Items related to No End to the Journey: A Novel
In the distinguished tradition of R. K. Narayan and Anita Desai, S. Shankar has written a keenly observed novel in which comic delicacy and rueful irony are beautifully balanced in a story placed against the vibrant backdrop of the New India, the world’s largest democracy, and a country in which the rigid dogmas of the past often clash with the impatient and dynamic innovations of the present.
Gopalakrishnan (Gopu to his family and friends), a 65-year-old retired civil servant, has recently and reluctantly returned home to the southern Indian village of Paavalampatti after a forty-year career in New Delhi. His father is dead, and his mother – aging and unwell – wants her son to take care of her in her dotage. His wife, Parvati, is none too happy to be back. Their only child, Suresh, has stayed behind in New Delhi to oversee a presumably successful construction business.
When Suresh unexpectedly comes home, ostensibly to commemorate Dilwali, the Indian Festival of Lights, the fractures that have long existed beneath the surface of the family are suddenly thrust into sharp relief, and Gopalakrishnan finds that he must act as patriarch under difficult circumstances.
S. Shankar has conjured a marvelous portrait of family and place. His touch is deft, his portrayals
of characters succinct and empathetic, his evocation of the tensions that roil the surface of the New India persuasive but never overstated, and his depiction of family universal.
Gopalakrishnan (Gopu to his family and friends), a 65-year-old retired civil servant, has recently and reluctantly returned home to the southern Indian village of Paavalampatti after a forty-year career in New Delhi. His father is dead, and his mother – aging and unwell – wants her son to take care of her in her dotage. His wife, Parvati, is none too happy to be back. Their only child, Suresh, has stayed behind in New Delhi to oversee a presumably successful construction business.
When Suresh unexpectedly comes home, ostensibly to commemorate Dilwali, the Indian Festival of Lights, the fractures that have long existed beneath the surface of the family are suddenly thrust into sharp relief, and Gopalakrishnan finds that he must act as patriarch under difficult circumstances.
S. Shankar has conjured a marvelous portrait of family and place. His touch is deft, his portrayals
of characters succinct and empathetic, his evocation of the tensions that roil the surface of the New India persuasive but never overstated, and his depiction of family universal.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
S. Shankar is an associate professor of English and the director of the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is the author of one previous novel, A Map of Where I Live (Heinemann, 1997), books of poetry and literary criticism, and editor of Crossing into America: The New Literature of Immigration (New Press). His stories and poetry have appeared in numerous literary magazines. He lives in Hawaii.
Review:
"S. Shankar raises the ordinary to the extraordinary. . . . [He] writes with amazing sensitivity and insight against a backdrop of a changing India that at times seems inscrutable to an older generation bound to parents, duty, marriage, and children."
— India Currents
"S. Shankar skillfully addresses the challenges of modernity versus traditional values in India over three generations of the Iyer family. . . . This well-conceived novel aptly captures the strains of contemporary Indian life. . . . S. Shankar's depiction of rural Paavalampatti echoes R. K. Narayan's Malgudi."
— Honolulu Weekly
"No End to the Journey packs a punch, all the more potent for being familiar."
— Indian Express
"The contrast between old and new India is cast in sharp relief. The smooth, well-knit prose nicely reveals the wear and tear of a life imperfectly lived."
— Library Journal
“Resonates with the disappointments and exposed emotions of everyday life and is reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day (1989). . . . On the surface, Shankar's second novel pulses with the sights and sounds of modern India; underneath lies the quiet story of a son, husband, and father trying to fill his often-antithetical roles within a rigid social structure from which he cannot bring himself to escape.”
— Booklist
— India Currents
"S. Shankar skillfully addresses the challenges of modernity versus traditional values in India over three generations of the Iyer family. . . . This well-conceived novel aptly captures the strains of contemporary Indian life. . . . S. Shankar's depiction of rural Paavalampatti echoes R. K. Narayan's Malgudi."
— Honolulu Weekly
"No End to the Journey packs a punch, all the more potent for being familiar."
— Indian Express
"The contrast between old and new India is cast in sharp relief. The smooth, well-knit prose nicely reveals the wear and tear of a life imperfectly lived."
— Library Journal
“Resonates with the disappointments and exposed emotions of everyday life and is reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day (1989). . . . On the surface, Shankar's second novel pulses with the sights and sounds of modern India; underneath lies the quiet story of a son, husband, and father trying to fill his often-antithetical roles within a rigid social structure from which he cannot bring himself to escape.”
— Booklist
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherSteerforth
- Publication date2005
- ISBN 10 1586420933
- ISBN 13 9781586420932
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages272
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