Anita
Desai has been an acclaimed fiction writer for nearly fifty years,
and I'm embarrassed to say that the only Desai book I have ever read
is by her daughter Kiran (“The Inheritance of Loss”). So her
latest book of three novellas – The Artist of Disappearance
– seemed a good place to start.
The
three stories, all set in India, have no characters or settings in
common, but they deal in different ways with the same theme – the
survival of art in a world where traditional and modern cultures
clash. In each story a member of the modern community is exposed to
art (and in two cases an artist) from a more rural or traditional
milieu, and is forced to make decisions about its fate.
Desai
lets these stories unfold slowly, painting the fascinating landscapes
of rural India as she subtly fills in her characters' complexities.
I liked all three stories but I was especially moved by “Translator
Translated” in which a mediocre university professor finds new
richness in her life when she translates a work by an obscure author
she admires, but then must face the consequences when her ambition
distorts her judgment.
Desai
asks hard questions and gives no simple answers. Her prose is lucid,
understated and a pleasure to read.
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