T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

~~tjr merica, the Middle East and Afganistan-all pouring intoAmerica at an increasing rate-the subject of the book could nothave been more timely.The new immigrantion laws have also whetted Americancuriosity about who these people are and their life in theunited States. True, the daily press has documented thephenomenon of tne new immigrant. ~ u t for the first time,Mukherjee's short stoeies make these motley characters come soall>* t'lat one can alnost hear txlr accents and smell theirMukherlre's refined manners reveal her sophisticatedlndlan upbrlnginq. But. her questing, restless spiritsnd illdependence of mir.;l are undoubtedly of Americanorigin. With wit and compassion, she has trackeddown her alter ego in Mayas, Pannas, Jasmines andother characters who careen through her hectic,raunchy stories at breakneck speed, even as sheherself joins in the celebratlon of the arrival ofanother India-born great on the American literaryscene. (Pate1 1989,129)It would be tnle to say that T&Middleman is the end-result of Mukherjee's on-going love affair with America-theenergy of the country, its people, its language-remade in herown inage. And as a by-product of this romance with her new-CsUPt:sy,she is quire passionate azout the need for the writerWho has choser,, either voluntarl;$ or lnvoiuntarily, to leavehls native lard behir,d, to put his past Ilfe behind and get on