Anita Desai

From ArticleWorld

Born to a German mother and an Indian father in Mussoorie, India, Anita Desai spoke German at home.Her mother’s influence on the way she looks at India cannot be ignored, but according to her, she feels for India the way her father did. She recieved her education at Delhi University. She left for England after marriage, around 1959. Her first novel, published in 1963, was “Cry, The Peacock“ and was published in England.(intro and description)

Work

By her second novel, “Voices in the City “(1965)”, it was obvious that she could use her pen to “draw” very vivid images of her characters and situtaions In 1993, her novel “In Custody” was adapted by Ismail Merchant for a film of the same name. One of her recent works is “The Zig Zag Way “, set in the 20th century. Her latest book is titled “Hill of Silver, Hill of Lead”.

The vivid images that she delienated led her work to be comapred to that of T.S.Elliot and Virginia Woolf. Like Virginia Woolf, she is known to write psychological novels. Also, her novels display a Eurocentric core and, according to some, even disdain Indian social customs. This is largely due to her mother’s influence on her. When asked about her relationship with India she observed that she was glad to have grown up in India because she is so far away from it today.

The author today

Beisdes being a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she has been invited to join several prestigious literary societies. She has four children and lives in the United States. Having taught at Mount hollyoke and Smith College, today she is the John E. Burchard Professor of Writing at MIT. Her daughter Kiran Desai is a novelist as well.

This author is a pioneer in that she portrayed Indian women with great skill.