Word: desani
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...ABOUT H. HATTERR by G.V. Desani. 287 pages. Farrar, Straus & G/roux...
Cultural Carpetbagger. In his unique and cheerful way, Author Desani is a one-man tower of Babel, a cultural carpetbagger who hawks the flotsam and jetsam of at least five civilizations and three continents, with odd lots of Latin, Shakespeare and the Bible thrown in. His peculiar comic note derives not only from this exotic mixture, but also from his sweet-tempered narrative of sour experiences. The punning jumble that results might be called a cracked hymn to the Joyce and sorrows of life...
...Desani's hero, H. Hatterr, is an Anglo-Indian and a "true spiritual devil-may-care." In seven symmetrical chapters, he seeks enlightenment from some sages of India, then sets out to the countryside to apply his new-found wisdom. Each adventure turns out to be a con game, with somebody else working the con and Hatterr as the game. Attempting to exorcise the mystical fit of an itinerant bard, he is himself accused of being possessed by a spirit and is nearly burned alive on a pyre. "Damme," he says, "this is Life and contrast...
...whether they celebrated the white man's burden, like Kipling, or deplored the excesses of imperialism, like E. M. Forster, they were usually outsiders observing from a distance. In recent years, the Indians have been raising novelists of their own, such as G. V. (for Govindas Vishnoodas) Desani, author of the high-comic All About H. Hatterr (TIME, June 18, 1951). Now comes R. K. (for Rasi-puram Krishnaswami) Narayan, a gently satirical fellow and a writer of substance. At 45, Narayan has published half a dozen novels and scores of stories, forming a miniature comedie humaine of modern...
Swamis with Sidelines. H. Hatterr, Desani's comic hero, is a born stooge and fall guy. Born illegitimate, "a love-brat, a mixed Oriental-Occidental sinfant," Hero Hatterr endures a series of misadventures which keep him low man on life's totem pole...