The Lilac House: A Novel
Page 32
‘Are you looking for Giri?’ Charlie asks from near the bar.
‘Yes, have you seen him, Charlie?’ She tries to hide the worry in her voice. She sees Queen Lat’s eyes glitter. The speculation.
‘He stepped out as I was coming in. That was about two hours ago, Meera.’
That is when Meera feels her perfect September day with its blue sky acquire an underbelly of grey.
A wail gathers in her. But she clamps it down and improvises, ‘How silly of me. The flight must be early…’
The words trail away. Meera sees the knowing look on the faces around her.
My Giri is not Zeus. He does not frolic with nymphets or even goddesses. He is prone to fits of rage; he is ambitious. But he is eminently trustworthy.
Meera hears again the censorious voice in her head: That’s exactly what Hera must have thought each time Zeus disappeared from her horizon!
ALSO BY ANITA NAIR
Fiction
The Better Man
Ladies Coupé
Mistress
Satyr of the Subway & Eleven Other Stories—Short Fiction
Nonfiction
Where the Rain is Born—[Ed.]
Goodnight and God Bless—Essays
For Children
Puffin Book of World Myths and Legends
Adventures of Nonu, the Skating Squirrel
Living Next Door To Alise
Puffin Book of Magical Indian Myths
Poetry
Malabar Mind
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Greek Myths [Complete Edition], Robert Graves, Penguin Books Ltd, 1992.
Special Series: The Art of Hospitality, Part V, Dinner Party Etiquette, Tamera Bastiaans, www.homecooking.about.com
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As always, this book wouldn’t be what it is, were it not for V.K. Karthika – anchor, bulwark, rudder and then that final gust of wind that steered the book through its course.
Jayant Kodkani for once again being my first reader and celestial navigator.
Camilla Ferrier, Geraldine Cooke and the team at The Marsh Agency for their sustained support.
Mini Kuruvilla for making a veritable difference to the mechanics of producing a literary work.
Sudha Pillai who made available to me material on cyclones.
Sumentha and Franklin Bell, Francesca Diano, Leela Kalyanraman, Gita Krishnankutty, Chetan Krishnaswamy, Achuthan Kudallur, Carmen Lavin, Dimpy and Suresh Menon, S. Prasannarajan, Sunita Shankar, Rajini and Sunil, Jayapriya Vasudevan, Vishwas and Patrick Wilson – friends who made everything and every day so much easier to deal with in countless ways.
My parents, Soumini and Bhaskaran, for being there for me. Always.
Unni, Maitreya and Sugar – the triumvirate without whom life and literature would have neither meaning nor relevance for me.
Discussion Questions
1. Amidst the changeability in Meera’s life, her family home, Lilac House, remains a constant, a place “Meera has forbidden panic�� (23). Yet the Lilac House is also cause of much strife in her marriage to Giri. How would you describe Meera’s relationship to her family home in the beginning of the novel? Does this relationship change by the end? How so?
2. Why do you think Anita Nair chose to interweave Greek mythological figures throughout The Lilac House? In what ways did these figures contribute to your reading experience?
3. How do Professor Jak’s articles about the different stages of a cyclone illuminate the structure of the novel? How about the plot?
4. When Jak is a child and his father flees the family, Jak’s mother says, “I am cursed … that’s what I am. Neither a wife nor a widow. Who am I, Kitcha?” (17). In what ways does Meera’s journey explore this question? What does it mean for her to be a woman who is “neither a wife nor a widow?”
5. As Jak seeks answers to Smriti’s mysterious accident, he tells Kala Chithi that he is “a scientist” and “it is the way of all scientific investigation to end in a conclusion.” In response, Kala Chithi asks, “and Kitcha, what do you do with the conclusion you arrive at?” (58). What does Jak do with his conclusions at the end of the novel? How does Kala Chithi’s question pervade the novel more generally?
6. The characters in The Lilac House are complex and flawed in many ways. Did you disagree with a character’s way of thinking or his/her actions while reading? At what point? Why?
7. Were you surprised by the truth behind Smriti’s accident? How does Smriti’s campaign against female infanticide tie into broader questions of female identity in the novel?
8. Anita Nair gives the reader insight into both Meera’s and Jak’s perspectives. How do their views on marriage, parenting, love, and careers differ? How are they similar? In what ways do these perspectives shift throughout the novel?
For more reading group suggestions, visit
www.readinggroupgold.com.
ANITA NAIR’S books have been published in several languages around the world. Her last novel Mistress was long-listed for the 2008 Orange Prize in the UK, and named a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Beyond Margins Award in the United States. The Lilac House was recently adapted for stage and film in India. She lives in Bangalore, India.
Visit Anita at www.anitanair.net.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE LILAC HOUSE. Copyright © 2010 by Anita Nair. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
eISBN 9781429942553
First eBook Edition : April 2012
ISBN 978-0-312-60677-0 (trade paperback) ISBN 978-1-250-00518-2 (hardcover)
First published in India by
HarperCollins Publishers India,
a joint venture with
The India Today Group
under the title Lessons in Forgetting
First U.S. Edition: April 2012