Hays Travelogue

Kiran Desai’s novel, The Inheritance of Loss, is set in India during the Nepali uprising of the 1980s. Against this backdrop, the characters confront the aspects of their pasts that brought them to this particular place and time. There is no absence of loss in this novel. Sai, a teenage orphan, has inherited her grandfather, the judge, through the loss of her parents. The judge has inherited his unhappy life through the loss of his heritage and self-respect. Other characters deal with the loss of property and possessions, love and respect, social standing and aspirations, security, empire, and homeland.

The book zips along in short vignettes rather than in-depth character development. We catch intimate glimpses of characters before the scene shifts abruptly to another character. The characters, along with my interest, suffered; they remained little more than sketches. How, exactly, did Sai change during the course of the novel? She grew up, fell in love, had her heart broken. How did the judge change? He was humbled and humiliated, but became meaner and more bitter. The cook and his son, Biju, are two of the more developed characters. The account of Biju’s life in America and his failure to make it a success is detailed and memorable. Although these two are central to the book, it doesn’t seem to be solely about them.

The writing is fresh and energetic, but often falls back on contrivances like capital letters, italics, punctuation, and strange line breaks to convey nuance and meaning. It distracts and eventually irritates. Some examples.

#1

Biju pounded at the pedals, heckled by taxi drivers direct from Punjab–a man is not a caged thing, a man is wild wild and he must drive a such, in a bucking yodeling taxi. They harassed Biju with such blows from their horns as could split the world into whey and solids: paaaaaawww!

But the “paaaaawww” also increases in font size. Really.

#2

They put down the phone hurriedly then, worried that immigration had a superduper zing bing beep peeping high-alert electronic supersonic space speed machine that could
transfer

connect

dial

read

trace the number through to their–

Illegality.

Yes,

the

double

spaces

really

exist

in

the

book.

#3

“HELLO. HELLO????”
“????HAH? I CAN’T HEAR. YOUR VOICE IS VERY FAR.”
“I CAN’T HEAR. CAN YOU HEAR?”
“He can’t hear.”
“WHAT?”
“Still can’t hear?” they asked the cook.

?????GET IT? THEY HAD A BAD CONNECTION!

In spite of these problems, I liked the book. The vignettes will remind you a little bit of Sandra Cisneros or Eduardo Galeano. The uprising will remind you of similar struggles around the world and the people caught up in them. I have my own favorite moment when Biju decides that he must leave America and return to his homeland.

What was he doing and why?
It hadn’t even been a question before he left. Of course, if you could go, you went. And if you went, of course, if you could, you stayed…

I ask myself the same everyday. What am I doing here and why? And now, it looks like we will stay another year. I feel the loss, but I have a pretty good reading list to keep me company.