28 — Wednesday, June 3, 1992 - North Shore News

Come Visit The Gardens

Ciassical constructions at

Of Customs and Excise, Stories by Rachna Mara, Second Story
Press, $14.95

NE OF the unfortunate spin-offs of the moval
relativism that has permeated our culture for two
decades has been the decline of the ‘‘classic’’

short story that often hinged on the tension between indi-

vidual dreams and desires and social norms and expecta-

tions and could be resolved with some dramatic, usually

ironic, confrontation.

While most of our contem-

porary short story writers peel off

brilliantly crafted minimalist slide-

sections of life in which everyone

is vaguely miserable but nathing is

ever resolved, immigrant writers

like Rachna Mara retain emotional

access to cultures in which moral

and social absolutes will vigor- . ns,

ously govern every aspect of :

horas life. y asp . John Moore

Mara could probably have spun

these evocative, subtly intercon- BOOK REVIEW

nected stories into a thousand- . :

page saga of the Ungoli family of It begins with a classic tale of cul-

india and Canada, their in-laws, tural misunderstanding: a British

their servants and friends. One doctor, a ‘daughter of the Raj,’’

almost wishes she had; these who returns to India to practise at

stories would have a better chance a small town clinic, encounters the

of being read by everyone instead _hostility of the resident Indian
of consigned to the politically cor- | woman doctor, and their struggle
rect oblivion of shelves labelled of wills nearly costs a patient her
“Women’s Studies.’ life.

As it stands, this is a deftly con- The patient, the young bride
structed and superbly written Parvati, is the soul of Mara’s tale.
“novel without-the-dull-transition- After her one act of premarital

al-bits,” a form at which women rebellion in a paternalistic culture,

writers in particular seem to excel. she reverts to the epitome of the

NEWS enol Hike Waketiels

DAVID SUZUK! was signing coples of his new book Wisdom

of the Elders recently at Amber Books in West Vancouver.

The well-known scientist and TV personality was serenaded

_ by none other than the Raging Grannies, who wrote a song
‘about him.

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for doing so are anything but
simplistic and only revealed in a

final reconciliation with her
rebellious eldest daughter. Mala.

Born in India but raised in
Canada when Parvati and Mohan ene
emigrate, it is Mala who 4 Exhibits
challenges the customs and tradi-
tions of her family and culture, de- June 4 to Jume 13
fying her father in what becomes,
literally, a struggle to the death.

Mala is a powerful symbol of
emergent self-liberating
womanhood, but just as she seems
to be becoming a bit of a strident
stereotype, Mara turns the tables.

A young mother herself, Mala at
least learns the secret of her own
conception and experiences, that
universal “coming of age’’ which
begins at the precise moment you
stop hating your parents and start
understanding them.

Mara’s keen observation of life ; ; *
in both tndia and Canada, her A JUNE DAY . 30°x40"
ability to create fascinating, com- '
plex characters and her obvious 2022 PARK ROYAL SOUTH

sense of plot and timing add up to

only one thing: she owes us a WEST VANCOUVER 926-2615

novel.
. ; i
| [oO °

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