The Columbia Guide to Asian American Literature Since 1945

The first naturalized citizen to win the National Book Critics Circle Award, Bharati Mukherjee (b. 1940), born into a rigid hierarchy as a Bengali Brahmin and raised in the elite of Calcutta society, joined the American masses by choice. This journey from a privileged yet circumscribed life to one of free will and risk supplied the experiences she has turned into literature. From her first interview, originally published over three decades ago in her native tongue Bengali in the Calcutta journal Desh and appearing here for the first time in English, to an in-depth interview in 2007 granted specifically for this collection, this volume provides a candid look at the woman who has been called the grande dame of diasporic Indian literature.

"Twelve stories of immigrants who struggle against the ancestral past of India to remake their lives-and themselves-in North America. These are stories of fluid and broken identities, discarded languages and deities, the attempt to create bonds with a new community against the ever-present fear of failure and betrayal. 'The narrative of immigration,' Ms. Mukherjee once said, 'is the epic narrative of this millennium.' Her stories and novels brilliantly add to that ongoing saga. In the story, 'The Lady from Lucknow,' a woman is pushed to the limit while wanting nothing more than to fit in. In 'Hindus,' characters discover that breaking away from a culture has deep and unexpected costs. In 'Father,' the clash of cultures leads a man to an act of terrible violence. 'How could he tell these bright, mocking women,' Ms. Mukherjee writes, 'that in the darkness, he sensed invisible presences: gods and snakes frolicked in the master bedroom, little white sparks of cosmic static crackled up the legs of his pajamas. Something was out there in the dark, something that could invent accidents and coincidences to remind mortals that even in Detroit they were no more than mortal.' There is light in these stories as well. The collection's closing story, 'Courtly Vision,' brings to life the world within a Mughal miniature painting and describes a light charged with excitement to discover the immense intimacy of darkness. Readers will also discover that excitement, and the many gradations of darkness and light, throughout these pages from the mind of a master storyteller"

After the assassination of her husband, seventeen-year-old Jasmine leaves India to live with a middle-aged banker in a small Iowa town, only to retain some of the traditions and memories of the past.

This nicely illustrated reference for junior high and high school students offers 20-page profiles of 93 of the world's most influential writers of the twentieth century. Arranged alphabetically, each profile provides facts about the writer's life and works as well as a commentary on his or her significance, discussion of political and social events that occurred during his or her lifetime, a reader's guide to major works, and events, beliefs or traditions that inspired the writer's works.

Dimple Dasgupta had set her heart on marrying a neurosurgeon, but her father was looking for engineers in the matrimonial adds. So begins the wry story of an obedient daughter of middle-class Indian parents who is about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime. Driven first to shock and then to despair, Dimple lives in a waking dream. And when her fantasies take a violent turn, she wonders where wishes end and reality begins. Dimple Dasgupta asserts her identity and independence in the alien and threatening ordeal of life in New York City.

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