Hali and Collected Stories [Hardcover]

G. V. Desani (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1991

G. V. Desani’s mystical epic Hali and the twenty-three stories collected here deepen and extend a literary vision of unquestioned originality. Hali is a masterpiece of lyrical haunting beauty. It is both a spiritual quest of mythic proportion and the revelation of a personal religion. This magnificent work has long been out of print, and is presented now in its first American edition. The stories which follow reveal the fabulist side of Desani. With satire, irony and winsome comedy, the author takes us on incredible visits into the sacred and profane — the earthy, demonic, and transcendent.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

All the characters in Desani's allegorical prose poem "Hali" carry on a daily dialogue with Rahu, or Death. The Indo-English novelist fashions a private mythology, as Hali, the hero, learns through his beloved Rooh that love is the only antidote to death and nothingness. First published in 1950 in Britain where it was performed as a "poem-play," "Hali" is an ornate, rapturous meditation. Best known for his Joycean novel All About H. Hatterr , Desani reveals his modern side in the 23 conversational stories also gathered here. Set in India, they confirm him as a master of subtle metaphysical comedies, a fabulist, fantasist, moralist and keen satirist of life's follies, absurdities and ego trips. In "With Malice Aforethought," a travel agent professing a desire for spiritual self-realization betrays his me-first individualism. Stories about a suicidal teenager reborn as a worm and a lama's post-death experiences reflect Desani's playful yet questing forays into Eastern spirituality. Chance, karma, and kismet and circumstances toss his characters about like leaves--as in "A Border Incident," where a sentry who saves a drowning boy is promptly punished for his bravery.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Desani, born in Kenya, educated in India and currently a professor at the University of Texas, offers his first book in some 40 years: 23 stories and fables, along with a dramatic prose poem, that range from bleakness to ironic comedy and from supernatural tales to highly mannered satires. The prose poem--which tells the story of ``Hali,'' who loves Rooh, whose death plunges Hali into grief and a mystical journey-- is most noteworthy as an example of private mythology turned into accessible invocation. The supernatural element in many of the other fictions is strong: ``The Valley of Lions,'' for example, is short and visionary; ``Mephisto's Daughter'' concerns a narrator who has access to ``Old Ugly's daughter''; and ``The Lama Arupa'' follows the holy man of the title through ``several states of consciousness'' after his death until he returns as a chicken. ``The Merchant of Kisingarh'' is told by a deceased merchant speaking through his son, a sometime medium. These pieces manage to be both wry and penetrating by turns, while ``The Last Long Letter''--an epistolary tale about a daughter sent away to meet her future groom, a boy who turns out to be visionary--is consistently bittersweet. ``A Border Incident,'' more traditional, tells of a man punished (mildly) for deserting his post to save a boy's life. Desani also offers a mock lecture (``Rudyard Kipling's Evaluation of His Own Mother'') on one of Kipling's more ludicrous compositions, and he closes with the phantasmagoric ``The Mandatory Interview of the Dean''--a madcap satire of bureaucracy and officiousness offered up in a style that is rich and frothily indulgent. A varied collection, impressive in its use of religious and personal mythology--and lushly descriptive of a sensibility and a culture that is part English, part Indian, and uniquely Desani's own. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 207 pages
• Publisher: McPherson; 1st edition (October 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0929701127
• ISBN-13: 978-0929701127
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,792,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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