cover image Crane's Morning - Hardcover

Crane's Morning - Hardcover

Indrani Aikath-Gyaltsen. Ballantine Books, $20 (243pp) ISBN 978-0-345-38366-2

Although lacking some of the impact of Gyaltsen's first novel, Daughters of the House , this finely nuanced tale of constricted lives in an isolated Indian town is marked by much of the same mixture of grace and keen observation. Ineffectual Kunal Kushari, college principal and village landlord, feels himself a failure as a teacher, a husband and a father. His proud, willful wife, Gargi, resents both her never-ending work caring for their three small daughters and her husband's elderly Aunt Kanan, whose presence in the Kushari family's dilapidated mansion prevents Kunal from selling it. The final ingredient in this concoction of clashing personalities and fading dreams is Bengali playwright Vikram Sen, Gargi's onetime suitor, who has just been released from prison after having been wrongly accused of abetting his rich wife's suicide. A subplot involves administrative infighting at the Kushari daughters' elementary school, where one of the teachers falls in love with Vikram Sen. This small gem of a book lays bare the human heart with a witty dissection of secret wishes that shape or subvert lives and destinies. (Jan.)