SHORTLISTED FOR THE 1999 BOOKER PRIZE Uma, the plain, spinster daughter of a close-knit Indian family, is trapped at home, smothered by her overbearing parents and their traditions, unlike her ambitious younger sister Aruna, who brings off a 'good' marriage, and brother Arun, the disappointing son and heir who is studying in America. Across the world in Massachusetts, life with the Patton family is bewildering for Arun in the alien culture of freedom, freezers and paradoxically self-denying self-indulgence.
In this sensitive portrayal of human nature, Anita Desai, one of India’s foremost writers, paints an intimate portrait of lives impacted by the quest for identity and purpose. Deven, a Hindi lecturer in small-town Mirpore, lives a humdrum existence. A chance to interview Nur—India’s greatest living Urdu poet—offers him an escape from his dreary life. But the Nur he meets is an enfeebled man, surrounded by clashing wives and preying sycophants. Deven’s decision to be the custodian of Nur’s verse gives birth to an unusual alliance between the two. Stimulating and thought provoking, In Custody is a brilliant parable lamenting the gradual corrosion of culture and tradition in the face of modernity, and a dazzling study of the complexity of human relationships.
Sophie and Matteo are young and in love, sharing a dissatisfaction with their bourgeois Italian upbringing. Naturally, like so many other young Westerners in the sixties and seventies, they go to India. But the realities of life in an ashram ignite their differences; Sophie wants to be a tourist and go to Goa and eat shrimp, which Matteo scorns, seeking the ‘real’ India. Pragmatic Sophie is disillusioned by the hardships they encounter, while her husband, who yearns for spiritual fulfillment, sees only the purity of ascetic life, leading him to Mother, a charismatic guru. Trying to reclaim an ailing Matteo, Sophie embarks on a new journey in search for a different truth; that of Mother’s mysterious past. Soon, she finds that the immortal has a history of her own; born in Cairo, she was once Laila, a dancer who toured the world before coming to Bombay to search for ‘divine love’. What each of the three people discover, on their individual quests, is at its heart that ancient truth: that wisdom is found in the journey itself. A stirring, profound exploration of emotional exile, of sacred and profane loves, Journey to Ithaca is a masterful novel.
The Book Is A Pioneering Study Of Its Kind, Chronologically Examining The Novels Of Anita Desai Mostly From A Feminist Point Of View. The Book Excels In Formally Analysing Indian And Western Traditions Of Feminism, Man-Woman Relationship And Art Of Characterisation In The Overall Context Of The Feminine Psyche Which It Thoroughly Examines. Anita Desai S Is A World Of Married Women Who Combat To Get Out Of The Maniacles That Bind Them; To Evolve From Being A Mere Nonentity Victim To A Vibrant Individual Capable Of Breaking The Fetters Without Breaking The Relationship. The Book Is A Voyage From A Sense Of Incompetence And Paranoia To Self-Awareness And Resilience, To Self-Poise And Concord Within The Family Matrix. Dr. Gupta Shows How Anita Desai Has Depicted The Depths Of Human Consciousness And Subconsciousness In Her Existential Concern Which Makes Her Writings Uniquely Powerful Through Feminism. Hence, The Need And Justification Of The Book To Undertake The Present Study Of Her New Perspective On Feminism.
The Book Is A Pioneering Study Of Its Kind, Chronologically Examining The Novels Of Anita Desai Mostly From A Female Point Of View. The Book Excels In Formally Analysing The Character And Situation Relationship In The Overall Context Of The Feminine Phyche Which It Thoroughly Examines. The Value Of The Book Is Immensely Enhanced By A Consideration Of Anita Desai S Fictional Technique. Dr. Gopal S Formal Method Is Not A Closed Universe But Cross Refers To The Social Structure Within Which The Situations Manipulate Characters And Their Destinies.
Anita Desai S Work Represents A Unique Blending Of The Indian And The Western. Her Novels Catch The Bewilderment Of The Individual Psyche Confronted With The Overbearing Socio-Cultural Environment And The Ever-Beckoning Modern Promise Of Self-Gratification And Self-Fulfilment. In The Face Of This Dual Onslaught, Her Protagonists, Male Or Female Maya, Sita, Monisha And Amla; Sarah, Nanda And Raka; Bim And Tara; Devan, Baumgartner Are Seen Poised Rentalizingly At Different Junctures Of The Philosophic Spectrum.Applying Sociological, Psychoanalytic, Structural And Other Approaches Of Formal Textual Analysis, The Essays In The Present Anthology Take A Fresh Look At Established Works, Revealing Aspects Of Study Hitherto Unexplored, Offer Critically Insightful Probes Into Individual Novels And Explore The Deployment Of Images, Symbols And Other Poetic Devices, Besides Diverse Narrative Strategies.An Indispensable Source-Book For Students, Researchers And Teachers Of Indian English And Commonwealth Literature In General And Fiction And Anita Desai In Particular.An Insightful Companion For Research In Sociology And Women-Studies.
Based on the life of the middle class intellectuals of Calcutta, it is an unforgettable story of a Bohemian brother and his two sisters caught in the cross-currents of changing social values. In many ways the story reflects a vivid picture of India's social transition - a phase in which the older elements are not altogether dead, and the emergent ones not fully evolved.
Written in vivid narrative and chiselled prose, Bye-Bye Blackbird explores the lives of the outsiders seeking to forge a new identity in an alien society. Set against England's green and grisly landscape, enigmatic and attractive to some, depressing and nauseating to others, it is a story of everyday heroism against subtle oppression, crumbling traditions and homesickness. 'Characters grow with life, the scenes are delicately painted and the nuances of changing mood skilfully transmitted.' — Hindu 'More than a novel, it is a psychological study of the love-hate relationship the immigrants have towards their country of adoption.' — Indian Express
