Vivid Indian novel

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33514, 20 April 1974, Page 10

Vivid Indian novel

The Tiger's Daughter. By Bharati Mukherjee. Chatto and Windus. 210 PP-

This first novel of great promise is obviously largely autobiographical. Tara is the beautiful and talented daughter of th„ “Bengal Tiger” who, since he belongs to the wealthy upper-class Indian society, desires great things for her. She is sent to Vassar College where she not only receives a higher education but also falls in love with and marries an American.

Now she is returning home without him for a holiday and after her absence she sees everything with-fresh eyes. She is outraged by the poverty of Calcutta, frightened by the advances of influential gentlemen who wish to bed her, and appalled by the lavish welcome home celebrations in her honour. At times she feels as though the walls of her mind are caving in—a stranger in her own country.

The author captures the sights and sounds of India very vividly especially in the snatches of conversation between Tara’s relations and in the description of her home, and the scents and colours—the explosion of purple bougainvilleas against the white verandas, and the rose-scented water with which the blinds are sprayed hourly. As an outsider Tara can sense the straining and imprisoned ghost of change and view with new insight the lives of her family and friends which are lived by .Victorian rules coloured by their exuberant Hindu imaginations.

According to the publishers. the author has given her novel a special texture —“like that of a silk lining to a rajah’s pocket.” However lavish this praise may sound, she writes with skill and sensitivity about her enigmatic country, India.