000			02414nam a2200265 a 4500
001			008369
005			20231009192111.0
008			120420s2011 mau 000 1 eng
010			_a2011028560
020			_a9780547577456
042			_apcc
050	0	0	_aPR9499.3.D465 _bA88 2011
082	0	0	_aFIC DES
100	1		_aDesai, Anita _d, 1937-
245	1	4	_aThe artist of disappearance _b: three novellas _c/ Anita Desai
250			_a1st U.S. ed.
260			_aBoston _b: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt _c, c2011.
300			_a156 p. _c; 22 cm.
500			_a "Located in Gloria Grant Room - special collection of San Miguel de Allende authors"
505	0		_aThe museum of final journeys -- Translator translated -- The artist of disappearance.
520			_aWritten late in Anita Desai's illustrious career, these three novellas ruminate on art and memory, illusion and disillusion, and the sharp divide between life's expectations and dreams and its realities. Set in India in the not too distant past, the stories' diverse surroundings and dramas frame universal themes, which illuminate the ways in which various aspects of the Indian culture can nourish or suffocate. All are served up with Desai's characteristic perspicuity, subtle humor and quiet, sensitive writing. Overwhelmed by their own lack of purpose, the men and women who populate these tales set out on unexpected journeys that present them with a fresh sense hope and opportunity. In "The Museum of Final Journeys," a bored and officious junior civil servant imagines he's about to discover a museum filled with priceless treasures; in "Translation," a middle-aged woman has the chance to translate an unknown writer and in the process, impress the woman she most admires; in "The Artist of Disappearance," a documentary film crew, looking to expose the ecological havoc of illegal mining and logging, stumbles upon an artistic creation of unspeakable beauty, hidden from the world by its creator, a local recluse. But these are not heroic characters, and when confronted with defining moments, they struggle against their circumstances, their passivity and the disappointments of their daily lives, like so many flies in a spider's web. An impeccable craftsman, Desai remains evenhanded, elegantly setting the stage for all attendant human frailties to play out.
651		4	_aIndia _v--Fiction
655		7	_aShort stories
942			_cMO
999			_c228006 _d228006