Inheritance of Loss

By Kiran Desai
(Penguin Books, Paperback, 9780141027289)

Publication Date: June 2009

Other Editions of This Title: Compact Disc, Paperback, Mass Market Paperback, Hardcover

Categories: Literary

Conversation Starters from ReadingGroupChoices.com

1. Discuss the terms globalization and colonialism. What are examples of them in the novel? Discuss them in political and economic terms. How are Noni and Lola stand-ins for the middle class the world over?

2. Did the judge ever have any tender feelings for his wife Nimi? Why and how did her family pay for him to go to school in England? What did the judge choose to believe about what happened to her? Did the judge have regrets about abandoning his family?

3. Sai's parents left her at St. Augustine's Convent, and she never saw them again. Why were they in the Soviet Union? How does their journey parallel the stories of Biju and the judge? How do India's allegiances to other countries prompt this kind of immigration?

4. Compare Gyan and the judge. Both were the chosen sons of the family; much was sacrificed for their success and much expected of them. They are both lonely and feel that they don't fit in anywhere. So why don't they get along? Do you think they would raise their sons the way they had been raised?

5. What are the different types of immigration that take place in the novel? There is Biju, Saeed Saeed, the judge, Sai's mother and father, Father Booty and Uncle Potty, the Tibetan monks, the workers in the New York restaurants, and all the people in the Calcutta airport when Biju arrives back home.

6. Discuss the unrest, betrayals, and eventual violence that separate Gyan and Sai. How are their troubles, and those of the cook, the judge, Father Booty, and Lola and Noni, related to problems of statehood and old hatreds that will not die?

7. Biju's time in New York City is not what he had expected. How do the earlier immigrants treat him? How do the class differences in India translate into class differences in the United States, where there were supposed to be none? Why is Saeed so successful in America, and Biju is not?

8. Most of the examples of Americans and other tourists in India are extremely unflattering. Most of the Indians in America are also not impressive, such as the students to whom Biju delivers food. How do they judge themselves? How does Biju judge them?

9. Why did the cook want his son to go to America? Discuss Biju's experiences there. How did he feel about the possibility that he might never see his father again? Why did Biju return to India? Describe how he felt when he stepped out of the airport.

10. Did Sai mature or change over the months of both personal and political turmoil?

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