Customer Reviews

Fasting, Feasting

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

The books deals with two differant cultures. First part of the book highlights the Indian traditions, cultures and mostly the place of a woman in an Indian family. Anita Desai has done an excellent job in describing the indian family to every single detail of existance. Though this type of families still exists in India, Please do not generalise this view to the whole nation. It is only a 40% of families that could relate to the book specially in states where literacy is meagre.

I must say however, there are lots of uma's in India, today, and all they need is a little encouragement with education and exposure to the outside world, and she could definitely be a very strong woman. I loved this character of Uma in the book because she was both willing to take a chance with life and at the same time dedicated to her family. And she took all that happened to her life with such grace that she did not give me a chance to cry for her. Thats her inner strength.

The second part of the book deals with the dillemma of Arun in a world which he could not have imagined. Arun, the younger brother of Uma reaches Massachusettes for his higher studies, and is totally taken aback by the lifestyles of the west.

The most beautiful part of the book is its literatrue. So well written and with accurate details, its definitely a joyful read.

I must say, I find some of the negative comments of others surprising since I felt this to be the most compelling of Desai's books. I think that it is deceptively simple and quite profound in parts. I have read it twice and upon the first the reading I admit that I did not think that I stumbled on to something special. But something told me I should consider it further, because like an unexpected feast, it was memorable. I felt so pulled by it that I actually decided it would be a book worth sharing with my students. They are currently in the process of reading it and enjoying her prose while considering the novel's subtle undertones. Unlike many other novels, this one does not gloss over or pretend to hide the obvious flaws and irrationality of either the Indian or American culture. Instead, it delivers a poignant, often startling, and ultimately, I think, positive view of acceptance--of one's life, of one's family and of one's culture. As far as the ending is concerned, it is wholly truthful. What aspect of life ends with any real sense of closure? Like Desai's characters, we only move and meander along, unsure of our footing at times. Her ability to draw out richness from the limited simplicity of her characters lives is quite remarkable. The more I reflect on the novel, the more I am impressed with her insight and intelligence.

Make sure this is not the first Anita Desai novel you read. This is so unlike her previous works, it makes you wonder who the author really is. The language is different - much lighter and easier to read. Some parts of it remind you of Roy or Desai Jr.

The Fasting part is long. It's main protagonist Uma - you cannot help compare her and her context to Bim in Clear Light of Day - leads a pitiful existence peppered with everything evil that can happen with arranged marriages. Is there anything cheerful in her existence? However, there are moments in her life - her "little escapes" by associating herself with the nuns and their little art and craft projects was quite touching.

The Feasting part was interesting. It had its moments of promise - but ended rather quickly without the characters having any time to develop. Maybe this was deliberate and reflective of the lack of communication amongst the family members of the Mass suburbia - I am not sure.

The ties between the two parts are tenous and quite forced. I would almost like the Feasting part developed and nurtured a little and published on its own. Fasting is easily forgettable - its banality of themes and its treatment is quite unacceptable from a writer of Desai's ability. Read Clear Light of Day instead - which I believe is one of the best books of the century.

from BlueJeanOnline.com
by Dashini Ann Jeyathurai, age 19, Teen Correspondent

In Fasting, Feasting, Anita Desai takes on a task that many Indian and expatriate authors have deemed Herculean in nature, a task that involves delving into the inner sanctum of an orthodox Indian family in India. Many who have attempted this challenge failed and came out looking ignorant and insensitive of certain aspects of the culture. Few have succeeded, and among them is Anita Desai.

The reader is faced with several poignant issues played upon in a middle-class family attempting to deal with modernization, but they ultimately that realize life is meant to be lived in their society. A society with a veritable amount of prejudices weaved into its complex tapestry of customs and beliefs.

The story in itself is told from the perspective of the protagonist, Uma, who starts out as a wide-eyed child at a convent who has an enthusiasm for education and an awe of the enigmatic nuns who seem to glide through the school grounds. Unlike her younger sister Aruna, our protagonist does not have the privilege of having "books marked healthily in green and blue for success and approval." Instead, with the birth of her brother Arun, Uma takes on the role of nanny. Here, one encounters the distinct preference her parents have for the male child - a practice that was not uncommon at the time. The teenage Uma questions this sexism when she points out that an ayah had looked after both Aruna and herself as children. Why wasn't the ayah's care sufficient for a male child?

Desai next explores the conventional belief that tied a woman's worth to her physical appearance. A woman who lacked beauty was often rushed into the first marital offer she received, only to pay a heavy price later on. Desai shows the challenges a single woman faces regardless of how successful she is. By contrast, Uma's cousin is portrayed as the ultimate success because she is able to marry well thanks to her looks. One wonders how happy she truly was, however, when she eventually takes her own life.

Arun, Uma's brother, takes center stage several chapters into the book as he begins his studies in America, where he meets the dysfunctional Patton family. Arun is faced with unlimited freedom and grapples with an alien culture in which his landlord's daughter periodically vomits after meals and Ms. Patton is almost a non-entity in the family.

Ultimately, Anita Desai has established herself as one of India's finest fiction writers. To me, great authors are the ones who can make you keep turning the pages, eager to read the next line although there may be more pressing matters at hand - and Desai fulfills that description....

Very disappointing work from one of my favourite authors. Minimal character development, hardly any plot to speak of, stereotypical in the extreme, 'Fasting, Feasting' is a very pale reflection of the earlier (and stupendous) 'Clear Light of Day'. The attempt to juxtapose an eastern family dynamic versus a western one, without fully exploring either, came off as forced and disjointed ..and left each narrative feeling incomplete and unfulfilling to the reader.

As much as the writing style is nice and it is easy reading, this book is so depressing with no likable character, that it became painful to finish. The depiction of the "Typical American Family" is so contrived it's rediculous. At some points I almost started laughing.

Overall I would absolutely not recommend this book.

Like many of Oprah's book in the book club (although this one isn't on the list), you meet extremely real people and families and you are thrown into another world...of India and their values and ways. And as the children are so horribly smothered by the parents, you next travel to Massachusetts with the son, and you see how OUR society is seen from the point of view of another culture. And that family problems are the same all over. It's so fascinating to see all this...it's a very deep and heavy book, yet easy reading, it's only 227 pages and easily understandable. Excellent insight on the author's part. Uma reminds me of the character Martha Horgan who is the extremely depressing protagonist in A Dangerous Woman by Mary McGarry Morris, also an excellent, heavy, realistic book. I gave it only 4 stars because the ending was a bit abrupt...I don't feel like I got "closure", or the full meaning of the end. If anyone out there did, please email me at Cindytam@aol.com and let me know.

This was the first book I've read by Desai, and I'm a fan! Desai demonstrates the thin line between fasting and feasting in this novel. Rather than divide the book between two "halves," she combines both and contrasts the hording mentality of Arun's host mother with the obsessive weight control programs by his host siblings. In the land of plenty, and a stocked freezer, daughter Melanie has an easily recognizable eating disorder. Her brother, however, also works out incessantly to keep himself in shape. In the first part of the book, which is set in India, food takes a back burner and emotions take the front. In the second half, it is just the opposite. Desai exposes the depth (or lack of) of Indian and American society, and does so artfully. This book is not fast-paced or plot-centered, but is rather crafty, reflective, and telling.

These are two stories which stand on their own: one of a woman whose personal needs are forever postponed by family and society obligations and the other of a family incapable of discerning the needs of its members and of its visitor. The juxtaposition of these stories increases their impact, for both deal with the everyday accumulation of pressures and frustrations, which can amount to a lifetime of doom or to life-threatening actions. Desai's characters are imprisoned by their inability to change their own expectations or those placed upon them by others. Anita Desai's marvelous command of language transforms, with tender irony and a light sense of humor, these otherwise gloomy lives into delightful characters despite their fragility. It is pure magic and a pleasure to read!

In this novel, very well written (maybe Desai's best), we find a brother and a sister, America and India. The former, represented trough the exploration of freedom (Arun, the brother studying in the U.S.) and the latter by the weight of tradition ( Uma, the sister in India) within the indian family. With the usual precision and character sensibility, the author describes in depth a universe of contrasts, a duality of visions between two cultures, encompassing both the historical structures that give birth to different values and the permanent ligthness of human dreams, which seems to be universal.