English 226: Lavanya Sankaran
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Lavanya Sankaran's stories about characters living in
Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, have attracted a lot of interest
since her story "The Red Carpet" was published in The
Atlantic in 2003. Her 8-story collection (by the same title) came
out in 2005, and she is said to be writing a novel. Educated in finance
at Bryn Mawr College outside of Philadelphia, Sankaran worked for a time as a
successful investment banker on Wall Street before returning to Bangalore and
establishing her writing career. We
will begin with two stories, but then will read and discuss the others in the
collection. Links:
Here
are two brief articles that appeared when her story collection was published
in 2005: "India
That She Knows" from The Hindu and "The
Red Carpet Welcome" from Express India. In addition, here are a few brief reviews
that have been published about Sankaran’s stories. Review These are no Malgudi idylls; what each story
deftly exposes is the battle between the new and old that is now being waged
in every Indian family. Nine publishers in the US fought for the
rights of Bangalorean Lavanya Sankaran's debut collection of eight short
stories. After reading it, I see why. The stories are simple enough—a 30-year-old
bachelor in search of a suitable bride, a busybody pensioner with a penchant
for peeking, growing-up pangs of a schoolgirl, an NRI in search of her
roots—all set in Bangalore with its steaming Mysore kaapi and neighbourhood
chittammas. But these are no Malgudi idylls; what each story deftly exposes
is the battle between the new and old that is now being waged in every Indian
family. Thus, the bachelor in search of a bride is
confronted by the very different expectations of his matchmaking mama, the
ageing peeping tom finds that the dazzling life he glimpses from behind the
curtains holds its dangers and anguish, and the schoolgirl finds that what
the nuns teach her at school is not quite in sync with the manipulations of
her ayah at home. Some of the stories teeter dangerously on the brink of the
mundane, creating an involuntary suspense: will Sankaran pull it off or will
she collapse into the waiting bed of cliches? But she sails through with
surprising skill and elegance. From
Publishers Weekly Traditional values and new expectations confront the diverse residents of Bangalore, where rutted, nearly impassable roads and one-room schoolhouses lie a half-hour's drive from glittering department stores selling aromatherapy candles amid the piped-in tunes of Billy Joel and Eminem, in Sankaran's animated debut collection. In "Bombay This," Ramu, a 30-year-old software employee recently dedicated to finding himself a wife, employs his mother as a matchmaker (or "Connubial Pimp," in his casual, irreverent parlance) while keeping his own eyes open, and grows increasingly drawn to a vivacious Bombay woman whose modern ways his mother can't understand. In the title story, an impoverished chauffeur's affection for his boss, the kindly memsahib all the servants call Maydum, clashes with his discomfort over what he believes are her immoral behaviors. A willful young girl and her manipulative nanny engage in an escalating battle of lies and betrayal in "Two Four Six Eight," while a young accountant, already betrayed by her father's suicide, sees her work co-opted by a slick, handsome colleague in "Mysore Coffee." Though the stories often don't end as strongly as they begin—Sankaran builds tension brilliantly but doesn't always offer a climax to balance it—they are memorable for their subtle wit and convincing evocation of a dynamic world. (May) - Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. "By the end of this very first story,
people half a world away have been transformed into complete human beings,
full of frailties and fragile self-regard, achingly sympathetic. That's why
THE RED CARPET reads like a revelation.... I recommend this book so highly!"--Carolyn
See, The Washington Post |
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