THE NATURE OF PASSION

by R. Prawer Jhabvala ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 5, 1956

The author of Amrita invites her readers to a New Delhi where traditional family ways amiably jostle the trappings of Western modernity and emerge triumphant. With perceptive relish Mrs. Jhabvala elicits the last nuance from the minutiae of a microcosm, so abundant with life it almost engulfs the reader. The household is that of Lalaji, a shrewd, expansive patriarch and businessman who lives in comfortable and simple old patterns amid the luxuries of a house that suits his station but has no meaning for him. He can use a family occasion to business advantage as he playfully banters with an in-law at a childbirth celebration, while the women pursue their even more impassioned occupation of outdoing in-laws. He manages to maneuver his proper Cambridge educated son, a government clerk who has married ""out of the community"", to defile a file and dispose of a potentially implicating paper in a corruption case. He dispenses a wily bribe of allowance as bait for his drifting son Viddi, who thinks he loves art above money. At last, he arranges a marriage for his cherished daughter Nimmi when she gives alarming evidence of Western infection by going out evenings with a Parsi, an arrangement most advantageous businesswise as well, naturally. Naturally too, for this is a story with a loving heart, father knows and the old ways are best -- and Nimmi discovers with delight that she need not face the women's quarter, endless childbearing and dreary separations from her husband, for she is marrying the life of any party and can look forward to gay socializing. An intimate and loving exposition of a rich world, this may tire some readers in its insistent detail but will delight others with its frolicsome mixture of frivolity and home truths.

Pub Date: May 5, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1956

Categories: FICTION