The Inheritance of
Loss by Kiran Desai.
When you build on
lies, you build strong and solid. It was
the truth that undid you.
The Inheritance of
Loss looks at the world of post-colonial India and the South Asian diaspora
with a loving satirical eye. The
characters are all hopelessly wounded by the way British – and increasingly
American - culture continues to dominate Indian life and politics. We get to live with Indians hopelessly
besotted with scones and tea or Talisker whiskey, ex-pat Brits who love to
complain about the limits of life in India, Gorka revolutionaries who have
little agenda beyond getting their share of corruption and New York restaurant
workers discovering that the American Dream involves sleeping in the basements
of the restaurants that are the only places that will hire them.
The author approaches these characters with a loving kind of
humor that begins to seem cruel as their situations become more desperate and
tragic. While it seems to tell the story
of the toppling of old colonial ideas – decades after the British left India –
it is not clear that there is any real idea of what will replace that culture,
let alone whether it will be worth the upheaval it causes.
Desai looks soberly at a wide variety of points of view
regarding post-colonial culture and politics.
She does not find any anything any side can cheer about.
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