The inheritance of loss

Book by Kiran Desai

This book won the Man Booker prize for a reason.

Hard to point to one thing and say this is what the book is about. There isn’t a beginning and end because the story goes back and forth in time. Its hard to say where the book is set because it goes back and forth between places too. But a majority of the story is set in Kalimpong during the India-Nepal insurgency.

The book deals with a myriad of issues, colonial “heritage”, regionalism-nationalism, gender politics and much more. The best part is the author doesn’t try to propagandize or pit one side against the other. There is misery in the book, in the story, in the language that she uses … through and through … but not the kind of misery that photographers get awards for shooting. The kind of misery that is most personal to oneself. The book isn’t drama, its real life.

I think I should add some excerpts from the book to do justice to the book in the review. One has to read Kiran Desai to appreciate what experimenting with language usage is. Reminded me of Anita Desai time and again, she too has a very unique style to her writings.

Nice read. I’d recommend it.