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VED MEHTA. Nation, $22.95 (208p) ISBN 1-56025-628-1
Imagine: you're a middle-aged adult and your elderly parent
offers you a packet of love letters ("red letters")
from an adulterous relationship that took place just before you
were born. After you recover from the shock—you never imagined
your parents being sexual, much less anything but faithful—you
must decide whether you really want to know what's in the letters.
If you're longtime New Yorker writer Mehta, and you've
already published biographical volumes on each of your parents
(Daddyji; Mamaji) without this information, the offer's both troublesome
and irresistible. It began when Mehta's father asked him to collaborate
on a novel about two lovers. As his father "slipped from
conditional into indicative mood," Mehta realized he was
actually hearing the truth about his parents. That Mehta senior
would unburden himself to his biographer son is almost a foregone
conclusion. What's unclear, though, is the effect this knowledge
will have on their relationship. Son must accept a new version
of his father. No longer an even-tempered, optimistic gentleman,
he's become a passionate, moody romantic. Mehta's notions of his
mother also need revising. It's a "belated growing up,"
yes, but also a fitting conclusion to his Continents of Exile
series. Mehta fans will find this 11th and closing volume enticing,
and newcomers may be inspired to restart with volume one.
Agent, Georges Borchardt. (Oct.)
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