The Ivory Swing (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Janette Turner Hospital
- First Published: 1982
- Type of Work: Romantic realism
- Time of Work: The 1970’s, with flashbacks to the 1960’s
- Setting: A small South Indian village near Trivandrum in Kerala State; Winston, a small town in the province of Ontario, Canada (a thinly disguised Kingston); and Boston
- Principal Characters: Juliet, David, Jeremy, Susan, Annie, Prem, Shivaraman Nair, Prabhakaran, Yashoda, Matthew Thomas
- Genres: Long fiction, Realism, Social realism
- Subjects: Culture, 1960’s, 1970’s, Self-discovery, Tradition, Class conflict, Love or romance, Race, Sex or sexuality, Marriage, Villages, Manners or customs, Writing, Canada or Canadians, India or East Indian people
- Locales: Boston, MA, Canada, Ontario, Canada, India
The Novel
Juliet provides the focus for the novel’s two-pronged exploration of male/female and North American/South Indian interactions. Much of the novel relates Juliet’s memories and her experience of events. She loves her husband and children but has hated her twelve years in the backwater of Winston; she now finds South India equally debilitating. She feels torn between her desire for action and her need for security. Her former lover Jeremy represents the political engagement for which she longs, while her husband David embodies the detached appreciation of the...
[The entire page is 2008 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
