SOURCE: "The Fiction of Anita Desai," in Humanities Review, Vol. 3, No. 2, July-December, 1981, pp. 40-3.

In the positive review of Clear Light of Day below, Singh discusses Indian elements in the novel as well as the themes of memory and familial relationships.

A friend said the other day that Anita Desai's latest novel [Clear Light of Day] seemed to be derivative of Virginia Woolf. I do not agree. Any novel that seeks to evoke moods and atmosphere, that mixes memory and yearning in almost equal proportions, and illuminates a consciousness that is conscious above all of itself; any novel, moreover, which, in lighting up this consciousness, brings the protagonist to a crisis and then resolves this crisis through an experience of art which further enlarges her consciousness, is bound to have affinities with Virginia Woolf. But here all resemblance ends. For Desai's achievement is original—and Indian. What is...