Crossing the Barriers : A Study of Shashi Deshpande’s Fiction


Book Description

About the book The book is a compact and authoritative study of the female characters in Deshpande's novels from psychoanalytical point of view using mainly Karen Horney's theory of neurosis and the theories of a few other Western feminist theorists and feminist psychoanalysts such as Carol Gilligan, Virginia Woolf, Nancy Chodorow, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Juliet Mitchell, Luce Irigaray, Helene Cixous and Julia Kristeva. These theories attempt to trace the causes of conflicts and neuroses in women, their coping strategies, their self-analyses and their journey towards reconciliation when they start articulating their individual urge and asserting their selves not only as daughters, wives and mothers but also as autonomous and self-actualized women. Thorough in content, stimulating in approach, here is an invaluable companion to Deshpande's texts.




That Long Silence


Book Description

Jay'S Life Comes Apart At The Seams When Her Husband Is Asked To Leave His Job While Allegations Of Business Malpractice Against Him Are Investigated. Her Familiar Existence Disrupted, Her Husband'S Reputation In Question And Their Future As A Family In Jeopardy, Jaya, A Failed Writer, Is Haunted By Memories Of The Past. Differences With Her Husband, Frustrations In Their Seventeen-Year-Old Marriage, Disappointment In Her Two Teenage Children, The Claustrophia Of Her Childhood&Amp;Mdash;All Begin To Surface. In Her Small Suburban Bombay Flat, Jaya Grapples With These And Other Truths About Herself&Amp;Mdash;Among Them Her Failure At Writing And Her Fear Of Anger. Shashi Deshpande Gives Us An Exceptionally Accomplished Portrayal Of A Woman Trying To Erase A 'Long Silence' Begun In Childhood And Rooted In Herself And In The Constraints Of Her Life.




Moving On


Book Description

Shashi Deshpande&Rsquo;S Novel Is About The Secret Lives Of Men And Women Who Love, Hate, Plot And Debate With An Intensity That Will Absorb Every Reader. It Is A Story That Begins, Conventionally Enough, With A Woman&Rsquo;S Discovery Of Her Father&Rsquo;S Diary. As Manjari Unlocks The Past Through Its Pages, Rescuing Old Memories And Recasting Events And Responses, The Present Makes Its Own Demands: A Rebellious Daughter, Devious Property Sharks And A Lover Who Threatens To Throw Her Life Out Of Gear Again. The Ensuing Struggle To Reconcile Nostalgia With Reality And The Fire Of The Body With The Desire For Companionship Races To An Unexpected Resolution, Twisting And Turning Through Complex Emotional Landscapes. In Moving On Shashi Deshpande Explodes The Stereotypes Of Familial Bonds With An Uncanny Insight Into The Nature Of Human Relationships And An Equally Unerring Eye For Detail.




The Binding Vine


Book Description

“There can be no vaulting over time,” thinks Urmila, the narrator of Shashi Deshpande’s profound and soul-stirring novel. “We have to walk every step of the way, however difficult or painful it is; we can avoid nothing.” After the death of her baby, Urmila finds her own path difficult to endure. But through her grief, she is drawn into the lives of two very different women—one her long-dead mother-in-law, a thwarted writer, the other a young woman who lies unconscious in a hospital bed. And it is through these quiet, unexpected connections that Urmi begins her journey toward healing. The miracle of The Binding Vine, and of Shashi Deshpande's deeply compassionate vision, is that out of this web of loss and despair emerge strand of life and hope—a binding vine of love, concern, and connection that spreads across chasms of time, social class, and even death. In moving and exquisitely understated prose, Deshpande renders visible the extraordinary endurance and grace concealed in women's everyday lives.




Dark Holds No Terrors


Book Description

Why are you still alive-why didn't you die?' Years on, Sarita still remembers her mother's bitter words uttered when as a little girl she was unable to save her younger brother from drowning. Now, her mother is dead and Sarita returns to the family home, ostensibly to take care of her father, but in reality to escape the nightmarish brutality her husband inflicts on her every night. In the quiet of her old father's company Sarita reflects on the events of her life: her stultifying small town childhood, her domineering mother, her marriage to the charismatic young poet Mahohar.




In the Country of Deceit


Book Description

Why did I do it? Why did I enter the country of deceit? What took me into it? I hesitate to use the word love, but what other word is there?' Devayani chooses to live alone in the small town of Rajnur after her parents' death, ignoring the gently voiced disapproval of her family and friends. Teaching English, creating a garden and making friends with Rani, a former actress who settles in the town with her husband and three children, Devayani's life is tranquil, imbued with a hard-won independence. Then she meets Ashok Chinappa, Rajnur's new District Superintendent of Police, and they fall in love despite the fact that Ashok is much older, married, and-as both painfully acknowledge from the very beginning-it is a relationship without a future. Deshpande's unflinching gaze tracks the suffering, evasions and lies that overtake those caught in the web of subterfuge. There are no hostages taken in the country of deceit; no victors; only scarred lives. This understated yet compassionate examination of the nature of love, loyalty and deception establishes yet again Deshpande's position as one of India's most formidable writers of fiction




Shadow Play


Book Description

Aru and Rohit get married and settle down into the life of a working couple in a big city. Aru, still coming to terms with her mother Sumi's death in a road accident and her father Gopal's desertion of the family prior to that, remains the force that binds the lives of her sisters and her aunts. But tragedy strikes the family again, in the form of a devastating act of terrorism and a heinous crime and Aru has to face some of her life's toughest moments. Shadow Play is a masterful meditation on kinship, marriage, ambition and the changing face of urban India. Filled with a memorable cast of characters, it also tells the story of Kasturi, trying to find understanding and peace after enduring extreme cruelty and heartbreak. Kalyani, who atones for the wrongs society deals its women through an act of generosity in her death and Gracy, Tressa and Ramu, a family torn asunder by a senseless act of violence. In Shadow Play, one of India's most respected and accomplished novelists has produced a work that is deeply humane and contemplative—as much about the ephemeral nature of human life as it is about the enduring relationships that give it meaning.




Small Remedies


Book Description

Shashi Deshpande's latest novel explores the lives of two women, one obsessed with music and the other a passionate believer in Communism, who break away from their families to seek fulfilment in public life. Savitribai Indorekar, born into an orthodox Hindu family, elopes with her Muslim lover and accompanist, Ghulaam Saab, to pursue a career in music. Gentle, strong-willed Leela, on the other hand, gives her life to the Party, and to working with the factory workers of Bombay. Fifty years after these events have been set in motion, Madhu, Leela's niece, travels to Bhavanipur, Savitribai's home in her last years, to write a biography of Bai. Caught in her own despair over the loss of her only son. Madhu tries to make sense of the lives of Bai and those around her, and in doing so, seeks to find a way out of her own grief.




A Matter of Time


Book Description

One morning, with no warning, Gopal, respected professor, devoted husband, and caring father, walks out on his family for reasons even he cannot articulate. His wife, Sumi returns with their three daughters to the shelter of the Big House, where her parents live in oppressive silence: they have not spoken to each other in 35 years. As the mystery of this long silence is unraveled, a horrifying story of loss and pain is laid bare—a story that seems to be repeating itself in Sumi's life. This multigenerational story, told in the individual voices of the characters, catches each in turn the cycles of love, loss, strength, and renewal that becomes an essential part of the women's identities. A Matter of Time reveals the hidden springs of character while painting a nuanced portrait of the difficulties and choices facing women—especially educated, independent women—in India today.




Roots and shadows


Book Description