Anita Desai is one of India's most internationally renowned writers. Her psychological novels delve into the inner worlds of her protagonists and explore themes of isolation, identity, femininity, and interpersonal relationships. Many of Desai's novels have been awarded international literary awards, and she has been shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize three times.
Anita Desai: Biography
Anita Desai was born Anita Mazumdar on June 24, 1937, in Mussoorie, India. Her mother was a German immigrant, and her father was Bengali. Desai grew up speaking German with her family and Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, and English in the outside world. English was the primary language at school, and it was the first language in which she learned to read and write.
In 1947, when Desai was ten years old, India gained independence from Britain and split into India and Pakistan. Old Delhi, where Desai spent much of her childhood, was the capital of the British empire and combined elements of British, Islamic, and Hindi culture. The school Desai attended was nearly half Muslim, but all those girls left with the division of the two countries. This change greatly affected Desai and influenced some of her later writing.
Because of this, English became Desai's "literary language." 1 The books in her parents' home were in English, and Desai dreamed of having her own book among them.
Fig. 1 - India gained independence when Desai was ten years old.
She attended Queen Mary's Higher Secondary School and later graduated from the Miranda House, a women's college within the University of Delhi, with a bachelor's degree in English literature.
While she was in college, Desai wrote and published pieces in the college newspaper, and in 1957 her short story "Circus Cat, Alley Cat" appeared in a New Delhi publication called Thought.
In 1958, the year after she graduated college, Desai married a man named Ashvin Desai, with whom she would go on to have four children.
One of Desai's children is Kiran Desai, the Booker Prize-winning author of The Inheritance of Loss (2006).
After her marriage, Desai recalls writing "almost in secret." 1 She published a few more short stories and worked with a group of seven other writers to found the Writer's Workshop. This Kolkata-based literary publishing group is still in business and has become an important part of India's post-independence literary history. Finally, Desai's first novel, Cry, the Peacock, was published in 1963, winning the Sahitya Akademi Award.
Desai continued writing and publishing novels, but it wasn't until 1977 and the publication of Fire on the Mountain, her fifth novel, that she began to receive international recognition. Fire on the Mountain won The British Royal Society of Literature's Winifred Holtby Prize and India's National Academy of Letters Award.
Her next great success was Clear Light of Day (1980), a loosely autobiographical novel shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize. Desai would make the Booker shortlist twice more, in 1984 for In Custody and in 1999 for Fasting, Feasting.
In 1993, Desai joined the writing faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she continues to teach today.
Anita Desai: Writing Style
Anita Desai's novels are very psychological, exploring the inner lives of her (often female) protagonists. She writes complex and emotional characters that allow the author to investigate the nuances of the human psyche. Desai works with various themes, including isolation, interpersonal relationships, femininity, and identity.
Fig. 2 - Many of Desai's protagonists are Indian women.
Desai has long been an avid reader of poetry, which has also influenced her work, leading to lyrical and poetic prose. She often relies heavily on symbolism and sometimes even includes elements of fantasy.
Anita Desai: Books
Anita Desai is the author of several award-winning novels and has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times for the books Clear Light of Day, In Custody, and Fasting, Feasting.
Clear Light of Day (1980)
Clear Light of Day is Desai's most autobiographical novel. It is set in Old Delhi and spans the period of partition. The story is split into four sections, beginning post-partition, when the children of the Das family are adults.
The novel then moves back in time to the Dases' adolescence pre-partition, then their childhood, and finally ends back in the post-partition present day.
Clear Light of Day is set during the period of Desai's childhood in the neighborhood where she grew up.
In Custody (1984)
In Custody was the second of Desai's novels to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The novel is set in Delhi and is told from the point of view of a male protagonist. It tells the story of Deven, a professor of Hindi literature with a passion for Urdu poetry.
Fig. 3 - The protagonist of In Custody goes into debt preparing for an interview that doesn't go as hoped.
One day, he has the opportunity to meet a great Urdu poet. Deven imagines that this meeting might lead to an interview or an opportunity to write the poet's memoirs, and he goes to great lengths to procure a tape recorder for the meeting. However, things do not work out in his favor.
In Custody was adapted into a film in 1993 starring several well-known Indian actors.
Fasting, Feasting (1999)
Fasting, Feasting was published in 1999 and shortlisted for that year's Booker Prize. It tells the story of an Indian family, focusing on the eldest daughter, Uma, and the youngest son, Arun.
The novel is divided into two parts, the first of which follows the story of Uma. She is the eldest of the family and is unmarried. Therefore, she is responsible for caring for her parents, leaving school as a young girl to manage their home.
The novel's second part follows Arun, the family's youngest child. As a child, Arun's education is prioritized, and he is sent to a university in Massachusetts. He gets married, and the novel details his new life in the United States.
How could the title of Fasting, Feasting relate to the two parts of the novel?
Other Novels
Anita Desai has written several other novels, including:
- Cry, the Peacock (1963)
- Voices in the City (1965)
- Bye-bye Blackbird (1971)
- The Peacock Garden (1974)
- Where Shall We Go This Summer? (1975)
- Cat on a Houseboat (1976)
- Fire on the Mountain (1977)
- Baumgartner's Bombay (1988)
- Journey to Ithaca (1995)
- Scholar and Gipsey (1996)
- The Zigzag Way (2004)
Desai has also written books for children, winning the 1982 Guardian Award for The Village by the Sea (1982).
Anita Desai: Short Stories
Anita Desai has published two short story collections, Games at Twilight and Other Stories (1978) and Diamond Dust and Other Stories (2000), and one book, The Artist of Disappearance (2011), that consists of four interconnected novellas. More recently, the stories from these three books have been collected in a single volume, The Complete Stories (2018).
Anita Desai: Quotes
Many of Anita Desai's well-known quotes focus on her portrayal of India or showcase her lyrical writing style.
Old Delhi does not change. It only decays." -Clear Light of Day (Part One)
Most of Anita Desai's novels take place in India, often lending much historical and cultural significance. This quote comes from Clear Light of Day, Anita Desai's most autobiographical novel. Set during the partition of Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan, the novel details a time of great change. It uses the birth of modern India as a backdrop for the story of the Das family.
If art, if poetry, could be made to submit to their answers not merely to contain them within perfect, unblemished shapes but to release them and make them available, then—he thought—then—But then the bubble would be breached and burst, and it would no longer be perfect." -In Custody (Chapter Ten)
In In Custody, the protagonist, Deven, loves literature and poetry. However, he is also disillusioned and dissatisfied with his life. In this quote, he wishes that poetry, and art in general, could be defined and understood as clearly as the sciences. But he also understands that its very indefinability is what gives poetry its allure.
Greenness hangs, drips and sways from every branch and twig and frond in the surging luxuriance of July." -Fasting, Feasting (Chapter Fourteen)
Anita Desai is known for her lyrical, poetic writing. A sense of place is generally important in her novels, and the author's detailed descriptions bring these places to life.
Anita Desai - Key takeaways
- Anita Desai is an Indian novelist and short story writer born on June 24, 1937, in Mussoorie, India.
- Desai grew up speaking German, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, and English, but English was the language in which she learned to read and write, making it the language of books.
- Desai published her first novel, Cry, the Peacock, in 1963.
- Desai has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times and has won numerous other literary awards.
- She currently lives in the United States and teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
1Libert, Florence. "An interview with Anita Desai" August 1, 1989. Cambridge. England.
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