Journey to Ithaca [Paperback]

Anita Desai (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1996

Matteo and Sophie join the 1970s flight of young Europeans to India. Matteo - Italian, raised in the luscious countryside around Lake Como, restless since childhood - has been introduced by a tutor to Hermann Hesse's The Journey to the East, and it opens in him a desperate longing. Sophie - German, practical, worldly - is willing to follow him to the ends of the earth. In India, together they visit swamis, gurus, ashrams - always searching. Matteo is seeking spiritual enlightenment, but for Sophie fulfillment lies in earthly love. And when they meet a holy woman known as the Mother, the differences between them seem to explode. When we learn the Mother's story, we see it as an earlier version of their own - the story of a young girl growing up in Cairo and finding her way East by joining a troupe of Indian dancers she has met in Europe. Her journey, a young woman's daring progress through Paris and Venice and New York, until she finds her moment of transcendence in India, comments on, and gives added breadth to, the young couple's quest.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A disaffected European couple drift apart while seeking enlightenment in India.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The author of Baumgartner's Bombay (LJ 3/15/89) offers another intriguing novel of India. During a seriocomic search for Eastern enlightenment, European newlyweds Matteo and Sophie encounter a living saint, the Mother. Matteo becomes a disciple, but Sophie resists, even as their stay in the Mother's model ashram stretches into years. As Matteo increasingly withdraws from a previously passionate marriage, Sophie vows to destroy her husband's spiritual obsession. To prove that the Mother is less than holy, Sophie explores the saint's past, beginning with rumors about a colorful dancing career. The quest leads Sophie along strange roads to even stranger characters in Egypt, France, Italy, and the United States. Back in India with assorted facts but few answers, she finds shocking news and a challenge waiting. An ambiguous denouement reiterates the haunting questions about sacred and profane love that echo throughout the book. Fine fare for thoughtful readers with a taste for exotic settings.?Starr E. Smith, Marymount Univ., Arlington, Va.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (December 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140258183
• ISBN-13: 978-0140258189
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 7.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,066,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous., October 9, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Journey to Ithaca (Paperback)

Desai is a writer who repays re-reading. This book is subtle and textured. The author plays marvelously with time and consciousness in ways reminiscent of Virginia Woolf, brought up to date.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, January 7, 1999

By 

A. Vinayak "home_owner" (Fairfax, VA 22033) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Journey to Ithaca (Paperback)

I did not find this book interesting. I had to struggle to finish it. What distinguishes Anita Desai's work is her vivid and beautiful description of nature. The second half where Sophie goes on a journey to discover the roots of 'Mataji' does not connect well with the readers. A lot of time the book was very boring and going nowhere in the name of spirituality. I read this novel with great anticipation as I liked Desai's 'Clear Light of The Day' very much. If you are expecting something like that then this novel will come as an disppointment.

4.0 out of 5 stars Subtle, ambiguous book, September 18, 2010

By 

Peter Lefanu Lumsdaine - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Journey to Ithaca (Paperback)

This was the first book of Desai's that I'd read; at first, it seemed a little dull, but as I got into the rhythm of its storytelling (gradual, gentle) I found it more and more compelling, and by the end, I loved it. The style is simple and naturalistic (places, societies and individuals all beautifully observed), and yet nothing is presented with a clear black-and-white moral meaning -- or if it is, something else will soon contradict it. But at the end, a picture has been painted, something meaningful has been set out -- something about love, the conflicts between different kinds of love, and perhaps about what it can mean to go on a pilgrimage.