Tag: Indian Fiction

Mother Mary Comes To Me – book review

Mother Mary Comes to Me, by Arundhati Roy

Anyone who fell in love with The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy, will be drawn to Mother Mary Comes to Me, to understand how she could write such an extraordinary novel. This is her memoir, and just as bold and in-your-face as fiction, with the drama of Indian life, the outsized personalities, the confusion, the heat, the colour, the overwhelming sense of chaos that seems to define life on the subcontinent. The feeling that your life isn’t yours to own – just by being a woman in India you are liable for so much to so many.

In Roy’s case the overwhelming suffocating feeling of debt is to her mother. Bloody hell. Mothers!

Continue reading “Mother Mary Comes To Me – book review”

The Loneliness of Sonia & Sunny – book review

The Lonliness of Sonia & Sunny, by Kiran Desai

The waiter brought them a parade of dishes: a mineral-smelling broth, a barely set delicate custard perfumed with chrysanthemum, bright roe that burst marine between their teeth, pickled autumn roots. How lovely. There is a lot about food in this story and if you enjoy Indian cooking you are in for a treat. There is a lot about a lot of things in Sonia & Sunny, so settle in for a long read. It is a very Indian story, and by that I mean in the fine tradition of introducing you, in great detail, to the long back stories of every member of every character’s extended family, with all the hints of corruption and family estrangements, overheard conversations and unanswered questions and the quirky personalities of all the uncles. The food is not only looked at, but smelled and tasted and each dish’s history is unravelled and the knowledge of who makes the best kebabs in the neighbourhood is shared, who taught them. Who stole the cook deserves a sub-plot all of its own. Perhaps it is impossible to write a short story about India. You can’t really dip in and get a feeling of the place. It’s full immersion or nothing.

Continue reading “The Loneliness of Sonia & Sunny – book review”