Big Apple 2 Bites - only Indian novel on 9/11
Date 2011/6/20 22:31:32 | Topic:
| Excerpt from 'The Post Colonial Indian Novel in English' by Geetha Ganapathy-Doré, Cambridge Scholars Publishing; New edition edition (April 1, 2011)
http://www.amazon.com/Postcolonial-Indian-Novel-English/dp/1443827231/
(Page 121-122 Section 'Post Communist Time')
Much has been written by social science scholars all over the world about the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11,2011. Not less than six films have been shot in the Indian subcontinent (not to mention the collective documentary made by 11 directors and released on 11th September 2002 to which Mira Nair has contributed) about this event the scale of violence of which had been unprecedented. In order to condemn the madness that took over the terrorists Rushdie goes back to Shakespeare. Only one Indo-American author has devoted a whole novel to this event. Arunabha Sengupta's 'Big Apple 2 Bites' is a semi-autobiographical narrative (the novel's protagonist is Aniruddha Sensharma (aniruddha in Sanskrit means unstoppable) , he is an aikido adept like the author) which tells the story of love between a software consultant and his American colleague Allison Palmer whose micro-history is affected by these terrorist attacks. The
representation of an IT professional as a paradigmatic figure of the Indian abroad proposes a counterweight to the cliche of the miserable and alms seeking Indians portrayed in some Ango-Indian novels, notably Kim. But this diasporic hero has his national alter ego.
(Geetha Ganapathy-Dore has been Associate Professor of English in the Law, Political and Social Sciences Faculty of the University of Paris 13 since 1997.)
|
|