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"If we encountered a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he read."
Three Continents
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Three Continents
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This Book is Currently in the Wild!
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Author and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (left) is a Booker Prize winner and a member of the Merchant Ivory film team. A brief biography and description of her work (and many awards) can be found here.Prawer Jhabvala's novels include Amrita, The Nature of Passion, Esmond in India, The Householder, Get Ready for Battle, A Backward Place, Travelers, Heat and Dust, In Search of Love and Beauty and Three Continents. |
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Wealthy, nineteen year old twins Michael and Harriet Wishwell (pronounced Witchell) were raised in a series of embassies around the world by their paternal grandfather, an American diplomat. Their mother, Lindsay, lives with her partner Jean Potts at "Propinquity", the stately home on Long Island she inherited from the twins' grandfather. Their father, Manton, lives in New York City with his young wife Barbara, overspending his allowance from the family trust. Eschewing their parents' world of adultery and cocktails, Harriet and Michael spend their time searching for the Om -- the "real thing" -- and scorning anything neti (phony). Michael -- understatedly gay -- avoids higher education, choosing instead to wander aimlessly around Asia wearing a kurta (steel bangle) and a single earring. Harriet finishes one semester of college before quitting to hang around her parents' homes. The two live a life they think of -- absurdly -- as acetic, keeping their bedrooms bare of furniture, snug in the bosom of inherited wealth. They're casual about money in a way only the very rich can be (hearing of the contents of her second grandfather's will, Harriet notes off-handedly "I guess Michael and I were very rich now ..."), and -- able to do absolutely anything they want -- what they do is nothing. Into this world of material excess and emotional impoverishment Michael invites "the Rawul" -- a spiritual leader descended from a royal family from Dhoka, India -- whom he met at the conclusion of his Asian travels. The Rawul, his zaftig consort "the Rani" and Crishi, their adopted son, take up residence at Propinquity, and soon almost all the Wishwells are spiritually enraptured (the less blue blooded among them are not so enamoured -- both Lindsay's partner Jean and Manton's wife Barbara are straight-up antagonized by the Rawul's antics). Harriet -- who has to date lead a curiously detached and asexual existence -- falls in love with, and ultimately agrees to marry, Crishi. And in an act of astonishing gullibility, she permits him access to the income from her family trust, together with near-total control over her considerable assets. The outcome is -- predictably -- disastrous. |
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Released on Friday, December 24, 2004 at about 1:00:00 PM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at 1138 Melville Street - 12th floor kitchen in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada.RELEASE NOTES: I'll be leaving this book on the table in the 12th floor kitchen. Merry Christmas and happy reading to whomever finds it! |
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