Author: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Publisher: John Murray
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 208
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0719568005
Description
Shakuntala is a young Indian woman who comes home to live with her prosperous family in post-independence Delhi. Sketching a gallery of fascinating and distinctive characters against a rich background, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala draws the contrast between two very different families and their daily lives-their squabbles, their politics, their love affairs, their expectations. She brings to life the nostalgic Englishman Esmond Stillwood, also the beautiful Gulab and her son Ravi, the elderly Uma, and Shakuntala’s family and the neighbours Ram Nath and Lakshmi.
A master of both the comic and the serious, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has constructed an unusual Indian comedy of manners. She views a section of affluent Indian society that has taken on some of the style and most of the perks of the departed British imperialists, and she brilliantly and wittily crystallizes the confusions that bedeviled India at the dawn of Independence.
REVIEWS
A truly astonishing writer.
-Observer
Magical!..Jhabvala is one of those rare writers who manages to be simultaneously caustic and loving with her creations.
-Wall Street Journal
A writer of genius..a writer of world class-a master storyteller.
-Sunday Times