but compelling world of Kiran Desai's impressive

new novel, The Inheritance of Loss

This impressive novel, longlisted for the Man Booker prize, produces a strange effect. It is a big

novel that stretches from India to New York; an ambitious novel that reaches into the lives of the

middle class and the very poor; an exuberantly written novel that mixes colloquial and moreliterary styles; and yet it communicates nothing so much as how impossible it is to live a big,

ambitious, exuberant life. Everything about it dramatises the fact that although we live in this


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mixed-up, messy, globalised world, for many people the dominant response is fear of change,

based on a deep desire for security.

The Inheritance of Loss is set in the Himalayas, "where India blurred into Bhutan and Sikkim ...

it had always been a messy map". A young Indian girl, Sai, lives with her grandfather, a retired

judge, in a damp and crumbling house. Sai has started a relationship with her Nepalese mathstutor, Gyan. But, unknown to her, Gyan has become seduced by a group of Nepalese insurgents,

some of whom are, as the book opens, marching to Sai's house to steal food, Pond's Cold Cream,Grand Marnier, and her grandfather's old rifles.

This incident makes up the first, grim chapter of the book. There is something about Desai'sdescription that touches on humour, and yet it is much too painful to be funny. Even the judge's

dog is wrong-footed in the encounter: "Mutt began to do what she always did when she met

strangers: she turned a furiously wagging bottom to the intruders and looked around from

behind, smiling, conveying both shyness and hope." The judge is so deeply humiliated by havingto prepare tea for the intruders that Sai has to pretend not to see what has happened. "Both Sai

and the cook had averted their gaze from the judge and his humiliation ... it was an awful thing,the downing of a proud man. He might kill the witness."

After setting the scene with a moment of such high drama, Desai shows how the lives of Gyan

and Sai and her grandfather, along with their cook and his son, intertwine before and after thishorrible turning point. She casts her net wide, and scenes in which the cook's son, Biju, tries to

make a life in the US are paralleled by the judge's experience studying in England in the 1940s.

In both situations, we see a young Indian man setting off full of idealism about the cultural andmaterial opportunities of the west, only to find himself ground down by the reality of being a

second-class citizen.

So we hear about the judge as a young man, alienated by the coldness of Cambridge society."Despite his attempts to hide, he merely emphasised something that unsettled others. For entire

days nobody spoke to him at all ... elderly ladies ... moved over when he sat next to them in the

bus, so he knew that whatever they had, they were secure in their conviction that it wasn't evenremotely as bad as what he had." We hear about the young Biju, working in filthy restaurants for

exploitative employers, drifting from job to job, and then "Slipping out and back on the street. It

was horrible what happened to Indians abroad and nobody knew but other Indians abroad. It wasa dirty little rodent secret."

The only time this atmosphere of loss and displacement lifts is in the scenes where Sai begins to

fall in love with Gyan. Here, Desai's prose becomes marvellously flexible, sometimes almost too

jumpy and uncontrolled, but always pulsing with energy. "Her ears she displayed like items

taken from under the counter and put before a discerning customer in one of the town's curioshops, but when he tried to test the depth of her eyes with his, her glance proved too slippery to

hold; he picked it up and dropped it, retrieved it, dropped it again until it slid away and hid."

Sadly, their love dies when Gyan joins the insurgents and stops coming to see Sai. Sai eventually

goes to confront him, but the encounter ends in disappointment. Gyan thinks to himself as sheleaves: "Sai was not miraculous; she was an uninspiring person, a reflection of all the

contradictions around her."


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If we were in the world of Salman Rushdie, then Gyan and Sai would achieve a sensual

communion that would stand against all the misunderstandings of ethnic and political and classhatreds. But the point of this novel, constantly brought home to us in small and big ways, is how

individuals are always failing to communicate. Desai flicks from a failed telephone call to a

failed marriage, a lost dog to lost parents, and the cumulative experience is of atomisation and

thwarted yearning. I think this constant sense of disappointment is the reason why, although Iadmired this novel, I can't say I loved it. It's not surprising that Desai's characters occasionally

refer to VS Naipaul, who has something of the same chastened view about the possibility of

emotional fulfilment.

The only emotional connection that endures is that between the cook and his son, and even this isso uncertain, despite a momentarily hopeful ending, that it hardly lightens the book. Otherwise,

we are left with Sai, and her sense, which is also the sensation experienced by the reader, of

being battered by overlapping stories that drown out her own desire for the reassurance of love:

"Never again could she think there was but one narrative and that this narrative belonged only toherself, that she might create her own tiny happiness and live safely within it."

Natasha Walter's The New Feminism is published by Virago.

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Kiran Desai Book Rewiew