Shalimar

by Kamala Markandaya

Where once the west flowed east to build empires, now it sets out, strictly by invitation of the host country, to develop and construct. So havens are built for the new travelers, the tourists looking for Xanadu. Whenever the ancient civilization of India interacts with the west at many levels, the truth comes bubbling up in all sorts of ways. As A Passage to India illuminated the truths of its time, so an international resort brings to light the feelings and behavior of the men that come with the high-tech machinery on the one hand, and the ancient depths and the modern aspirations of the isolated little fishing village on the other. The men and women who represent the overspill of empire are a new breed, as are the local people who are attuned to the jet age. And then there are the great numbers still living in India as it always was. They all have their place within the panorama of this novel. Tully, the descendant of the British consuls, in a sense represents the best the modern west has to offer: he is effective, humane, sensitive to the beauties India has to offer. Rikki, the sixteen-year-old fisherboy, was introduced in early childhood to a world beyond his village by a missionary couple. They are both open to companionship and to the new world the other represents. Certainly neither is a cliche figure, and the story they weave is dazzling and complex.

341 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Pseudonym used by Kamala Purnaiya Taylor, an Indian novelist and journalist. A native of Mysore, India, Markandaya was a graduate of Madras University, and afterward published several short stories in Indian newspapers. After India declared its independence, Markandaya moved to Britain, though she still labeled herself an Indian expatriate long afterward.

Known for writing about culture clash between Indian urban and rural societies, Markandaya's first published novel, Nectar in a Sieve, was a bestseller and cited as an American Library Association Notable Book in 1955. Other novels include Some Inner Fury (1955), A Silence of Desire (1960), Possession (1963), A Handful of Rice (1966), The Nowhere Man (1972), Two Virgins (1973), The Golden Honeycomb (1977), and Pleasure City (1982/1983).

Kamala Markandaya belonged to that pioneering group of Indian women writers who made their mark not just through their subject matter, but also through their fluid, polished literary style. Nectar in a Sieve was her first published work, and its depiction of rural India and the suffering of farmers made it popular in the West. This was followed by other fiction that dramatized the Quit India movement in 1942, the clash between East and West and the tragedy that resulted from it, or the problems facing ordinary middle-class Indians—making a living, finding inner peace, coping with modern technology and its effects on the poor.

Reviews

[Jennifer James · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like this book. The writing style was disjointed with lots of run-on sentences. The dialog left so much implied that sometimes it was incomprehensible. There wasn't much of a plot. I didn't really care about any of the characters. The scenery was not very vividly drawn. Did I mention that I didn't like this book? It was disappointing, because I really liked the two other books I've read by Kamala Markandaya.