"Fasting, Feasting," and "Rosarita": Recent(ish) Novels by Anita Desai

Back in the 1980s, I was reading many novels by Indian writers, and/or with Indian settings. This was partly because I spent most of my childhood in India, and partly because during the early 1980s I published in my school's alumni magazine a regular column on such books. One writer's works that I thoroughly enjoyed were those of Anita Desai, who was born and raised in India and has spent most of her adult life in the United States. My favorite novels by Desai included "Clear Light of Day" (1980) and "In Custody" (1984). I somehow didn't read much of Desai's work after that time period. But recently - these decades later! -- I picked up and read two of her new(ish) novels: "Fasting, Feasting" (Houghton Mifflin, 1999) and "Rosarita" (Scribner, 2024). Both, especially "Rosarita" (96 pages), are slim. They are both engaging, and I am glad to have read them. "Fasting, Feasting" is a rather sad novel about what seems to be a dysfunctional family with cultural preferences for sons over daughters, complicated by some learning issues the daughter in this family experiences. The parents are not, I think, purposely cruel, but they have assigned certain stereotypes and roles to the main characters, their daughter Uma and their son Arun. They often mention Uma's limitations, yet don't recognize her strengths, except to assume that she should be almost a servant to the parents. Arun is the academic star who goes to America to study; all resources are given to support him. But he has his own struggles, especially in the United States. Both of them feel that no one understands them. The title has to do with food and feelings: Both Uma and Arun have ambivalent relationships with food, and sometimes see it as a sign of love, or lack thereof. The main characters, including the members of the family and some others whom Uma and Arun meet and are supported by, are brilliantly portrayed. Desai's writing in this book is, as it was in the past, beautiful. "Rosarita" is about a young Indian woman, Bonita, who goes to Mexico to learn Spanish, and soon encounters a woman who claims to have known and become close friends with her mother many years ago. Bonita has no idea that her mother ever took such a trip, although there were episodes when she disappeared from her family's life for stretches of time; no one in the family talks about these times. Bonita is in disbelief, but is gradually drawn in by the stories of the woman, whom she thinks of as the "Trickster." This very short novel is interesting and readable, but I did not like it as much as I liked "Fasting, Feasting" or any of Desai's earlier works.