Fasting, Feasting

Fasting, Feasting is a novel by Indian writer Anita Desai, first published in 1999 in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for fiction in 1999.^[1]

Fasting, Feasting

Author	Anita Desai
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publisher	Chatto & Windus
Publication date	1999
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	228 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	0-618-06582-2 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC	93036972

Plot summary

The novel is set in both India and the United States, focusing on themes of family, gender roles, and cultural expectations. In the first part, Uma, the family's eldest daughter, remains unmarried and is expected to serve her parents, reflecting the traditional roles imposed on women in small-town India. Her younger sister, Aruna, is married off, while her brother, Arun, is sent abroad to study in Massachusetts. The second part of the novel follows Arun’s experiences in the United States, where he struggles to adapt to American family life, offering a contrast between the two cultures.

Rather a series of events from life than a complexly plotted work, we follow the fortunes of Uma and Arun as they engage with family and strangers and the intricacy of day-to-day living.

The novel is in two parts. The first part is set in India and is focused on the life of Uma who is the overworked daughter of Mama and Papa. She is put upon by them at every turn, preparing food, running errands. As the novel unfolds we see her struggling at school. She is not very bright but loves the sisters who teach and appreciate her. Finally, she is made to leave school and serve her parents.

We meet many interesting characters through her; Ramu-Bhai is a traveling bon viveur who tries to show Uma a good time. He is banished by her parents. Another character is the religious Mira Masi who tells Uma all the tales of Krishna and takes her to the ashram allowing her to escape her mother's domination for a time.

Uma’s family arranges several failed marriage proposals for her. One match falls apart due to deception, while another results in a short-lived marriage that ends when it is revealed that the husband is already married. Eventually, her family abandons efforts to find her a husband and shifts their attention to her younger sister, Aruna.

We are also told of the episode of Anamika's (Uma's cousin) sad fate. She has won a scholarship to Oxford but her parents insist that she get married. She does and fails to please her husband by providing him with children. He keeps her for a time as a servant but eventually she dies by burning. It is strongly hinted that her in-laws killed her. The final scene of the first part is the immersion of Anamika's ashes in the sacred river.

The narrative highlights Uma’s challenges within a restrictive family structure, depicting her attempts to find identity and autonomy.

In the second part we meet Arun, Uma's privileged brother. He is attending college in America and during summer holidays he lives with the Pattons, an all-American family. Again, the plot is not complex or intricate. The events are told in a serial manner as Arun encounters them. Of note is his intense dislike of American food and cooking methods. He is dismayed at the behavior of Melanie, the daughter who is deeply troubled and suffering from bulimia. Although Mrs Patton seems to care about Melanie, she does little to help.

While apparently close, the family are actually distant from one another, something very different from Arun's experience of family life in India. Arun spends most of his time alone and isolated. Arun tries his best to escape from western society but in vain.^{[citation needed]}

Reception

In an initial review for India Today, Jyoti Arora wrote "A certain starkness of vision, an uncompromising realism and superbly evocative images are immediately striking in the novel."^[2]

For Salon, Sylvia Brownrigg wrote, Fasting, Feasting is a novel not of plot but of comparison. In beautifully detailed prose Desai draws the foods and textures of an Indian small town and of an American suburb. In both, she suggests, family life is a complex mixture of generosity and meanness, license and restriction: The novel's subtle revelation is in the unlikely similarities."^[3]

Controversy

The day after J. M. Coetzee's novel, Disgrace, was announced as the winner of the 1999 Booker Prize, in an article for The Guardian, John Sutherland, Professor of English at University College, London, leaked hints of divisions and encampments on the panel — so incurring the wrath of the other judges, who wrote furious articles of their own, lambasting him for his indiscretion. The jury was divided and the two female judges, writers Shena Mackay and Natasha Walter, were convinced the Fasting, Feasting should take the prize. Outnumbered on the panel, their opinion was nevertheless strong enough to demand expression, and the Booker Prize judges took the unprecedented step of naming Fasting, Feasting as runner-up.^[4]