The Inheritance of Loss

As with many books, this novel is not for everyone. The pacing like the prose is often languid, rich in detail and sentences crafted with all the care of a gourmet chef preparing a meal. The author has a story to tell, a complex multi-layered tale that shifts between continents and decades. However, almost by definition, dealing with characters who are trapped, whether by poverty or circumstance or habit the story will not move quickly or offer great grand shifts. This to be sure is not to every readers taste. Some may grow bored; others may find Desai's thick weave of prose less than appealing. There is nothing wrong with that; even some of the greatest writers of all time are not for everyone. How many people can't take Dickens or find Mann impenetrable. I found the book both well crafted and rewarding and would suggest those who do not mind taking their fiction at a slow pace, give this Booker award winner a try.

Kiran Desai exists in a class with Zadie Smith as a unique young talent who has impressed many critics yet is read by a wide audience. Both authors tend to focus on post-colonial themes, with Smith based in England and Desai in India and the States. Desai's language cannot help but impress a well-read reader; the ending to her first chapter should be an example of great writing in textbooks for future generations: "A great amount of warring, betraying, bartering had occurred; between Nepal, England, Tibet, India, Sikkim, Bhutan; Darjeeling stolen from here, Kalimpong plucked from there--despite, ah, despite the mist charging down like a dragon, dissolving, undoing, making ridiculous the drawing of borders." (p 10) Like the master James Joyce, Desai uses small hints and indicators to reveal the larger message of her book, from the opening chapter onward. Simply read the book: you'll be sure to recommend it to others, in turn spreading Desai's message and her lovely skill at weaving a narrative thru delicate twists of phrase, all to the backdrop of the Himalayas.

I've read several books lately dealing with Indian culture (Brick Lane and especially The Namesake I thought were very good) but this has to be the best. This story of family separations and loss is so beautifully written. Granted the characters aren't all that loveable, but they certainly are believeable regardless if they are in New York City or Kalimpong. The contrasts of cultures and the effects of colonialism are sharply drawn but without prejudice. It's never clearly black and white when cultures clash; there are so many shades of gray in between and the individuals who are caught between are changed forever. The author can say a lot in a few words, such as the reflection on the rebellion: "This was how history moved, the slow build, the quick burn, and in an incoherence, the leaping both backward and forward, swallowing the young into old hate. The space between life and death, in the end, too small to measure." Desai provides plenty of food for thought long after the book is finished. The setting may be India,and the rebellion may be one that seems far removed from our lives, but that setting just provides a background for the universal trials and conflicts of not just cultures, but families and individuals attempting to sort out their pasts and deal with the uncertainties of their futures. My only warning to readers: It would have been very helpful to have some background explanation about the Nepalese independence movement and the Gorkhas in a preface; however, with a bit of research, one can get a quick picture. Additionally, there are many Indian words scattered throughout the story. However, the descriptions of the flora and fauna, the colors, the mountains, and the sounds are exceptional. In short, this is a book I'll long remember and would highly recommend

Writing with wit and perception, Kiran Desai creates an elegant and thoughtful study of families, the losses each member must confront alone, and the lies each tells to make memories of the past more palatable. Sai Mistry is a young girl whose education at an Indian convent school comes to an end in the mid-1980s, when she is orphaned and sent to live with her grandfather, a judge who does not want her and who offers no solace. Living in a large, decaying house, her grandfather considers himself more British than Indian, far superior to hard-working but poverty-stricken people like his cook, Nandu, whose hopes for a better life for his son are the driving force in his life. The story of Sai, living in Kalimpong, near India's northeast border with Nepal, alternates with that of Biju, Nandu's son, an illegal immigrant trying to find work and a better life in New York. Biju, working in a series of deadend jobs, epitomizes the plight of the illegal immigrant who has no future in his own country and who endures deplorable conditions and semi-servitude working illegally in the US. As Desai explores the aspirations of Sai and Biju, the hopes and expectations of their families, and their disconnections with their roots, she also creates vivid pictures of the friends and relatives who surround them, evoking vibrant images of a broad cross-section of society and revealing the social and political history of India. Though Sai's romance, at sixteen, with Gyan, her tutor, provides her with an emotional escape from Kalimpong, it soon becomes complicated by Gyan's involvement with the Gorkha National Liberation Federation, a Nepalese independence movement which quickly becomes violent. Gyan's commitment to the insurgency offers an ironic contrast with the commitment of his family to the colonial British army in earlier times, just as the judge's hatreds, learned in England, are ironically contrasted with his British affectations in later life. A careful observer of behavior, with a fine eye for revealing details, Desai brings her narrative and characters to life, illustrating her themes without making moral judgments about her characters--creating neither saints nor villains, just ordinary people leading the best lives they can, using whatever resources are available. Her characters, like people from all cultures, make sacrifices for their children, behave cruelly toward people they love, reject traditional ways of life and old values, rediscover what is important to them, suffer at the hands of faceless government officials, and learn, and grow, and make decisions, sometimes ill-considered, about their lives. Dealing with all levels of society and many different cultures, Desai shows life's humor and brutality, its whimsy and harshness, and its delicate emotions and passionate commitments in a novel that is both beautiful and wise. n Mary Whipple

It is very rarely that one comes across a book which touches upon big issues, in such a richly felt, detailed yet economic manner. "The Inheritance of Loss",i am sure would be Kiran Desai's breakthrough novel. Set in Kalimpong (that beautiful town in the North East of India)in the mid 80's, this novel follows the journeys(and exiles) of its principal characters. The retired grumpy judge, Jemubhai Patel, studied in a Victorian England, groomed by the Raj,all of which made him rise above his humble roots, to be a revered, fearsome(and very confused) judge...Sai, his orphaned grand daughter, exiled from the convent to be home schooled (by those delightful Bengali sisters Noni and her sister Lola) discovering the first flush of youth, the first pangs of love, with her Nepalese tutor Gyan...or Biju, the judge's cook's son who is moving from one restaurant job to another, as an illegal immigrant in New York. All the characters are sharply etched, clearly defined and follow an often unpredictable trajectory of departures and homecomings. Kiran Desai, has an eye for detail, as is amply evidenced from her settings, from Kalimpong to New York, from Victorian England to Rural Gujarat, from the description of the Marks and Spencer's underwear (note never "lingerie"), to the tense and characteristic atmosphere in the American Embassy at New Delhi, to the impeccable description of "desi" girls in US of A... this book comes alive in these settings.. and the delights of reading, is in discovering one such fully realized situations after another... For the grand scope and long journeys of the plot, this book is compact and economical, while being infinitely wise. The resolutions of some the characters are sad, (whoever told us that life is fair!)..but the writer allows us to experience the small joys of her characters lives, those moments in which they are truly themselves, berating the virtues of the US over England, living in their "grand civilizations" of "music, alcohol and friendship" Little wonder then that Kiran Desai won the Booker Prize for this book, making her the youngest women in the history of the prize.