The Inheritance of Loss
{{short description|2006 book by Kiran Desai}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox book
| name = The Inheritance of Loss
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = Inheritance of loss cover.jpg
| caption = First US edition
| author = Kiran Desai
| cover_artist =
| country = India
| language = English
| series =
| genre = Novel
| publisher = {{unbulleted list | Atlantic Monthly Press (US) | Hamish Hamilton (UK) }}
| release_date = 31 August 2006
| media_type = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pages = 336 (hardback edition)
| isbn = 0-241-14348-9
| isbn_note = (hardback)
|dewey=823.92
| oclc = 65764578
|congress=PS3554.E82 I54
| preceded_by = Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
| followed_by =
|set_in=Kalimpong and the United States, 1986
}}
The Inheritance of Loss is the second novel by Indian author Kiran Desai. It was first published in 2006. It won a number of awards, including the Booker Prize for that year, the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award in 2007, and the 2006 Vodafone Crossword Book Award.
It was written over a period of seven years after her first book, the critically acclaimed Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard. Among its main themes are migration, living between two worlds, and between past and present.
The story centres around the lives of Biju and Sai. Biju is an Indian living in the United States illegally, son of a cook who works for Sai's grandfather. Sai is an orphan living in mountainous Kalimpong with her maternal grandfather Jemubhai Patel, the cook, and a dog named Mutt. Her mother was a Gujarati and her father a Zoroastrian orphan himself. Author Desai alternates the narration between these two points of view. The action of the novel takes place in 1986.
Biju, the other character, is an illegal alien residing in the United States, trying to make a new life for himself, and contrasts this with the experiences of Sai, an anglicised Indian girl living with her grandfather in India. The novel shows both internal conflicts within India and tensions between the past and present. Desai writes of rejection and yet awe of the English way of life, opportunities to gain money in America, and the squalor of living in India. Through critical portrayal of Sai's grandfather, the retired judge, Desai comments upon leading Indians who were considered too anglicised and forgetful of traditional ways of Indian life.
The retired judge Jemubhai Patel is a man disgusted by Indian ways and customs—so much so, that he eats chapatis (a moist South Asian flatbread) with knife and fork. Patel disdains other Indians, including the father with whom he breaks ties and the wife whom he abandons at his father's home after torturing her. Yet Patel never is fully accepted by the British, despite his education and adopted mannerisms.
The major theme running throughout The Inheritance of Loss is one closely related to colonialism and the effects of post-colonialism: the loss of identity and the way it travels through generations as a sense of loss. Some characters snub those who embody the Indian way of life, others are angered by anglicised Indians who have lost their traditions; none is content.
The Gorkhaland movement is used as the historic backdrop of the novel.
Reception
In the March/April 2006 issue of Bookmarks, the book scored a four out of five stars. The magazine's critical summary reads: "Maybe it's in her genes: the daughter of Indian novelist Anita Desai, Kiran Desai skips past the sophomore doldrums with this assured second novel."{{Cite web |title=The Inheritance of Loss By Kiran Desai|url=http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/book-review/inheritance-loss/kiran-desai|date=March–April 2006|access-date=14 January 2023 |website=Bookmarks Magazine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909213728/http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/book-review/inheritance-loss/kiran-desai|archive-date=9 September 2015}} The Bookseller reported on reviews from several publications with a rating scale for the novel out of "Top form", "Flawed but worth a read", and "Disappointing": Times review under "Top form" and Guardian and Sunday Times reviews under "Flawed but worth a read".{{cite news |title=Most Reviewed Books: 25th-27th August|url=https://www.findmypast.com/image-share/3a2ab83c-eb03-4f69-a182-9d60c7dbaa71|access-date=19 July 2024|work=The Bookseller |date=1 Sep 2006|page=30}}
Natasha Walter found it a "grim" novel, highlighting "how individuals are always failing to communicate".{{cite news|last1=Walter|first1=Natasha|title=Mutt and the maths tutor|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/aug/26/featuresreviews.guardianreview17|work=The Guardian|date=26 August 2006}} The Observer found some excellent comic set-pieces amid the grimness.{{cite news|last1=Hughes|first1=Sarah|title=Uncle Potty and other guides to the truth|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/sep/03/fiction.features1|newspaper=The Observer|date=3 September 2006}} Pankaj Mishra writing in The New York Times claimed Desai "manages to explore, with intimacy and insight, just about every contemporary international issue: globalization, multiculturalism, economic inequality, fundamentalism and terrorist violence."{{cite news|title=Wounded by the West|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/books/review/wounded-by-the-west.html|first= Pankaj|last=Mishra|newspaper=The New York Times|date=12 February 2006}}
In 2020, Emma Lee-Potter of The Independent listed it as one of the 12 best Indian novels.{{Cite web|last=Lee-Potter|first=Emma|date=2020-08-05|title=12 best Indian novels that everyone needs to read|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/books/fiction-books/best-india-books-literature-novels-salman-rushdie-arundhati-roy-a9264211.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/books/fiction-books/best-india-books-literature-novels-salman-rushdie-arundhati-roy-a9264211.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=2020-12-23|website=The Independent|language=en}}
References
{{reflist
| refs =
{{cite press release
| title = All Past National Book Critics Circle Award Winners and Finalists – Page 2
| publisher = Bookcritics.org
| url = http://bookcritics.org/awards/past_awards/page_2
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090225065707/http://www.bookcritics.org/awards/past_awards/page_2
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 25 February 2009
| access-date = 2011-07-06
}}
{{cite press release
| title = The Inheritance of Loss: Kiran Desai
| publisher = Booker Prize Foundation
| url = http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/books/2
| access-date = 2011-07-06
}}
{{cite web
| title = Kiran Desai interview
| work = Jabberwock (blog)
| date = 2006-01-20
| url = http://jaiarjun.blogspot.com/2006/01/kiran-desai-interview_20.html
| access-date = 2011-06-14
}}
}}
External links
- [http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/wbc/rss.xml Podcast of Kiran Desai talking about The Inheritance of Loss] on the BBC's World Book Club
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5413704.stm Review by BBC News]
- [http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2006/01/04/luminous_family_saga_bridges_eras_cultures/?page=1 Review by Boston.com]
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/books/review/12mishra.html Review by NY Times, includes MP3 of author reading from the book]
- Roy, Pinaki. "The Inheritance of Loss: A Brief Rereading". World English Literature: Bridging Oneness. Eds. Nawale, Arvind, and Pinaki Roy. New Delhi: Authors Press, 2013. pp. 13–29. {{ISBN|978-81-7273-705-4}}.
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{{Booker Prize}}
{{Indian Booker Prize recipients}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Inheritance Of Loss, The}}
Category:Booker Prize–winning works
Category:Novels by Kiran Desai
Category:Novels set in New York City
Category:Novels set in West Bengal
Category:Indian diaspora in the United States
Category:English-language novels
Category:Fiction about Indian diaspora