T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

wonder her stories and novels were received and accepted bymainstream America. The 1988 NBCC Award has catapulted her to aunique posltion as an immrgrant writer.Singh,Whether it is Mulk Raj Anand, R K Narayan, XhushwantAnita Desai, Vikram Seth or Bapsi Sidhwa, Mukherjeenever belonged to the tradition of journalist turned fictionwriter or exotlc ethnic writers. As Mukherjee herselfconfesses:I'm vrltlng about the here and now of America ...The Tndlan point of vlew 1s no longer appropriatefor pa nor the contemporary White American viewsaint. So T'm making my own new Americanlanquage". . Each character In the stories ofDarkness or Middleman.. 1s intended to show aunisue desree of confllct or coalescence... It hasan iptimi;tic vlslon. Many of the characters aresayinq that brashness the ability to take a risk,fors.lklng a predictable llfe and throwing oneself~nto a ne,d one, where one is likely to be despisedby others requires guts. It does get some of thecharacters Into trouble, but lts exhllaratlng forothers and the author as well (Krishnakumar 1992,6).Desplte the emiqratlon of thousands of Indians to Americaand despite India's fascination with Amerlca, the people ineach country generally have bizarre, inaccurate views of theother. Just as 311 Indians do not charm snakes, all Amerrcansdo not drive sports cars. Just as all Indlan men do not abusetheir wlves, al.>,ri~i,rican tes,naqers do not freely engage insex. Just as Swam1 Chlnmdyanand 1s not a typlcal Indlan, so is