Short stories
The Celebration
Raymond Pillai · 1980
Synopsis
La Fête: fourteen short stories about the Indo-Fijian community, descended from the workers indentured on the cane plantations. Marriage, whether arranged, won or endangered, is the thread, along with the difficult place of women in a society of men and with superstitions that are by turns comic and terrifying. Among the characters are Meena, a young villager pregnant against her will, Vincent, a schoolteacher whose idealism hides his frivolity, and Parvati, the colleague he asks to marry him.
Context
Published in Suva in 1980 by Mana Publications, the collection brings together stories most of which had appeared separately, including “The Celebration” and “Laxmi”, reprinted in 1979 in the anthology The Indo-Fijian Experience, as well as “To Market, To Market”, “Muni Deo's Devil” and “Bride of Dakuwaqa”. Stan Atherton saw in it a promising first collection: he judged some of the stories artificial or conventional, especially those dealing with relations between communities, and considered the stories about marriage the best.
Who it is for
A short collection of one hundred and eleven pages, between comedy of manners and tales of dread; no French translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
Stan Atherton, who reviewed it, concluded that we would hear more of this author from Fiji.