A Breath of Fresh Air (17 page)

Reading Group Questions and Topics for
Discussion

1. Amulya Malladi chose to use the Bhopal gas leak of 1984, which killed 3,800 people and permanently disabled thousands more, as the key event within
   A Breath
   of Fresh Air
   . Given the license of a fiction writer to invent tragedy, why would an author like Malladi decide to use a real event instead?
   
2. Does the reality behind such an event enhance or distract from the fictional story?
   
3. Do you, as the reader, hold the author to different standards of verisimilitude when such an event appears in a novel?
   
4. What is the effect of starting the novel with this terrifying event?
   
5. How does Anjali’s role as the victim of such a tragedy change her life in subtle, unexpected ways (in addition to the major changes she experiences)?
   
6. What is the meaning behind the title, beyond the obvious allusion to the gas leak?
   
7. Malladi narrates her novel through three voices: those of Anjali, Sandeep, and Prakash. Why might she have made this decision as an author? What are some of the inherent benefits and risks of such a choice?
   
8. Do you, as the reader, find the voice of each different character convincing? Why or why not?
   
9. Think of another novel in which the author engages more than one narrative voice. In comparison to
   A
   Breath of Fresh Air
   , how does the author distinguish the different voices from one another, and do you find it as effective, less effective, or more effective?
   
10. Given that the author grants more space to Anjali’s voice than to the voices of Prakash and Sandeep, did you find Anjali’s way of telling the story to be the most sympathetic? Or did you want to hear more from either or both of the other two?
    
11. After the three major characters, which minor character did you find most crucial to the story’s central conflicts? Why?
    
12. How did Anjali, Sandeep, and Prakash either maintain or subvert traditional gender roles within modern Indian society?
    
13. What is the role of fantasy within the context of an arranged marriage such as Anjali’s to Prakash? Once her fantasies are inverted, how do they continue to play a role in Anjali’s life?
    
14. How does materialism affect each main character, and how does the author show its presence?
    
15. What is the range of emotions Anjali experiences after Prakash returns to her life, and how does the author illustrate each of these emotions?
    

Amulya Malladi
has a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree in journalism. Born and raised in India, she lived in the United States for several years before moving to Denmark, where she now lives on the island of Mors with her husband and young son. You can contact her at
www.amulyamalladi.com
.

Look for Amulya Malladi’s lushly written new novel, in which a young woman must decide whether to follow her heart or tradition.

When twenty-seven-year-old Priya leaves her home in Silicon Valley to visit her family in India, she carries with her a secret: she has fallen in love with—and is planning to marry—an American man. But soon after her arrival in her native land, Priya learns that her mother and father have chosen a husband for her in a traditional arranged marriage. Priya’s world is instantly thrown into chaos as she must reconcile her passions and her parents’ wishes.

Malladi has captured a young woman’s struggle to please her family, honor her past, and follow her feelings with beautiful language and stunning scenery.
The Mango Season
is a trip into the heart and soul of contemporary India.

“[Malladi’s] words effortlessly transform themselves into art with
pitch-perfect prose fed by an observant eye and a warm heart.”
–Laura Pedersen, author of
Beginner’s Luck

Published by Ballantine Books. Available wherever books are sold.

A Breath of Fresh Air
is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

A Ballantine Book Published by The Random House Publishing Group

Copyright © 2002 by Amulya Malladi

Reader’s Guide copyright © 2003 by Amulya Malladi and The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. Ballantine Reader’s Circle and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

www.thereaderscircle.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2003090475

eISBN : 978-0-307-41437-3

www.randomhouse.com

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