Express Book Club: 'The Inheritance of Loss'

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Express' Book Club is discussing Kiran Desai's award-winning novel, "The Inheritance of Loss." Today, Express' Jen Barger discusses chapters 22-28. For an introduction to this series and the book, click here. For Monday's discussion, click here. Feel free to join the discussion in comments.

There's a lot of "clash of cultures" stuff going down in this middle section of "Inheritance." We see our protagonists both rebelling against their values and following them with mixed results.

Biju finds himself in what may be the nicest of his food service lackey jobs: searing hunks of meat at Wall Street steakhouse. But the whole beef thing goes against his Hindu beliefs, so he ends up quitting to work at an Indian dive, the Gandhi Cafe. There, the Hollywoody Marilyn Monroe pictures on the walls can't erase the fact that Biju and his immigrant brethren find themselves toiling — and living beneath the restaurant — in squalor. So much for enjoying life while keeping true to what you believe in!

Back in India, Sai's getting better results trekking outside her upper-crusty circle, enjoying her romance with Gyan, and discovering that his family also boasts a history of service to England, though it's in a far grungier and less glamorous way than even the judge's stint. They visit local landmarks on "dates" of sorts and talk of a future together. Still, this doesn't keep Gyan from being somewhat seduced by the Gorkha National Liberation Front, and they argue. This whole thing is starting to look a little star-crossed to me.

There's more rich-versus-poor, cultured-snobs-versus-simple-folk action when we get a flashback to the judge's return to India and marriage to Sai's granny. It's no surprise that, when faced with her shyness and fascination with his Anglophilic life, he ends up rejecting her and mistreating her. I want to be interested in his past, what with all the lovely passages about his relationship with his dog earlier, but this section makes me really dislike him — and made me lose a little interest in this book.

It's kind of unclear who we're supposed to sympathize with. Sai and the judge because they're products of an out-of-date, imperialistic society? Gyan and Biju because they're victims? We'll wait and see, and I'm hoping for more Mutt the dog scenes in the next sections — the book isn't as good when she's missing.

On Monday, Express' Maureen Hoch will discuss chapters 29-33.