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tomleetang 's review for:

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
3.0

A hard, bitter, fractured novel that has almost no love for its characters, only caustic critiques. Everyone tries to get ahead, but resents even a modicum of perceived success in anybody else.

In the microcosm of Kalimpong, Desai has picked an ideal representative for the cultural, economic, ethnic, religious shattering of India after independence. This is somewhat awkwardly juxtaposed with a narrative about Indian immigration, which, while providing a worthwhile vivisection of the Indian diaspora, feels shoehorned into the plot.