https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=The_Last_BurdenThe Last Burden - Revision history2026-09-06T21:32:14ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Last_Burden&diff=170879&oldid=previmported>Rsjaffe: clean up2021-07-31T22:15:44Z<p>clean up</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books --><br />
| name = The Last Burden<br />
| image = Image:TheLastBurden.jpg<br />
| caption = First edition<br />
| author = [[Upamanyu Chatterjee]]<br />
| cover_artist = <br />
| country = India<br />
| language = English<br />
| series = <br />
| genre = <br />
| publisher = [[Faber & Faber]]<br />
| release_date = 16 August 1993<br />
| pages = 352 pp<br />
| isbn = 0-571-16825-6 <br />
| oclc = 43607106<br />
| preceded_by = <br />
| followed_by = [[The Mammaries of the Welfare State]]<br />
}}<br />
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'''''The Last Burden''''' is a novel by [[Upamanyu Chatterjee]] which portrays life in an [[India]]n middle-class family.<br />
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In this novel, he travels the lives of different people constituting a joint family, expertly portraying their emotions, needs and desires. This is a portrayal of the financial, social and emotional problems that make people favor an [[atomic family]] in contrast to a [[joint family]] as was the predominant practise in India.<br />
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The author uses somewhat strong language but definitely makes the readers aware of the actual frictions that exist within the joint family structure. It elegantly portrays the decisions and sacrifices made by different people in a family and the frictions and the frustrations thereby. It also portrays the struggle of the newer generation in order to move into an atomic family structure from a strictly hierarchical joint family structure where even the elders have an even more elderly person who dictate the terms.<br />
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The novel talks about Jamun, a work less young man and his old father, Shyamanand, his dying mother, Urmila. The novel opens at the death bed of Urmila and takes you through the story of this middle-class family.<br />
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==Critical reception==<br />
Anjum Hasan reviews the novel in ''[[The Caravan]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hasan |first1=Anjum |title=The Outsider |url=https://caravanmagazine.in/reviews-essays/outsider |access-date=30 July 2021 |work=[[The Caravan]] |date=May 31, 2010}}</ref><br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
* [http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/chatteru/thelastb.htm#summaries www.complete-review]<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Burden}}<br />
[[Category:1993 novels]]<br />
[[Category:1993 Indian novels]]<br />
[[Category:Novels set in India]]<br />
[[Category:Faber and Faber books]]<br />
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