The Fiction of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: The Politics of Passion

In this critique, the author focuses on Jhabvala's maturest novels to date; each reading is complemented by a discussion of a number of related short stories. Sucher traces Jhabvala's tragi-comic treatments of the Quest theme, mostly told from a woman's point of view. She shows that Jhabvala, recasting an ancient mimetic tradition in a modern, international setting, has deftly woven into her ironic tales and novels of manners profound insights of a psychological and socio-political nature. Whether Jhabvala's mismatched lovers inhabit a fly-infested ashram, a provincial Indian town, New York or London - or any combination of these, eros drives them in the same maddening circles. The novelist's latest portrayals of the troubled relations of sophisticated homosexual men and heterosexual women further delineate the emotional issues of her contemporaries.