[effenseshoora]

Siby,

>>>>>Grown up brother and sister sharing
their bodies?
Shard meant "growing up children". Anyway,
I'm surprised that childhood sibling experimentation of the "I'll show you mine
if you'll show me yours" variety surprises
you. It is a natural part of growing up
(given the opportunity) in any culture, Indian
or other. The problem here for most of us is
that it makes us uncomfortable to be made to
hark back to it. Legitimate literature, or
for that matter any frank exposition,
has this "uncomfortable" quality about it.
One will have to ask Roy but it bespeaks
great intellectual courage to to be so
forthright in a novel that will almost
certainly be judged as autobiographical.
My point is that "Portnoy's Complaint",
"Tobacco Road", "Train to Pakistan" and
others works do not cease to be great
literature just because they hold up uncomfortable facts to light.
Comfortable literature is the domain of
Readers' Digest and other journals of that ilk.
Dare I say that "comfort level" is a good
indicator of the artistic relevance of a work to its day and age?