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nancf 's review for:
The Inheritance of Loss
by Kiran Desai
In the early stages of the covid pandemic, the library offered a mystery bag of used books. I bought a "bag o' fiction" and The Inheritance of Loss was included. Although it is a prize-winning book, the book and author were not familiar to me. It has been on my shelves for a while and I suggested it to my book club. We are meeting today to discuss it and I am anticipating hearing the other's thoughts.
The Inheritance of Loss takes place in the mid 1980's in a small village in India and New York. The Indian story concerns Sai, a young teen orphan who, after the death of her parents, goes to live with her maternal grandfather, a retired judge. The judge is not a very nice man, but Sai becomes close to the judge's cook and her tutor, Gyan, a college student. Other characters include two sisters, Father Booty, and Uncle Potty. There is upheaval in the country among the ethnic and religious groups which affects the characters.
The New York story is that of Biju, the cook's son, who, as an illegal, cycles through various restaurant jobs where he is exploited and makes few friends.
It may have been my mood, but I had trouble getting into the story. The alternate settings and many of the characters didn't seem to contribute much to the telling. This book was not what I expected or wanted. The abundant use of italicized foreign words and phrases was annoying to me. I either glossed over them and tried to discern the meaning, or looked them up and became distracted by something else.
The cover of this paperback edition is beautiful - the blue/green background with flowers. A similar scene is referenced in the story - flowers blooming among the shacks. Similarly, I found some of the words and phrasing beautiful, among, to me, this mess of a story.
"By year's end the dread they had for each other was so severe it was if they had trapped into a limitless bitterness carrying them beyond the parameters of what any individual is normally capable of feeling. They belonged to this emotion more than to themselves, experienced rage with enough muscle in it for entire nations coupled in hate." (190)
"You have to swear at a creature to be able to destroy it." (199)
"How often could you attack it before it crumbled? To undo something took practice; it was a dark art and they were perfecting it. With each argument the next would be easier, would become a compulsive act, and like wrecking a marriage, it would be impossible to keep away, to stop picking at wounds even if the wounds were your own." (259)
All book club members present who had read the book did not like it as well. This is a very rare occurence.
The Inheritance of Loss takes place in the mid 1980's in a small village in India and New York. The Indian story concerns Sai, a young teen orphan who, after the death of her parents, goes to live with her maternal grandfather, a retired judge. The judge is not a very nice man, but Sai becomes close to the judge's cook and her tutor, Gyan, a college student. Other characters include two sisters, Father Booty, and Uncle Potty. There is upheaval in the country among the ethnic and religious groups which affects the characters.
The New York story is that of Biju, the cook's son, who, as an illegal, cycles through various restaurant jobs where he is exploited and makes few friends.
It may have been my mood, but I had trouble getting into the story. The alternate settings and many of the characters didn't seem to contribute much to the telling. This book was not what I expected or wanted. The abundant use of italicized foreign words and phrases was annoying to me. I either glossed over them and tried to discern the meaning, or looked them up and became distracted by something else.
The cover of this paperback edition is beautiful - the blue/green background with flowers. A similar scene is referenced in the story - flowers blooming among the shacks. Similarly, I found some of the words and phrasing beautiful, among, to me, this mess of a story.
"By year's end the dread they had for each other was so severe it was if they had trapped into a limitless bitterness carrying them beyond the parameters of what any individual is normally capable of feeling. They belonged to this emotion more than to themselves, experienced rage with enough muscle in it for entire nations coupled in hate." (190)
"You have to swear at a creature to be able to destroy it." (199)
"How often could you attack it before it crumbled? To undo something took practice; it was a dark art and they were perfecting it. With each argument the next would be easier, would become a compulsive act, and like wrecking a marriage, it would be impossible to keep away, to stop picking at wounds even if the wounds were your own." (259)
All book club members present who had read the book did not like it as well. This is a very rare occurence.