T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

~oghul miniaturist and modernist.~lthough failure tocommunicate is at the heart of this collection, compassionmakes the Protagonists in Darkness bright, althoughencountering disappointmentunlike sad Western characters.Moments of loss, attainment, violence and yearning for graceexplode in crystalline fixity.As a critic observes:The stories are lapidary with detailed objects, evenproducts. American brand names and Indian exotica(invested with an equal power)objectify emotionsthat....at once distances and compels the reader.Isolated body gestures-the sister of a dying womancarrying home dinner leftovers ln a 'shiny packagebreast-high as if it 1s a treasure', an unwedpregnant daughter holdlng up a copy of NationalGeoqrawhic to ward off her enraged father; animmigrant hash cook who holds his Canadlan passportIn front of his face a6 a Mountle shoots him.. . .reveal the shlftlng of contlnents. (Cooke 1989,268)After moving to the Unlted States Mukherjee underwent atransformation. Seeing herself in the tradrtlon of Ellis IslandAmerican writers (parkness is dedicated to Bernard Malamud) thereader can notice the change that came upon her rathersuddenly. The newer stories make up for these lapses. "Angela", "A Fatheru, "Saints", and just about all the stories in ThgMiddleman are as subtle as Tiser's Daushter, and evenSharper-either Mukherjee is now confident that she caninterpret to her new countrymen, or she's writlng for herself.MUkherjee is aware that she is addresslng people she knows