"The Inheritance of Loss" by Kiran Desai

-

Read: 3/2/09

5/5 stars

Kiran Desai, daughter of Anita Desai, wins a Booker Prize for this, her first novel. And so the daughter gets what her mother has only been shortlisted for twice over.

I have never read Anita Desai, mind. But this book, barring my occasional bemusement at the Booker's seeming desire to make up for their sins as colonizers, is a beautifully written piece of work and one whose win I will not question.

The Inheritance of Loss is set mostly in Nepal, but partly in the US (and very minimally in Britain, through flashbacks). The cast of characters involves mostly natives of Nepal, in varied states of alienation from their nationality and themselves. Take Sai--an orphan who has to live with her grandfather, who was once a former judge and educated in England. They live in a small town in the mountains, in a house that spoke of former wealth amidst a population that is generally destitute. Sai prefers to speak English, though she is a native of Nepal. There is also a cook who lives with them, whose son is currently in the US, living out the great Third World dream of migrating to a First World nation. Except that the cook's son isn't living the dream. In the land of plenty where millions of Indians seek to go, the cook's son, Biju, is struggling for occupation, for acknowledgement, for dignity.

"How many people live in the fake versions of their countries, in the fake versions of other people's countries?" Biju asks himself in a moment of crisis. And I could not help but resonante with his question. How many people, though natives of their own countries, are actually foreigners in it? Is this phenomenon particular only to former colonies, or does it exist even amongst the colonizers? I would think that the question also bears asking today in a world getting ever smaller. When lines are redrawn, and people claim that we are one global community, then who exactly are we?

But to return to why I resonate--perhaps because I am guilty of this myself. I admit to not knowing that much about my country--not its geography, its literature, or even its language. Strangely, though, I have no desire to leave it. So what does this make me?

This is also why I give this book 5 out of 5 stars--for its capacity to allow me reflect on questions beyond "Is the guy going to get together with the girl?" or "Who killed the man, and how will our hero reveal all in the book's denoument?" And, as I mentioned, the book is beautifully written--elegance of language and astonishing images. So though the Booker prize winners are often hit-or-miss for me, this one was definitely a hit.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Soledad's Sister by Jose Dalisay, Jr.

-
Image
Soledad's Sister  by Jose "Butch" Dalisay is the first Philippine novel to be shortlisted for the distinguished Man Asian Literary Prize  in 2007. I remember reading about the Man Asian at that time and finding out about Dalisay's shortlisted novel. And I recall thinking, "Well, that sounds about right." After all, Butch Dalisay is one of the country's premier writers.This much is evident when you read Soledad's Sister . Way back in college, I was fortunate enough to have Butch Dalisay as one of my professors. The class was an undergrad course on Survey of American Literature, and I remember every single story and poem we took up to this day. I also remember him reading to us one of his essays during class. He had his Mac open on his desk and was reading his essay from the screen. Back then, I was thinking, "This should be boring. But it isn't." And I realized it wasn't boring because I was entranced by his words. The summary...
Read more

Filipino authors with internationally-published books

-
Image
Some of the books from Filipino authors published by intl. publishers. Clockwise from top left: Age of Blight by Kristine Ong Muslim; The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco; The Courageous Princess Vol. 1 by Rod Espinosa; Learning To Fall by Mina Esguerra, Smaller And Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan; The Last Time I'll Write About You by Dawn Lanuza. It seems an exciting time for Filipino authors. A Filipina YA author was at the Brooklyn Book Festival and other festivals, some Filipino authors just wrapped up panels during the Fil-Am International Book Festival in San Francisco , a few other Fil-Am authors are coming out with new books from a major publisher in the next few months ( literary fiction , young adult , and middle grade ), and another classic author was recently published by Penguin Classics. Not to mention that a few Filipino authors have been pitching at #dvpit and have already found agents . And I'm pretty sure I'm barely scratching the surface her...
Read more

The El Bimbo Variations by Adam David

-
Image
When reading a poetry collection, one of the last things you expect to do is laugh out loud. But, if you were to read Adam David's new edition of The El Bimbo Variations , that is exactly what you'd be doing. My advice: try not to read it in public, unless you're okay with people looking at you weird because your shoulders are suddenly shaking in laughter or you have a snap-happy grin on your face. I first read The El Bimbo Variations back when it was still in pdf format. Four years ago, the poet Adam David gave a talk to one of our high school junior classes during a yearly activity where we expose students to real-life writers. In preparation, he sent us  a copy of his El Bimbo Variations , and told me that we could distribute it to the students so that they'd know his work. We photocopied them for the classes assigned to Adam and, on the day of the talk, I went in and listened to his session where he got riled up about big publishers and their limited repertoire...
Read more