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devirnis's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, and Physical abuse
quicksilvermoon's review against another edition
4.0
quicksilvermoon
The pandemic continues to drag on, burning up all the adrenaline that kept me going, and I am left in the ashes of two and a half emotions. There’s the boredom, the grinding, crushing, claustrophobic weight of listless days spent at home, punctuated by a predictable list of sisyphean chores. There’s the grief, both for the mundane (cancelled plans, lost opportunities and watching petty little men with small minds and narrow vision dismantle the pretty little things I built with my team) and the momentous (all the people I’ve lost in the past two years and the people with whom my time is running out). Sometimes the fog lifts and allows me to experience gratitude, for parents restored to health, for the loving partner, for my beautiful friends, for steady work, and books to read. I picked up this one at the 2019 DLF when I had to moderate a panel featuring Tishani Doshi, and only now did I get around to reading it. Fleeing a failed marriage, Grace returns to her childhood home in South India for her mother’s funeral and learns she has inherited a dilapidated mansion on a secluded strip of land by the beach, and a sister with Down’s Syndrome she never knew she had. She too, must struggle with heartbreak, loss, tedium and helplessness in ways she never anticipated. Hmm. How to describe this book? It’s as if Arundhati Roy and JM Coetzee, and Chitra B Divakaruni hung out and watched Rain Man together on a hot summer’s night. The writing is what VS Naipaul would cruelly, unfairly dismiss as ‘feminine tosh’, for it is lavish and morose and sentimental in a way a cisgendered man could never manage. Doshi doesn’t apologise for her characters, doesn’t sugarcoat their reality but also remembers to notice the beauty amidst the ugliness. This isn’t a fun read. But it made me feel a little less alone when I read it.
The pandemic continues to drag on, burning up all the adrenaline that kept me going, and I am left in the ashes of two and a half emotions. There’s the boredom, the grinding, crushing, claustrophobic weight of listless days spent at home, punctuated by a predictable list of sisyphean chores. There’s the grief, both for the mundane (cancelled plans, lost opportunities and watching petty little men with small minds and narrow vision dismantle the pretty little things I built with my team) and the momentous (all the people I’ve lost in the past two years and the people with whom my time is running out). Sometimes the fog lifts and allows me to experience gratitude, for parents restored to health, for the loving partner, for my beautiful friends, for steady work, and books to read. I picked up this one at the 2019 DLF when I had to moderate a panel featuring Tishani Doshi, and only now did I get around to reading it. Fleeing a failed marriage, Grace returns to her childhood home in South India for her mother’s funeral and learns she has inherited a dilapidated mansion on a secluded strip of land by the beach, and a sister with Down’s Syndrome she never knew she had. She too, must struggle with heartbreak, loss, tedium and helplessness in ways she never anticipated. Hmm. How to describe this book? It’s as if Arundhati Roy and JM Coetzee, and Chitra B Divakaruni hung out and watched Rain Man together on a hot summer’s night. The writing is what VS Naipaul would cruelly, unfairly dismiss as ‘feminine tosh’, for it is lavish and morose and sentimental in a way a cisgendered man could never manage. Doshi doesn’t apologise for her characters, doesn’t sugarcoat their reality but also remembers to notice the beauty amidst the ugliness. This isn’t a fun read. But it made me feel a little less alone when I read it.
sarahball47's review against another edition
3.0
Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of Small Days and Nights.
At its heart, this book is about sisters and family. And the secrets and heartache we all deal with. It’s a simple story and the plot is not dramatic or intense. I thoroughly enjoyed aspects of this novel, though it did not make it onto my favourites list.
That said, Grace and Lucy made their way into my heart and I have a feeling I’ll remember them for quite some time. I’d still recommend this book to anyone looking for something simple but beautiful. Because that’s what Small Days and Nights is.
At its heart, this book is about sisters and family. And the secrets and heartache we all deal with. It’s a simple story and the plot is not dramatic or intense. I thoroughly enjoyed aspects of this novel, though it did not make it onto my favourites list.
That said, Grace and Lucy made their way into my heart and I have a feeling I’ll remember them for quite some time. I’d still recommend this book to anyone looking for something simple but beautiful. Because that’s what Small Days and Nights is.
wendoxford's review against another edition
4.0
A haunting read set across three continents with all the female mental dislocation that accompanies this split.
Grazia, the protagonist seems to be adrift from every expectation placed upon her. Society seems to judge her harshly with an intolerance of her difference. The reader sees her as a woman attempting to do the right thing. She recognises her own failure to meet the impossible standards thrown upon her by both nation and family but steers her own course.
Secrets, small village personalities and politics in rural India with an incredible sense of place. The rawest bittersweet novel I have read for some time
Grazia, the protagonist seems to be adrift from every expectation placed upon her. Society seems to judge her harshly with an intolerance of her difference. The reader sees her as a woman attempting to do the right thing. She recognises her own failure to meet the impossible standards thrown upon her by both nation and family but steers her own course.
Secrets, small village personalities and politics in rural India with an incredible sense of place. The rawest bittersweet novel I have read for some time
caitlancole's review against another edition
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I need to sit with this story longer before finalizing my thoughts but it ended just as it began, and I am unsure if our main character grew or transformed at all in the middle. Maybe she learned not to take her sister for granted? And that she does want the life she’s chosen for herself? But at times we were kept at an arm’s reach from the true emotion of the story and so I’m just not sure what I was meant to take away from this. It almost seemed too true-to-life to be a novel — more like scenes of a life, reflections, no real conclusion or point to make.
zainub_reads's review against another edition
2.0
The Protagonist, Grace returns to Pondicherry to cremate her mother and escape her failing marriage and finds out that she has a sister with Down’s syndrome she knew nothing about, living in a residential facility.
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This book was much-talked about initially and I really wanted to like it and just “get-it” but unfortunately I did not.
A case of overrated & hyped-book-disappoints for me
dlew's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoy books surrounding different cultures. We are different but all go through the same things.
theme - a book about a family
theme - a book about a family