Off Topic

[Rachel-K]

Please use this thread for any off-topic conversations!

[Rachel-K]

A link to the Wikipedia entry on Kalimpong, which includes some pictures and brief information about the various national/cultural/ethnic groups living there, as well as mention of the events that take place at the end of the novel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalimpong

I've found some wonderful pictures online that I will post links to if I can them again!

[IBIS]

I hadn't realized that Kiran Desai was the daughter of the well-known novelist, Anita Desai. I've read some of her books, and loved UNDER CUSTODY, which was made into a movie by Merchant Ivory Productions.

Anita Desai was short-listed 3 times for the Man Booker Prize; she is a professor of creative writing here in Boston at MIT.

She must be so proud of her daughter, Kiran, winning the Booker Prize for INHERITANCE OF LOSS. What a creative family!


IBIS

[Rachel-K]

Hi Ibis,

I haven't yet read Anita Desai, but I want to now. Do you find any "relationship" between their styles? It sounds a bit foolish to propose, but I can't help but imagine that it would be terribly difficult to find your own voice as a writer if you were the child of an accomplished novelist--do you think so?

[libretto]

Rachel,

Speaking of daughters of accomplished writers has Meg Wolitzer written anything lately? THE POSITION is the book discussion I met you in. I know her mother wrote a book about a year ago but I can't recall hearing about anything new from Meg Wolitzer; she was so much fun on the book discussion. I would enjoy reading another book by her and having you and her team up again for a discussion.

Off topic again I wanted to mention that this past spring my son hiked the Himalayas and his pictures are truly National Geography material. He hiked the Nepal side and went as high as Kala Patthar. He also read this book, in fact, it was one of the books he brought along to read while he was gone. I've asked him to join and to share his pictures and some of his true life experiences of the extremes of the beauty and poverty. But he just got married in December; he and his wife have recently moved back to the states after living in Tokyo and they are still getting settled in Chicago, so he doesn't feel like he has enough time.

Which I totally understand because after my first post I got caught up in trying to finish a sales spread sheet (the part of the job I really dislike), get my Christmas decoration down, etc. etc. before I leave Monday on a week's vacation. So I join with the best intentions and then life happens.

[IBIS]

---

rkubie wrote:
Hi Ibis,

I haven't yet read Anita Desai, but I want to now. Do you find any "relationship" between their styles? It sounds a bit foolish to propose, but I can't help but imagine that it would be terribly difficult to find your own voice as a writer if you were the child of an accomplished novelist--do you think so?

---

Rachel, I've always wondered about the influences famous parents have on their children's creative development. You see it throughout history... for example the Bach dynasty in Baroque music. How did Bach's ten sons pioneer their own "sound" without falling into the giant shadow cast by their famous father?

Or the difficulties faced by later generations of the acting dynasties of the Redgraves or Barrymores?

One answer is striking out onto totally different territories.

In this case, however, although both mother and daughter use the similar raw material of their common cultural heritage: folktales, fables, stories of the Indian subcontinent, their focus and voices are worlds' apart.

Their plot structures are very different. Anita Desai has traditional plots with linear beginning, middle and ends. Action takes place in a limited geography and is constrained by small chunks of time. Overall, her worldview is positive. Her characters are in general optimistic and hopeful.

Her daughter's stories, however, have a more expansive scope. Her characters cross large geographical oceans and make massive jumps in historical periods. For example, in INHERITANCE, we see the Judge learning to hate his heritage while studying in England, and we see the cook's son leading a hardscrabble existence in Manhattan.

She has a cynical political worldview... she writes negatively of the political costs and economic hardships of imperialistic colonialism. She has only negative things to say about the detrimental effects of modern capitalism on her characters. And it's a small step for her characters' dissatisfactions with the political status quo that lead them towards revolution and terrorism.

I highly recommend Anita Desai, especially as a literary counterpoint to her daughter's writing.

IBIS

[Rachel-K]

Yep. Life!

I don't see that Meg Wolitzer has published another novel yet, but this seems like it would be about the right time for the next, doesn't it? That was a great group!

[bentley]

---

IBIS wrote:

---

rkubie wrote:
Hi Ibis,

I haven't yet read Anita Desai, but I want to now. Do you find any "relationship" between their styles? It sounds a bit foolish to propose, but I can't help but imagine that it would be terribly difficult to find your own voice as a writer if you were the child of an accomplished novelist--do you think so?

---

Rachel, I've always wondered about the influences famous parents have on their children's creative development. You see it throughout history... for example the Bach dynasty in Baroque music. How did Bach's ten sons pioneer their own "sound" without falling into the giant shadow cast by their famous father?

Or the difficulties faced by later generations of the acting dynasties of the Redgraves or Barrymores?

One answer is striking out onto totally different territories.

In this case, however, although both mother and daughter use the similar raw material of their common cultural heritage: folktales, fables, stories of the Indian subcontinent, their focus and voices are worlds' apart.

Their plot structures are very different. Anita Desai has traditional plots with linear beginning, middle and ends. Action takes place in a limited geography and is constrained by small chunks of time. Overall, her worldview is positive. Her characters are in general optimistic and hopeful.

Her daughter's stories, however, have a more expansive scope. Her characters cross large geographical oceans and make massive jumps in historical periods. For example, in INHERITANCE, we see the Judge learning to hate his heritage while studying in England, and we see the cook's son leading a hardscrabble existence in Manhattan.

She has a cynical political worldview... she writes negatively of the political costs and economic hardships of imperialistic colonialism. She has only negative things to say about the detrimental effects of modern capitalism on her characters. And it's a small step for her characters' dissatisfactions with the political status quo that lead them towards revolution and terrorism.

I highly recommend Anita Desai, especially as a literary counterpoint to her daughter's writing.

IBIS

---

That is a great comparison of the two styles; thank you.

Bentley

[bentley]

This interview was great: it explains a lot

http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/jan/30inter1a.htm

Lunch with Desai:

http://jaiarjun.blogspot.com/2007/02/lunch-with-kiran-desai.html

Desai's Writing Process:

http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0599/desai/interview.html

New York Time's Book Review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/books/review/12mishra.html

Another good review: especially like quote from Magic Seeds by Naipaul:

http://www.sawnet.org/books/reviews.php?The+Inheritance+of+Loss

Message Edited by bentley on 01-17-2008 07:39 PM