Book Review by K.S.Loganathan
Book published by Picador India, 2024
Anita Desai is an India- born writer, age 87, who has published 17 books comprising novels and collections of short-stories, of which three were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her latest novella ‘ Rosarita ‘ , is about a young Indian student Bonita, who has arrived in San Miguel, Mexico to learn Spanish .She is accosted in a park by a woman “Vicky” who insists that Bonita is the spitting image of her mother ” Rosarita” who came to the town as an art student many years ago. Bonita denies that her mother ever visited Mexico, or was a painter.
The story is told in the second person voice which lends credence to an imaginary situation that Bonita’s mother might have encountered but never told her .She is dragged into a fantasy of her life even as Vicky takes her to a now abandoned artists commune outside the town and her own ancestral home in Colima. Bonita becomes wary of Viky’s intentions and remains on her guard at every step of their journey, even as she draws an imaginary portrait of her mother who was no longer alive.
The author draws a parallel between the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the Partition of India in 1947, both of which were accompanied by massive violence and bloodshed that were depicted in murals in both countries.
The story deals with the themes of love, loneliness, and redemption sustaining the tension between what is and what might have been. Bonita travels as far westward from her home as she can , to shift her perception of life. Bonita had not been at her mother’s cremation, which was carried out by her sister Indu, who had also passed on her share of their mother’s assets to Bonita. If Bonita cannot find herself, will she want to be found by others?
The cover is a beautiful self-portrait of Amrita Sher-Gil as a young art student in 1931.The writing is succinct and the words are carefully crafted to create a bridge between two worlds. It is a ludic tale, a delight to read at one sitting.
