Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

To view a society as both outsider and insider - this is the rare quality infusing the fiction of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Forced at age 12 to flee her native Germany to escape Nazi persecution, Jhabvala settled in England, later married an Indian architect and spent the next quarter-century in India, and still later relocated to the United States. All these experiences have helped shape Jhabvala's distinctive outsider/insider perspective on society particularly Indian society. And in her near-40-year career she's produced 10 novels- among them the Booker Prize - winning Heat and Dust - and five collections of stories, as well as a number of much-praised screenplays. Approaching Jhabvala's fiction from the standpoint of the writer's own desire to be considered "one of those European writers who have written about India," Ralph Crane in this new study provides an eloquent analysis of his subject's contributions to literature. Beginning with an informed biographical overview, Crane examines in turn the early, middle, and late Indian novels; the short stories; and the American novels. He probes the writer's major themes (such as arranged marriages and the problems of race, class, and culture), underscores Jhabvala's three stages of Westerners' responses to India, and argues compellingly that the later American novels (In Search of Love and Beauty, Three Continents) are not only consistent with Jhabvala's Indian novels but a logical development from them. Finally, in a deftly drawn conclusion Crane appraises the often-controversial response of critics to Jhabvala's fiction, particularly the disparate reception her works have received in India. Suitable for an array of courses at the secondary college, and graduate levels - and of interest to scholars and general readers too - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala offers a highly readable and accessible addition to the extant literature.