A SILENCE OF DESIRE

by Kamala Markandaya ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 3, 1960

A story of faith vs rationalism, set in modern India, (as was the earlier book, N in a Sieve) told with deceptive simplicity, without overt mysticism, but with a gentle everyday realism appropriate to its hero, Dandeker. A Europeanized Indian, Dandeker is proud of his success within the pattern; he is a minor clerk, lives in an apartment, and has a family and a traditional, dutiful wife, Sarojini. When Sarojini's behavior becomes unusual, his first thought is that she has a lover (unthinkable to a Hindu, but not to a European); he accuses her and then discovers that the man she goes to see is a faith healer; she has a growth on her womb. It is a matter of pride to Dandeker that, as an educated man, he has no use for mysticism. He endures the European's torments as he begs her to have the necessary operation. (She, terrified, refuses). He suspects the Swami of being a charlatan, especially since she has given him most of their jewelry; he visits first the doctors, then the Swami himself. The journey through an Indian countryside he has never seen bewilders him, as does the Swami, who fills him with a brief sense of peace. The family disintegrates subtly. Finally, Dandeker appeals to his chief, and the Swami is investigated and moves away. Sarojini is operated on successfully, but afterwards it is Dandeker who finally realizes how faith has helped her and goes back to visit the Swami's house. He finds it filled with the crippled, the destitute, the needy, the ill, left by the Swami's removal without hope. One of them offers to return Dandeker's jewelry, but Dandeker realizing a new set of values, refuses to take it. Under the appealing surface guise of a human interest story, this is a book whose viewpoint is as subtle as its implications. The charm of the style, the artful simplicity are misleading.

Pub Date: Aug. 3, 1960

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: John Day

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1960

Categories: FICTION