Express Book Club: 'The Inheritance of Loss'

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Express' Book Club returns after the Thanksgiving break ready to discuss Kiran Desai's award-winning novel, "The Inheritance of Loss." Today, Express' Ian Herbert discusses chapters 16-21. For an introduction to this series and the book, click here. For last week's discussion, click here. Feel free to join the discussion in comments.

READERS HOPING "The Inheritance of Loss" would move along faster than it did in the first 100 pages certainly got their wish in this latest section. And despite dealing so closely with stereotypes and hatred on the surface, Kiran Desai's book appears to be turning into a love story — or maybe multiple love stories.

Biju, who got little attention at the beginning of the novel but is quickly becoming one of the most important and most compelling characters, is still spending his time hopping from bad job to bad job in New York City. He has migrated from India and is caught off guard by the variety of races he encounters in New York (on more than one occasion he must deal with Pakistanis, whom he describes as "sons of pigs"). His new friend, Saeed, is hiding from dozens of "desperate" illegals who have come to him to begin life in America. He once needed the help of others to get started in America, but now he thinks of the new immigrants simply as hassles. And back in India, the insurgency is growing while talk of the Nepalese and immigration dominates conversations.

But the most compelling developments in the last five chapters were the relationships that were made by the novel's two main characters.

We knew from the first 10 pages that this book was going to involve a relationship between Sai and her mathematics tutor, Gyan ("It was February of 1986," the author writes in the first chapter. "Sai was seventeen, and her romance with Gyan the mathematics tutor was not even a year old.") But until recently, we had just been teased with mentions of Gyan. Now, the relationship is progressing into a cute, teenage love affair — full with flirting and touching and, eventually, even kissing. It is a believable romance between two first-time lovers that Desai has developed among the backdrop of more serious stories.

Meanwhile, in New York, Biju's relationship with his new good friend, Saeed, appears to be blossoming as well. When the bakery Queen of Tarts, one of the many low-level restaurants Biju works for when he comes to New York, was shut down for health code violations, Biju said he thought he would never see Saeed again — "This was what happened, he had learned by now. You lived intensely with others, only to have them disappear overnight." But in chapter 19, Saeed greets Biju with news of his recent engagement. Both characters are still looking for love — Saeed is engaged just to get a prized green card and Biju is open about not being able to meet women in the U.S. — but they appear to have found a lasting friendship (something that, at least for Biju, would be a first).

The novel is still young, and the parallels (or perhaps interactions) between Sai and Biju are still being developed. But Desai has created two characters, one in India and one in the U.S., who are both building equally compelling, though different relationships. Now the question is just what is in store for these two protagonists and their mates.

On Thursday, Express' Jen Barger will discuss chapters 22-28.