| In her novel, Fasting, Feasting, Anita Desai eventually | | | | duty precludes acceptance and necessity frames the |
| accomplishes what many writers attempt and then fail | | | | letter as evidence of her greater eligibility. So what |
| to achieve. She uses light touch, simple language, | | | | seemed to be a pleasant family tale of the |
| uncomplicated structure, but at the same time | | | | idiosyncrasies of culture becomes a tragedy, and a |
| addresses some very big issues and makes a point. | | | | tragedy for all women. Ugly, unmemorable Uma is the |
| Uma and Arun are children of Mamapapa, the | | | | only apparent survivor, and that only because she is |
| apparently indivisible common identity that parents | | | | not even a competitor. She exists on the scraps of life |
| present. These parents, however, are not at all alike. | | | | she is allowed. |
| Mama is protective, perhaps selfish, and not a little | | | | But what of Arun, the disabled boy? Well he is quite a |
| indolent. Papa is a parsimonious control freak who | | | | bright lad. He goes to university in the USA, and to an |
| locks away the telephone because someone might | | | | institution with status in Massachusetts. But what is he |
| use it. But they are at least together. Their relationship | | | | to do in the holidays when the college is closed? We |
| has survived, despite the long wait for a son, and their | | | | can't afford to bring his all the way home, concludes |
| disappointment at his disability. | | | | parsimonious Papa. |
| Uma and Arun also have a sister, Aruna. She is bright | | | | So Arun lodges with the Pattons, an all-American |
| and pretty, but in her own way she is also disabled, | | | | nuclear family, an American Dream of sorts, mum, dad, |
| because she is a woman. Arun's disability is visible, but | | | | two kids, one of each. But Dad is a laconic type. A |
| Aruna's exists because of the her society's | | | | beer from the fridge keeps him quiet. The son has all |
| preconceptions about women. | | | | kinds of ambitions, and yet none that are realistic. Mom |
| Uma is not pretty, nor is she academic. She wears | | | | is an emotional wreck. She years for something in her |
| thick glasses and has fits. And so in the middle class | | | | confusion, but has not idea what it might be. And her |
| society the family inhabits, Uma can pursue only two | | | | daughter is bulimic. Happy families. |
| possible roles. Either she can be married off, or she | | | | So through Arun's eyes, and to some extent as a |
| can become a labourer, a near slave for the family. | | | | result of his culturally challenging presence, Anita Desai |
| The former, of course, is the same as the latter. Only | | | | presents a picture of middle class American life that is |
| the location is different. For Uma marriage doesn't | | | | utterly dysfunctional. But it is again the women who |
| happen. It does, but it fails before it starts, since the | | | | are most deeply affected. Mom does all the shopping |
| groom was already married and merely wanted to | | | | and cooking to feed the unappreciative men and the |
| collect another dowry. The arranged marriages of | | | | daughter who cannot eat. She fantasises about Arun's |
| both Uma's sister and her cousin also fail. Initially well | | | | cultural authenticity, sees in him qualities for which she |
| starred, both end tragically. | | | | yearns. The daughter is a complete head case. She is |
| The first part of Fasting, Feasting suggests a domestic | | | | fat wanting to be thin, eating to fast, stuffing sweets |
| drama, a faintly comic family trying to cope with their | | | | until she vomits, perhaps a slave to a male-generated |
| own cultural minority status within India's vastness. It | | | | concept of female perfection. And Arun witnesses all |
| takes awhile for the tragic elements of the story to | | | | of this. Eventually, in his deformity, he is the only |
| surface. But when they do, they also disappoint, | | | | presence that is not self-obsessed. |
| because only the two disabled characters, Uma and | | | | The title is important. Fasting, Feasting presents |
| Arun, eventually display any honesty or compassion, | | | | apparent opposites, two contrasting, if imbalanced |
| everyone else being merely selfish, even those who kill | | | | scenarios, India and the USA. It offers two deformed |
| themselves to end the pain. For women, it seems, | | | | observers, Uma and Arun. It unpicks two contrasting |
| even achievement is nothing but an asset to assist | | | | cultures and finds that women are slaves in both. The |
| their trade. When offered a place at Oxford, a girl's | | | | opposites are thus ultimately similar, hardly opposed. |