The Inheritance of Loss (2006) – Kiran Desai

The Inheritance of Loss is a novel that discusses how the colonial phantom devours its subjects despite having left its physical presence in their soil. It has left footstools like Noni and Lola who will foolhardily welcome disastrous changes for their self-destruction. And we have naïve characters like the Cook and his son who hold false hopes of making a fortune in the colonizers’ land.

In her interview I caught Desai saying there was a time in her life when books were the only companions she had. And we know from her last novel to this one she took 7 years. She opines that she doesn’t mind the passage of time if it is for something she has set her mind 100% on. Well, it seems the efforts of her; the brooding to produce something worthwhile is successful to a great extent. But there are issues in it.

Henceforth, I’ll try not to be a spoilsport: It was a delight to watch the story unfold, especially for what happens to the characters of Sai and Gyan. The general setting of the North East is also something I enjoyed a lot. But the insensitiveness of the Judge is less believable considering how he was treated by his family prior to his journey to London for studies. I felt that his character needed a bit more explanation for what he could not do to Sai, his granddaughter. Wouldn’t the face of a troubled child with a disturbed past move anyone? Yet, the Judge lived like he was reliving a trauma playing chess alone and taking care for his stupid dog Mutt. (I’m glad the poor woman and her father took it away). Although there is a pleasure in reading sorry stories, is it necessary that stories to be tragic if they are to be called ‘great’?