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Fasting, feasting by Anita Desai
In his novel, fasting, feasting, Anita Desai finally accomplishes what many writers attempt and then do not get. She uses a light touch, simple language, complicated structure, but at the same time addresses some very big issues is a point.
Uma and Arun are children of MamaPapa, the common identity that parents apparently indivisible present. These parents, however, do not resemble anything. Mama is protective, perhaps selfish, and not a little lazy. Papa is a parsimonious control freak who locks away the telephone because someone might use it. But less together. Their relationship has survived, despite the long wait for a child, and is disappointed by their disability.
Uma and Arun Also I have a sister, Aruna. She is bright and pretty, but in its way, is also disabled, because she is a woman. Arun disability is visible, but exists because Aruna prejudices of society about their women.
Uma is not pretty, nor is academic. Wears thick glasses and has fits. And so, in the middle-class society of the family lives, Uma may pursue only two possible roles. Or you can marry, or she can become a pawn, a slave, closer to family. The first, of course, is the same as the last. Only the location is different. For marriage to Uma does not happen. It does, but not before it starts, because the groom was already married and just wanted to collect another dowry. Marriages Uma concerted two brothers and their cousin, either. Initially and favorites, both end tragically.
The first part of Fasting, feasting suggests a domestic drama, a slightly comic family trying to cope with their own cultural status of minorities in the vastness of India. It takes a while for the elements tragic history to the surface. But when they do, but also disappointed, because only two people with disabilities, Uma and Arun finally show any honesty or compassion, all the rest is purely selfish, even those who commit suicide to end the pain. For women, apparently even more achievement is not an asset to help your business. When offered a place at Oxford, the rights of girls is opposed to the acceptance and the need to frame the letter as evidence most eligibility. So what appeared to be a friendly, family history of the idiosyncrasies of the culture is a tragedy and a tragedy for all women. Feo, Uma immemorial is the only apparent survivor, and that only because she is not even a competitor. She exists in the fragments of life that is allowed.
But what about Arun, a child with disabilities? Well, it's a very bright boy. He goes to college in the U.S., and in an institution with Massachusetts. But what to do in the holidays when the university is closed? We can not afford to take their way home, Dad finds parsimonious.
So the Pattons Arun has an all-American nuclear family, a class American dream, Mom, Dad, two sons, one of each. But Dad is a laconic type. A beer from the fridge keeps it quiet. The son has all kinds of ambitions, yet none that is realistic. Mom is a emotional wreck. She years for something in her confusion, but no idea of what could be. And his daughter is bulimic. Happy families.
Thus through Arun's eyes, and to some extent as a result of challenging cultural presence, Anita Desai presents a picture of life in middle America that is totally dysfunctional. But it is again women who are most deeply affected. Mom does all the shopping and cooking to feed the men who do not appreciate and daughter can not eat. She fantasizes Arun about cultural authenticity, sees in him qualities that she craves. The daughter is a complete head case. She is the fat they want to be thin, eating to fast, sweet filling until he vomits, perhaps a slave to a male concept of female perfection generated. And Arun witness all this. Finally, in his deformity, is the only presence that is self-obsessed.
The title is important. Fasting, feasting, presents apparent opposites, two contrasting, if the imbalance in the scenarios, India and the U.S.. It offers two observers deformed, Uma and Arun. It unpicks two contrasting cultures and found that women are slaves to them. The opposites are ultimately similar, almost did not object.
About the Author
Philip Spires
Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya
http://www.philipspires.co.uk
Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priest’s neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.
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