979. Family Matters

Family Matters
Rohinton Mistry
2002
Around 500 pages

So here's another novel that explores intense family dynamics as the patriarch slowly declines in health. We get painful descriptions of all the physical indignities that occur as we age and die, and our final days are a burden to those closest to us. It's very real, and incredibly depressing.

Seventy-nine-year-old Nariman Vakeel, who is suffering from Parkinson's Disease, breaks an ankle and becomes entirely dependent on his children and step-children.

Well it was interesting to get a glimpse of Parsi community in India, but I found this to be a grueling journey that wasn't much of an improvement from Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, which explored similar family themes. It does distinguish itself in certain ways with more memorable characters. As Tolstoy points out: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

At 500 pages, I was pretty much exhausted by the story by the end, although I did enjoy the resolution.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

All of Mistry's novels have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

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886. A Fine Balance

A Fine Balance
Rohinton Mistry
1995
Around 605 pages

I fully intended to read the print version of this novel from my library, but it was missing from the shelves, although the catalog claimed that it was available. So I guess that book has gone to wherever misfiled library books go, those poor souls. And I was stuck reading the free online version. What a shame.

This book was selected for the Oprah Book Club, which is a dubious honor, and pretty much guarantees there is going to be a miserable novel with at least one graphic rape scene. This is a relentlessly depressing novel that features four main characters that go through it, against the backdrop of India's State of Emergency, which at least was interesting to learn about.

An early sexual assault scene really lost me. I get that he was showing how commonplace rape was, and how there were no resources or safety for women, but it felt entirely glossed over and put a bad taste in my mouth. If the point of this novel is that you have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair, well, where was the hope? 

We have a lot of emotionally draining tomes on this List, but I find they are most effective when they show the joys of life as well. When you portray life as bleakly as Mistry does, death seems like the much better option.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Won the 1995 Giller Prize.

UP NEXT: The Reader by Bernhard Schlink