Anita Desai Fire On The Mountain

Gone are the days when Nanda Kaul watched over her family and played the part of Vice-Chancellor’s wife. Leaving her children behind in the real world, the busier world, she has chosen to spend her last years alone in the mountains in Kasauli, in a secluded bungalow called Carignano. Until one summer her great-granddaughter Raka is dispatched to Kasauli – and everything changes. Nanda is at first dismayed at this break in her preciously acquired solitude. Fiercely taciturn, Raka is, like her, quite untamed. The girl prefers the company of apricot trees and animals to her great-grandmother’s, and spends her afternoons rambling over the mountainside. But the two are more alike than they know. Throughout the hot, long summer, Nanda’s old, hidden dependencies and wounds come to the surface, ending, inevitably, in tragedy. Marvellous yet restrained, Fire on the Mountain speaks of the past and its unshakable hold over the present.

Nanda Kaul is old. She has chosen to spend her last years high up in the mountains where she can arrange her thoughts into tranquility. But her solitude is broken when her fragile and secretive great-grand-daughter, Raka, comes to stay. It is an intrusion Nanda Kaul deeply resents, but this child has a capacity to change things. Through the long hot summer months hidden dependencies and old wounds are uncovered, until tragedy seems as inevitable as a forest fire on the hillsides surrounding the villa.

Nanda Kaul is old. She has chosen to spend her last years high up in the mountains where she can arrange her thoughts into tranquility. But her solitude is broken when her fragile and secretive great-grand-daughter, Raka, comes to stay. It is an intrusion Nanda Kaul deeply resents, but this child has a capacity to change things. Through the long hot summer months hidden dependencies and old wounds are uncovered, until tragedy seems as inevitable as a forest fire on the hillsides surrounding the villa.

Anita Desai, A Recipient Of Many Literary Awards In India And Abroad, And A Creative Writing Teacher At Massachusetts Institute Of Technology Since 1993, In Addition To Being A Fellow Of The Royal Society Of Literature In London And Honorary Fellow Of The University Of Cambridge, Has Proved Herself To Be A Major Indian Novelist Of The Post-Seventies India, Whose Novels Epitomize The Emerging Women S Search For Self-Hood In The Indian Context.Fire On The Mountain (1977), Winner Of The 1978 National Academy Of Letters Award, And Generally Considered Desai S Masterpiece, Is A Beautiful Novel, Focused On Two Elderly Ladies And One Small Girl. Nanda Kaul Retires To A Hill Station House In Her Old Age, And Leads An Isolated Life There, When Her Great-Granddaughter Comes To Stay. With The Arrival Of Raka The Story Takes A New Turn, Gathers Momentum, And Unfurls Quickly To A Symbolic End When The Mountain Has Been Set On Fire.The Atlantic Critical Study Of Fire On The Mountain, Which Is Primarily Meant For The Students Of English Literature Of Indian Universities, Is A Comprehensive, Self-Sufficient And In-Depth Study Of The Text. The Author, A Distinguished Scholar In The Area, Has Taken Special Care To Combine Lucidity And Profundity In Her Treatment Of The Text. In Its Eight Chapters The Present Study Examines The Text From Various Angles Such As The Title, Themes, Characters, Images And Symbols, Narrative Technique, And Feminist Discourse, In Addition To Providing An Introduction , A Brief Story-Outline , And A Detailed Critical Summary Of The Entire Text In Its Three Parts, Along With A Select Bibliography And Sample Questions. The Book Will Be Immensely Useful For Students, Scholars And Teachers In The Area.

Anita Desai S Work Represents A Unique Blending Of The Indian And The Western. Her Novels Catch The Bewilderment Of The Individual Psyche Confronted With The Overbearing Socio-Cultural Environment And The Ever-Beckoning Modern Promise Of Self-Gratification And Self-Fulfilment. In The Face Of This Dual Onslaught, Her Protagonists, Male Or Female Maya, Sita, Monisha And Amla; Sarah, Nanda And Raka; Bim And Tara; Devan, Baumgartner Are Seen Poised Rentalizingly At Different Junctures Of The Philosophic Spectrum.Applying Sociological, Psychoanalytic, Structural And Other Approaches Of Formal Textual Analysis, The Essays In The Present Anthology Take A Fresh Look At Established Works, Revealing Aspects Of Study Hitherto Unexplored, Offer Critically Insightful Probes Into Individual Novels And Explore The Deployment Of Images, Symbols And Other Poetic Devices, Besides Diverse Narrative Strategies.An Indispensable Source-Book For Students, Researchers And Teachers Of Indian English And Commonwealth Literature In General And Fiction And Anita Desai In Particular.An Insightful Companion For Research In Sociology And Women-Studies.