Clear Light of Day is about the journey backward and inward of two sisters, their exploration of what it means to be part of a family, to draw "from the same soil, the same secret darkness." It is a book about shared memory, how often it divides and deceives, but how, sometimes, miraculously, it heals and unites. Nearly all the action of this book takes place within the confines of the dusty house and garden of the Das family. Tara's visit [to her childhood home in Old Delhi] is the frame through which Desai leads us back into the sisters' childhood in British India and their youth, especially the fateful summer of partition, 1947, when from the terrace they could see the fires from the riot-torn city of Delhi….
I have the feeling when writing about [Clear Light of Day] that all the proper adjectives have been used up in other reviews of lesser books and the best approach would be to take the space allowed me and fill it with large block letters urging anyone who cares about reading or writing to READ THIS BOOK, but I resist the temptation. Anything in large block letters would violate the beautiful complexity of Desai's work.
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Read the rest of this Criticism with our Desai, Anita 1937–: Critical Essay by Katherine Paterson Access Pass.
