Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Fasting, Feasting
Book Review: Heavy-handed, Tone-deaf, and Moralistic
Summary: 2 Stars
Anita Desai has been celebrated by some for her ear for dialogue, but she gets it all wrong here. Her presentation of life in the United States is especially obvious. Her characters, living in Massachusetts, talk like they are in Texas. The American daughter, predictably, is a bulemic, something that may strike Indian readers as novel but in Desai's hands is nothing more than a cliche (Feasting, Fasting--get it?) And she seems terribly amused by her young American jock's pastime of "jogging," a word that a real American high school football player wouldn't be caught dead using.As for her chapters set in India, Desai allows ideology (i.e., feminism) to drive her narrative, with predictable results. Is the way she incorporates dowry death into her story any less of a cliche in India than the way she utilizes the bulemic girl (who has no other distinguishing characteristics) in order to describe American excess?
Unfortunately, American readers of Anglophone Indian fiction are so often overwhelmed by the exoticism of these stories that they fail to seperate the wheat (Rushdie, Roy, Pankaj Mishra) from the chaff (Desai, Divakaruni).
Book Review: I Can't Believe How Bad This Was!
Summary: 1 Stars
As much as the writing style is nice and it is easy reading, this book is so depressing with no likable character, that it became painful to finish. The depiction of the "Typical American Family" is so contrived it's rediculous. At some points I almost started laughing. Overall I would absolutely not recommend this book.
Book Review: I Can't Believe this is Booker
Summary: 1 Stars
This was my first and last Desai book. I can't imagine what the Booker committee was thinking. The Fasting part was mildly interesting, although it did leave one wondering what motivated the various characters. The Feasting half simply beggared belief. The characterization was so silly and shallow I often re-read passages in disbelief to confirm my mind wasn't playing cruel literary tricks on me. Give this book a pass - it is a huge disappointment.Book Review: I loved this book!
Summary: 5 Stars
Anita Desai has the ability to see both sides of the story.Fascinating material!
Enjoy!
Book Review: Is this really Desai?
Summary: 3 Stars
Make sure this is not the first Anita Desai novel you read. This is so unlike her previous works, it makes you wonder who the author really is. The language is different - much lighter and easier to read. Some parts of it remind you of Roy or Desai Jr. The Fasting part is long. It's main protagonist Uma - you cannot help compare her and her context to Bim in Clear Light of Day - leads a pitiful existence peppered with everything evil that can happen with arranged marriages. Is there anything cheerful in her existence? However, there are moments in her life - her "little escapes" by associating herself with the nuns and their little art and craft projects was quite touching.
The Feasting part was interesting. It had its moments of promise - but ended rather quickly without the characters having any time to develop. Maybe this was deliberate and reflective of the lack of communication amongst the family members of the Mass suburbia - I am not sure.
The ties between the two parts are tenous and quite forced. I would almost like the Feasting part developed and nurtured a little and published on its own. Fasting is easily forgettable - its banality of themes and its treatment is quite unacceptable from a writer of Desai's ability. Read Clear Light of Day instead - which I believe is one of the best books of the century.