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A review by litdoes
Games at Twilight and Other Stories by Anita Desai
3.0
This collection of stories is set in contemporary Indian cities, but the concerns are universal, reflecting experiences of urban life.
When seemingly simple childish games of hide-and-seek lead to the unveiling of a child’s sense of belonging and exclusion in the titular story that opens this collection, the reader begins to realize that children are not exempt from the intricacies of social politics.
In the stories that follow, Desai’s cast of characters who range from children, teenagers on the brink of adulthood, ordinary men and women, all grapple with their sense of place and purpose in society.
The chance sighting of a couple’s tender moment in the face of impeding death sparks a young student’s epiphany of life and mortality beyond the paper chase in ‘Studies in the Park’, an ageing father and his doctor son struggle with their differing expectations of filial piety in ‘A Devoted Sun’, a musician is forced to question if his contentment in his career as a mere tanpura player has been misplaced in ‘The Accompanist’.
In the closing story ‘Scholar and Gypsy’, Desai introduces foreign central characters, completing the collection’s concern with identity and displacement in a definitive manner.
An American couple, who arrive in Bombay with unequal expectations initially, sees a surprising development when the wife who has difficulty adapting to life in a foreign land, finds a sense of belonging that surpasses that of her homeland that she had been pining for.
Not exactly fabulous, but readable and tinged with pathos.
When seemingly simple childish games of hide-and-seek lead to the unveiling of a child’s sense of belonging and exclusion in the titular story that opens this collection, the reader begins to realize that children are not exempt from the intricacies of social politics.
In the stories that follow, Desai’s cast of characters who range from children, teenagers on the brink of adulthood, ordinary men and women, all grapple with their sense of place and purpose in society.
The chance sighting of a couple’s tender moment in the face of impeding death sparks a young student’s epiphany of life and mortality beyond the paper chase in ‘Studies in the Park’, an ageing father and his doctor son struggle with their differing expectations of filial piety in ‘A Devoted Sun’, a musician is forced to question if his contentment in his career as a mere tanpura player has been misplaced in ‘The Accompanist’.
In the closing story ‘Scholar and Gypsy’, Desai introduces foreign central characters, completing the collection’s concern with identity and displacement in a definitive manner.
An American couple, who arrive in Bombay with unequal expectations initially, sees a surprising development when the wife who has difficulty adapting to life in a foreign land, finds a sense of belonging that surpasses that of her homeland that she had been pining for.
Not exactly fabulous, but readable and tinged with pathos.