Reviews

Custody by Manju Kapur

meghanakotra's review

emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

chrissireads's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed this book although it took me a little while to get into. I hadn't realised that the author had books before this one, so I think I'll be checking out some more of her work! Well worth reading.

shenereads's review against another edition

3.0

I think it is the genius of a writer who picked up a difficult situation to talk about and then write about it in a way that I, who has read this book in 2016, feel that she wrote today and she wrote it because she was telling me something about the lives of the people in the book. I came to care about Roo and Arjun as though they were someone I knew, therein lies the genius of a writer.

That being said, I did feel that the author took a few shortcuts in the narration towards the end when she felt that the story had gone too far already and she wanted to get done with it. That showed at a few places.

Anyways, this is definitely not light reading or to be read if you are considering a divorce. Gets too real.

ronaldhadrian's review against another edition

3.0

Yes she is a chronicler of the modern Indian life. Good read, but characters are typical, nothing to be raved about.

em_beddedinbooks's review against another edition

4.0

Manju Kapur never fails to amaze. With her pincer grasp of Indian values and emotions, she can spin realistic tales of the Indian family life. This story dealt with the trauma of divorce: two individuals who are divorced by their spouses without any pertinent reason, the male counterpart having two children who are the pawns of vicious custody battle, and the female counterpart divorced because of her infertility. They end up married to each other, but have to face the aftermath of the bitter custody struggle for the man's children, especially the innocent, withdrawn female child, Ruhi. I was drawn into the story and finished it almost in 2-3 prolonged sittings, otherwise I would be obsessed by the characters and find it difficult to concentrate in my day to day life. It was a worthwhile read, but not a happy one. It left me with a dull ache in my head as well as my heart. I hate families splitting due to no apparent reason at all.

ramblingsofareader's review against another edition

3.0

ඉන්දියානු රචකයින් විසින් රචිත ඉංග්‍රීසි පොත්වල දකින්න පුළුවන් වෙන ඉතාම සරල ඉංග්‍රීසි භාාෂාවෙන් තමයි මේ පොත රචනා වෙලා තියෙන්නෙ. ඒ නිසා කියවීම ඉතාම පහසුයි.
ඉන්දීය පවුලක් විස්තෘතයි. පරම්පරා 3ක් පමණ එකට වාසය කරනවා. ඒ නිසා එක් පරම්පරාවක පවුලක සිදුවන වෙනස්කම් අපි හිතනවටත් වඩා වැඩියෙන් අනිත් පරම්පරා වලට බලපානවා. ඒ බලපෑම් සියල්ල කතුවරිය මනාව විස්තර කරනවා. ඇය යොදාගන්නෙ හරිම සෞම්‍ය භාෂාවක්. චේතන් භගත් ගේ පොත් වල දකින්න ලැබෙන "සාම්ප්‍රදායික හින්දි ෆිල්ම්" ආකෘතියෙන් යම් තරමකට මේ පොතේ අන්තර්ගතය වෙනස් වෙනවා..
බටහිර රටවල දක්නට ලැබෙනවාට වඩා "පවුල" කියන සංකල්පය ආසියානු රටවල වැදගත්කමක් උසුලනවා. එබැවින් එක් පවුලක් කැඩී යාමත් ඒ හා සමග තවත් පවුල් කිහිපයක ගොඩනැගීමත් ඇය හරි අපූරුවට විස්තර කරනවා..