Holder of the World – Bharati Mukherjee

Holder of the World – Bharati Mukherjee

The Holder of the World by Bharati Mukherjee is a novel that sets itself apart from contemporary novels. Readers are accustomed to reviewing traditional Western literature, which operates according to an often unnoticed set of assumptions.

Mukherjee takes a critical step and calls attention to these assumptions that most take for granted. Whether or not readers agree with her redefined notions of history and art, it is an enlightening experience to be introduced to these other, non-traditional processes of thought.

Mukherjee takes a number of popular Western texts and proceeds to raise and question the assumptions upon which they are based. Revolving around a Puritan girl who travels to India, the text as a whole is a twist on Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter.

This novel is Hannah’s story, told by Beigh with an emphasis on the themes that interest her: the nature of time, the merit of attempts to recapture the past, the collision of values that inevitably occurs when New World meets Old, the power wielded by unconventional women in a hidebound society and the revenge that such a society exacts.