Book Review: the Inheritance of Loss
BOOK REVIEW: THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS
BY JITEN KAKAR
The inheritance of loss is the second novel by Indian author Kiran Desai. The novel was first published in 2006 and won man booker prize in 2007. The book has many diverse characters but one can easy relate to all the characters unlike many novels where characters don’t have much real life traits. But I found it annoying that many characters with senseless names keep popping up with no purpose like Uncle Potty (translate: Uncle Shit), and Major Aloo (Major Potato) and Father Booty. Anyways, there are two protagonists: Biju and Sai. And the action of the novel takes place in the year 1986. . The story is set in Kalimpong, and is based on the backdrop of the Gorkha Insurgency Movement, and how different people and families coped with the situation. The author’s description is very vivid, hence the reader can instantly form a picture of the hills, and the people inhabiting them. The story has a number of sub-plots, which can be boring and tend to divert from the main story. At a point of time, it feels that the author has tried to tackle too many issues at the same time. There’s the main issue of Gorkhas fighting for Gorkhaland, and how people from other places have come and settled at Kalimpong, but treat the natives of the place as their servants, and while they enjoy a comfortable standard of living with elitist tastes like imported liquor and books, the natives live in poverty and detest the people who have come to settle at Kalimpong. In between we get to see the past of the Judge, and the reasons for his eccentric ways, and I found this part of the book to be the most boring. Then there’s the sub-plot of the Judge’s servant’s son-Biju, who is an illegal immigrant to the United States, and how he leads a very inhuman and deplorable existence, yet sends letters saying he is having a good time and moving up in life. The sub-plot is a very relevant issue these days, but could have been omitted. The most
BY JITEN KAKAR
The inheritance of loss is the second novel by Indian author Kiran Desai. The novel was first published in 2006 and won man booker prize in 2007. The book has many diverse characters but one can easy relate to all the characters unlike many novels where characters don’t have much real life traits. But I found it annoying that many characters with senseless names keep popping up with no purpose like Uncle Potty (translate: Uncle Shit), and Major Aloo (Major Potato) and Father Booty. Anyways, there are two protagonists: Biju and Sai. And the action of the novel takes place in the year 1986. . The story is set in Kalimpong, and is based on the backdrop of the Gorkha Insurgency Movement, and how different people and families coped with the situation. The author’s description is very vivid, hence the reader can instantly form a picture of the hills, and the people inhabiting them. The story has a number of sub-plots, which can be boring and tend to divert from the main story. At a point of time, it feels that the author has tried to tackle too many issues at the same time. There’s the main issue of Gorkhas fighting for Gorkhaland, and how people from other places have come and settled at Kalimpong, but treat the natives of the place as their servants, and while they enjoy a comfortable standard of living with elitist tastes like imported liquor and books, the natives live in poverty and detest the people who have come to settle at Kalimpong. In between we get to see the past of the Judge, and the reasons for his eccentric ways, and I found this part of the book to be the most boring. Then there’s the sub-plot of the Judge’s servant’s son-Biju, who is an illegal immigrant to the United States, and how he leads a very inhuman and deplorable existence, yet sends letters saying he is having a good time and moving up in life. The sub-plot is a very relevant issue these days, but could have been omitted. The most