“Incantations” Narrator
The title story of this collection is rich in irony that runs deep and wide. The irony kicks in right at the beginning of the story with the narrator. It is a story featuring a first-person narration by the younger sister of the main character of the tale. Her opening words indicate and foreshadow the extent to which her still-innocent mind is being shaped by classic romance novels by authors like Austen and the Brontes. The story moves inexorably toward its horrific climax by creating ironic juxtaposition between the fantasy worlds of these old-world romances and equally unrealistic romanticism they engender in the narrator and the brutal reality of India’s arranged marriage system.
“Incantations” Narrative
The ironic structure of the title story is also situated in the distance existing between 19th century romance novel heroines where happy endings eventually arrive to redeem their unhappy circumstances and the miserable circumstances of the narrator’s older sister which ends violently and without the redemption of a happily-ever-after.
Tinkling Anklets
The titular objects of the story “When Anklets Tinkle” become revelatory instruments of irony. The sound of the anklets tinkling is initially explained as somewhat romantic notion of evidence of ghosts. Instead, they are revealed to exist in the lascivious reality of secret nighttime visits by cheap women engaging in a nightly clandestine sexual rendezvous.
Siddarth
The husband of the put-upon wife in “Bahu” is like a poster boy for ironic obliviousness. This guy just doesn’t get it. He has let his family place an absurd amount of pressure upon his wife to live up to the adage that you don’t just marry a person, you marry their entire family. The insistence of her in-laws to effectively control every minute of her life while Siddarth stands by and does nothing leads to the single most ironic line of dialogue in the collection. As she prepares to kiss the whole family goodbye—including her husband—he insists that “Abdicating your responsibilities isn’t the answer.” One thing is for certain: his abdicating his responsibilities to take care of his wife wasn’t the answer, either.
Irony Delayed
This collection was published in 1992. It would take twenty years before irony settled into the mix in one instance. The title character of “Her Mother” is distinctly anti-American in almost all things. Much of the narrative is comprised of her complaints about the U.S. to her rebellious daughter. At one point she makes what at the time was a very irony-free observation. That is no longer the case:
“Could [America] ever have a Black president? Never.”
