The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

Published 2006 · 336 pages · 107,595 words · about 13 hours at an average pace · literary fiction, postcolonial fiction, contemporary fiction, social novel

How hard is The Inheritance of Loss to read?

The Inheritance of Loss scores 74 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it very challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 68 out of 100
The novel employs a rich and varied vocabulary, blending sophisticated literary terms like 'sumptuously,' 'revelatory,' 'prodigious,' and 'pusillanimity' with specialized regional words such as 'nakhra,' 'sahib,' 'chhang,' 'pakoras,' 'haveli,' and 'kukris.' While many non-English terms are clarified by context or translation, their frequent appearance, alongside archaic or less common English words, elevates the lexical demands beyond accessible contemporary fiction, placing it closer to '2666' or 'Moby-Dick' in its range.
Sentence structure: 68 out of 100
Desai frequently employs long, flowing sentences with multiple clauses and descriptive phrases, often extending beyond typical contemporary fiction. While generally navigable, the sentences can demand careful parsing due to their length and the layering of observations and details. For instance, descriptions of the mist or the cook's thoughts often unfold in complex, multi-part structures, requiring sustained attention from the reader.
Abstraction: 62 out of 100
The novel is primarily a concrete narrative, rich in sensory details and character interactions. However, it frequently elevates to philosophical and theoretical content, exploring themes of post-colonialism, identity, love, loss, and the nature of poverty and wealth. These abstractions are woven into the characters' internal monologues and observations, rather than presented as overt debates, making them integral to the story's fabric.
Information density: 68 out of 100
The text is dense with cultural references, historical context, and intricate character backstories, often presented in rapid succession or through embedded narratives. Desai layers sensory details, emotional states, and socio-political commentary within paragraphs, demanding a high level of attention to fully grasp the nuances. The narrative frequently shifts between different characters' perspectives and timelines, requiring the reader to actively synthesize information.
Narrative indirection: 72 out of 100
The narrative frequently presents events and dialogue, but the deeper meanings of post-colonial identity, class struggle, and personal disillusionment are often implied through character reactions, unspoken thoughts, and the juxtaposition of different experiences. Readers must infer the full weight of the judge's bitterness, the cook's aspirations, and Biju's alienation from their actions and internal monologues rather than explicit authorial statements, placing it above 'The Great Gatsby' (65).
Symbolic density: 82 out of 100
The novel is rich with recurring motifs and objects that carry significant meaning beyond their literal presence, such as the pervasive mist symbolizing uncertainty, the crumbling Cho Oyu representing post-colonial decay, and the giant squid reflecting Sai's isolation. The 'green card' and the 'holy cow' serve as potent symbols of aspiration, cultural clash, and the compromises of identity in a globalized world, making it denser than 'The Great Gatsby' (75) but not as abstract as 'Moby-Dick' (90).
Ironic distance: 78 out of 100
The novel employs significant ironic distance, particularly in its portrayal of post-colonial aspirations and the clash of cultures. The author frequently juxtaposes characters' self-perceptions and societal expectations with harsh realities, as seen in the judge's internalized colonialism or the cook's idealized view of Biju's American life. This creates a subtle yet pervasive critique of social hypocrisy and the illusions people maintain, aligning it closely with 'Lolita' (75) in its nuanced critique.
Resolution withholding: 85 out of 100
The narrative consistently withholds clear resolutions, leaving many character arcs and thematic conflicts open-ended. The excerpt concludes with Gyan and Sai's romance blossoming amidst escalating political unrest, and Biju's future in America remaining precarious and uncertain due to his illegal status. The broader implications of post-colonialism and globalization are presented as ongoing struggles without definitive closure, similar to the unresolved nature of 'Crying of Lot 49' (75) but with more personal stakes left hanging.
Structural complexity: 72 out of 100
The novel utilizes a dual narrative structure, alternating between the lives of Sai and the Judge in Kalimpong and Biju's experiences in New York, creating a geographical and thematic split. Within these parallel storylines, there are frequent and extensive flashbacks, particularly detailing the Judge's colonial-era past and Gyan's family history, which disrupt a linear chronology. The perspective also shifts fluidly between various characters, requiring the reader to actively track multiple viewpoints and timelines, comparable to 'Midnight's Children' (68).

How The Inheritance of Loss is regarded

The Inheritance of Loss holds a literary regard score of 64 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

Prizes

Where The Inheritance of Loss sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (200 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, The Inheritance of Loss scores 72 out of 100. A second mythos, comedy, pulls at it with a weight of 0.2. About the map of stories.

Mode: Low Mimetic
and he made up hunting triumphs: two partridge… one deer with thirty-inch horns…
Symbol: Formal
The caress of the mist through her hair seemed human, and when she held her fingers out, the vapor took them gently into its mouth.
Mythos: Irony and Satire iv (irony iv)
This was how history moved, the slow build, the quick burn, and in an incoherence, the leaping both backward and forward, swallowing the young into old hate.
Genre: Novel + Anatomy
Former slaves and natives. Eskimos and Hiroshima people, Amazonian Indians and Chiapas Indians and Chilean Indians and American Indians and Indian Indians.

Where the story of The Inheritance of Loss takes place

  • Kalimpong, India, during the Gorkhaland insurgency, mid-1980s (1985 to 1986), the main setting
  • Piphit, Cambridge and the ICS, Jemubhai's youth and career, 1919-1948 (1919 to 1948)
  • New York basement kitchens, Biju's illegal years, mid to late 1980s (1984 to 1988)
  • Kalimpong and Cho Oyu under the Gorkhaland agitation, 1985-1988 (1985 to 1988)

5 things that are true of The Inheritance of Loss, with the passage for each

  1. The novel's present opens in February 1986, when Sai is seventeen.

    It was February of 1986. Sai was seventeen, and her romance with Gyan the mathematics tutor was not even a year old.

  2. The robbers carry off a trunk lettered with Sai's convent address.

    Miss S. Mistry, St. Augustine’s Convent.

  3. The GNLF surrender more than five thousand guns at the Gymkhana Club on 2 October 1988.

    On October 2, 1988, Gandhi Jayanti Day, seven thousand men surrendered more than five thousand pipe guns

  4. Thirteen local boys are shot dead when the police open fire at the 27 July 1986 march.

    In a fast-forward blur, thirteen local boys were dead.

  5. The Gulf Air flight home makes nine stops, like a bus.

    Like a bus, New York-London-Frankfurt-Abu Dhabi-Dubai-Bahrain-Karachi-Delhi-Calcutta, the plane stopped again

Scenes in The Inheritance of Loss that Frye would name

53 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Pathos, untitled
In a fast-forward blur, thirteen local boys were dead. The sacrificial death scene of the Gorkhaland parade.
Sparagmos, untitled
the heads of policemen came up on stakes before the station Mob dismemberment of bodies at the riot.
Cognitio, untitled
“Pitaji?” said the figure, all ruffles and colors. The father-son reunion restores the cook's family.
Hamartia, untitled
He envied the English. He loathed Indians. The judge's fatal misjudgment, the source of his later cruelty.
Hamartia, untitled
So, in the excitement of the moment, he told. Gyan's betrayal of Sai's household.
Sparagmos, untitled
they reduced him to a pulp, bashed his head until blood streamed down his face, knocked out his teeth, kicked him until his ribs broke The police torture and blind an innocent drunk.

Books that share these scenes with The Inheritance of Loss

About the author

Kiran Desai