The present book seeks to present Arun Joshi as a novelist of great merit and as an author of rare sensitivity. It reveals his instinctive ability to articulate the feelings of the post-Independence Indians trapped between the Indian ethos and Western influences. It also reveals his psychological insight and understanding of the inner lives of the beleaguered protagonists. The study has been made comprehensive enough to reveal the various perspectives of Joshi’s novels, thereby helping research scholars whet their critical faculties and appreciate Arun Joshi’s originality as a great Indian English novelist.
The book comprises seven chapters. The first chapter is on modern Indian-English novel and the place Arun Joshi holds in its context. The subsequent five chapters are named after Arun Joshi’s five novels. The second chapter, The Foreigner, is about the protagonist Sindi Oberoi’s loneliness and feelings of anguish and anxiety born of his estrangement from his environment, tradition and his true self. The third chapter, The Strange Case of Billy Biswas, is about the protagonist Billy Biswas’s suffering from the crisis of self, problems of identity and his quest for fulfilment. The fourth chapter, The Apprentice, is about Ratan Rathor, who feels confused and lost in a world full of chaos, corruption, hypocrisy and absurdity. The fifth chapter, The Last Labyrinth, is about Som Bhaskar’s infatuation with Anuradha, and his essential anxiety and mystical urge for the vitals of life. The sixth chapter, The City and the River, is a parable of the times, which also explores if the world indeed belongs to God and to no one else. The seventh chapter, “The Summing-up”, shows why Arun Joshi holds a place of singular distinction in contemporary Indian writing in English. Since not many books, reviews and articles have been written on Arun Joshi, this book will prove very fruitful and informative to the research scholars and men with critical faculties.
Siddhartha Sharma, born on the 6th of December 1967, is Lecturer in English at Mahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramodaya Vishwavidyalaya, Chitrakoot, Satna (M.P.). He obtained his Master’s degree from Awadhesh Pratap Singh Vishwavidyalaya, Rewa, (M.P.); M.Phil. from Dr. Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar (M.P.) for the dissertation entitled “Vectors of Creative Experimentation in G.V. Desani”; D.Phil. from Allahabad University, Allahabad for the thesis entitled “The Literary Influences in the Novels of Arun Joshi: A Critical Study”. He has also translated into Hindi a book, Higher Education in India: New Dimensions and Directions, authored by Prof. Dr. B.H. Briz-Kishore, Chairman, National Council of Rural Institutes (N.C.R.I.), Ministry of H.R.D., Government of India. He has also published half a dozen research papers in various books and reputed journals.
