Clear Light of Day [Mass Market Paperback]

Anita Desai (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1990

Set in India's Old Delhi, CLEAR LIGHT OF DAY is Anita Desai's tender, warm, and compassionate novel about family scars, the ability to forgive and forget, and the trials and tribulations of familial love. At the novel's heart are the moving relationships between the members of the Das family, who have grown apart from each other. Bimla is a dissatisfied but ambitious teacher at a women's college who lives in her childhood home, where she cares for her mentally challenged brother, Baba. Tara is her younger, unambitious, estranged sister, married and with children of her own. Raja is their popular, brilliant, and successful brother. When Tara returns for a visit with Bimla and Baba, old memories and tensions resurface and blend into a domestic drama that is intensely beautiful and leads to profound self-understanding.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Clear Light of Day is both an examination of contemporary India and a family history in which two sisters, Bim and Tara, learn that although there will always be family scars, the ability to forgive and forget is a powerful ally against life's sorrows. Twenty years ago when Tara married, she left Old Delhi and a home full of sickness and death, while Bim continued to live in the family home, taking care of their autistic brother, Baba. Now Tara has returned, her first visit in ten years, for their niece's wedding. Bim refuses to attend; she can't visit their brother Raja who, like Tara, left her many years ago. Instead Bim dwells bitterly on her feelings of abandonment and the impact on her of her country's recent history: the violent conflict between Hindus and Moslems, the death of Gandhi and the ensuing struggle for political power, and the malaria epidemic that killed so many. In Bim's presence, Tara once again feels "herself shrink into that small miserable wretch of twenty years ago, both admiring and resenting her tall striding sister," while "Bim was calmly unaware of any of her sister's agonies, past or present." With language that describes both the harshness and beauty of family and the land, Anita Desai takes the reader with Tara and Bim on their struggle to confront and heal old wounds. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Holly Smith

About the Author

ANITA DESAI is the author of Fasting, Feasting, Baumgartner’s Bombay, Clear Light of Day, and Diamond Dust, among other works. Three of her books have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Desai was born and educated in India and now lives in the New York City area.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (September 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140108599
• ISBN-13: 978-0140108590
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #784,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear Light of Day is almost the perfect novel., February 11, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clear Light of Day (Mass Market Paperback)

I've read this book three times, and every time I wept for the astounding truth it forced me to face. Bim's stubborn acknowledgement is one we all must someday make; even though we should never have to. Families are the most difficult part of life, and they are the most rewarding. No other book that I have read expresses this better than Clear Light of Day (with the exception of Anna Karenina).

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, March 26, 2000

By 

Roger C. Sealy (Media, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Clear Light of Day (Mass Market Paperback)

This was a book that kept my interest from the beginning, in large part because of the expert characterization of the central characters. It is both depressing and optimistic; the characters mostly are constrained by their personality and history, yet at the end are able to transcend themselves. It seems that in returning to what they are attempting to escape from - the family - they are finally able to become whole. Their flashes of insight and the author's analysis may seem contrived at times, but it's difficult to imagine how it could be expressed better.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very truthful, warm and touching domestic drama., January 12, 2006

By 

Li (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clear Light of Day (Paperback)

This is a very warming, touching book about family interactions, moments of happiness and moments of sadness all intertwined together to become what life is, a series of events, sometimes good, sometimes bad, what comes, comes. What is gone is gone just like the snail mentioned in the book that was found by the characters at times but only to lose the pearl again where the cycle repeats itself. This is a story that informs us about the ups and downs in life and how everyone faces it differently. To do so, the author cleverly uses true realistic characters to portray this

Each member of the Das family is distinctly unique. It is a touching story about how distinctly different each individual is and how each has their own separate lives, keeping them apart from each other. Bimla is independent and intelligent and is able to survive on her own without the help of others but unfortunately she is very dissatisfied with life. Tara, unlike her elder sister, is not ambitious and is very dependent. All she wanted is to find a life where she will not have to take responsibility and have no need to worry about her life which she succeeded in finding an ambassador as her husband. Lastly Raja, the elder brother, who is ambitious and has always dreamt of being the hero ended up as a successful, well-off man. With each leading a different life, each has a different view of things and this leads to many conflicts between the siblings.

However no matter how different they are, they grew up together, shared many precious moments together, creating a bond that can never be broken, love. Love is what connected them to each other. Love teaches the characters how to forgive and forget, how to compromise with one another with compassion, how to move on and how to stand side by side with each other to face the world together. Especially to Bimla who had melted her anger and learn to love the world again for what it is with the help of her loving sister, Tara. Love will overcome all differences and difficulties and is the exact recipe to help us get through the ups and downs of life.

This is a truly, amazing book that I greatly enjoyed. It stays true to how family relationships are like. Being a member of a three child family, I can understand how each characters is feeling and is amazed at how it greatly relate to how I feel for my siblings at times. I both hated and love my siblings at the same time. Sometimes it may get so frustrating that I vow never to talk to them ever again but it is always love that turns out to be the winner for I always forgive the wrongs they did at times and is able to embrace the frustrating side of my siblings for I love them and love them just the way they are just like the characters Anita Desai portrayed in this book.

The beautiful and easily accessible language makes it a very enjoyable book to read. The language is filled with so much emotions and passion, that it sometimes feel like I am reading a prose with some poetic element in it. Anita Desai has also skillfully put in many insightful views to what life is and helps us to be both expectant of the bad sides of the world and yet be optimistic to the good sides of the world.

However at times, the plot seems to be developing at a slow rate with no great climax in the story, in fact it is a book that is presented almost in a monotone that makes readers to hope for more movements in the story. However I like it just the way it is, for life does not always consist of shocking, exciting events like the made up stories from fictions, in fact life is rather dull, boring at times and most of the time is spent on waiting for something to happen just like the events and the tone of the book.

This is a passionately, beautifully written domestic drama that is definitely a must to read. Get it now!