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3.31 AVERAGE
3.31 AVERAGE
Not one of my favorite books. The words are right - and she paints great pictures of the environment, etc. but her characters are flat/undeveloped. Story is disjointed. Trying to do too much while also following a story that had no beginning and no end.
Brilliant and provocative. Not an easy read on a number of levels, and a couple of the characters (I'm looking at you, Father Booty and Uncle Potty) seemed unnecessary. Still, a beautifully written novel about colonialism and globalism, and how it affects people as individuals.
There is plenty of beauty and plenty of horror in Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss. The book is set in the 1980s in Kalimpong, a town on the Indian side of the Himalayas, where the characters (an orphan girl named Sai, her grandfather the judge, their cook, Sai's Nepali tutor Gyan, and - in a parallel storyline - the cook's son Biju trying to live and work in America) live out lives set in motion by Western colonization and continuing to be shaped by global corporate and political forces:
"Sai realized that her own delivery to Kalimpong in such a manner was merely part of the monotony, not the original. The repetition had willed her, anticipated her, cursed her, and certain moves made long ago had produced all of them."
Desai raises many big and important questions ("But the child shouldn't be blamed for a father's crime...but should the child therefore also enjoy the father's illicit gain?" Sai muses at one point upon reading a British book on India) and depicts a range of issues (bride-burning, domestic violence, the rise of nationalist militias, poverty, immigrant labour exploitation and police brutality) as part of the legacy of colonialism.
The story of Biju working and living illegally in New York, being exploited and humiliated by his employers and customers, mirrors the humiliation many of the characters living in Kalimpong go through. For some of the characters in Kalimpong, they cope with their humiliation by brutalizing women and animals. Though all the characters are distinct, none can totally escape from the legacy left to them.
At one point in the book Desai writes: "There was no system to soothe the unfairness of things: justice was without scope; it might snag the stealer of chickens but great evasive crimes would have to be dismissed because, if identified and netted, they would bring down the entire structure of so-called civilization."
"Sai realized that her own delivery to Kalimpong in such a manner was merely part of the monotony, not the original. The repetition had willed her, anticipated her, cursed her, and certain moves made long ago had produced all of them."
Desai raises many big and important questions ("But the child shouldn't be blamed for a father's crime...but should the child therefore also enjoy the father's illicit gain?" Sai muses at one point upon reading a British book on India) and depicts a range of issues (bride-burning, domestic violence, the rise of nationalist militias, poverty, immigrant labour exploitation and police brutality) as part of the legacy of colonialism.
The story of Biju working and living illegally in New York, being exploited and humiliated by his employers and customers, mirrors the humiliation many of the characters living in Kalimpong go through. For some of the characters in Kalimpong, they cope with their humiliation by brutalizing women and animals. Though all the characters are distinct, none can totally escape from the legacy left to them.
At one point in the book Desai writes: "There was no system to soothe the unfairness of things: justice was without scope; it might snag the stealer of chickens but great evasive crimes would have to be dismissed because, if identified and netted, they would bring down the entire structure of so-called civilization."
Rich in historical, cultural, and descriptive detail, I thought that 'The Inheritance of Loss' was a really good read. The novel is steeped in nostalgia, but perhaps a lot of the cultural context may be very particular and get lost on some readers who are not as familiar with the backdrop. Recommend eitherways!
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I couldn't get into this book too well. It has great reviews, but I didn't quite follow it all the time. It switched from protagonist to protagonist, and there were flashbacks, but I wasn't always sure who was who and when it was.
Wasn't sure about the beginning, liked the middle and couldn't wait to finish it by the end because I was back to disliking the book
In this book, love is fluid and loss is everywhere.
Beautiful characterization-- even those characters that might appear two-dimensional in other, similar stories, are developed and articulated so skillfully that I may never look at them flatly again. Very interesting to learn a bit of history that most Westerners are unfamiliar with, though the conflict described fits a general pattern, sadly. I took this book to Italy for vacation and felt its pull even while strolling through Bellagio; it's that wonderful.
A beautiful tale of what can happen in lives consumed by the past and full of regrets.