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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Usually when I finish a book - and if that book touched me in some way - I find myself reading reviews hoping that someone already said (and in a better way that I would) what I want to say. And if I don't find it I feel the need to post a short review myself even though I'm horrible at it (and so is my English).
I skipped through several reviews here and I cannot immediately find the main though that's been in my head since I closed this book. So...
The name of the book, the meaning of the name, suddenly seemed totally and absolutely clear when I read the last scene.
You have to find this find balance between hope and despair in your life to keep going, and Dina, Om and Ishvar managed to do it. Despite lost husbands, lost families, lost homes, lost legs, lost testicles and basically lost everything.
What striked me most was Dina's thinking about how those two made her laugh every day, and how she still got a bit of time before making dinner so why not take a nap.
And this is amazing. This is just so.. normal. Something from normal, day-by-day life. And the idea that after all that they went through they managed to grab a hold of this - almost - normal life blows my mind.
I wouldn't be able to do it.
I would be Maneck.
I skipped through several reviews here and I cannot immediately find the main though that's been in my head since I closed this book. So...
The name of the book, the meaning of the name, suddenly seemed totally and absolutely clear when I read the last scene.
You have to find this find balance between hope and despair in your life to keep going, and Dina, Om and Ishvar managed to do it. Despite lost husbands, lost families, lost homes, lost legs, lost testicles and basically lost everything.
What striked me most was Dina's thinking about how those two made her laugh every day, and how she still got a bit of time before making dinner so why not take a nap.
And this is amazing. This is just so.. normal. Something from normal, day-by-day life. And the idea that after all that they went through they managed to grab a hold of this - almost - normal life blows my mind.
I wouldn't be able to do it.
I would be Maneck.
Amazing writing and character development. Very depressing but probably based on things that actually happen or could happen.
Mistry takes on a James A. Michener role for India, telling the history of a place through the interconnected lives of his characters that mostly just exist to experience the events and don't really settle in as people.
It works pretty well as a people's history, with the characters' indifference to politics allowing Mistry to provide an overview and also examine the effects of Indira Gandhi's horrific policies on poorer people.
But Mistry's jangling prose smacks very much of overextension, throwing in esoteric words that seem more showoff than useful. And he trips over himself with his comic secondary characters that are too colourful and include a self-insert proofreader who pops up every once in a while to state for the reader the book's themes.
His depictions of internal class, caste, gender and family divisions works sometimes and other times just seems like his character has suddenly changed personality to advance the plot or drive the theme.
It's a helluvan effort, and never really drags, but feels almost like a write-by-numbers novel for a literary prize, hitting its marks of politics and misery and criticism so it can be Important without ever feeling like more than a semi-successful historical fiction. The book informs, but it doesn't breathe.
It works pretty well as a people's history, with the characters' indifference to politics allowing Mistry to provide an overview and also examine the effects of Indira Gandhi's horrific policies on poorer people.
But Mistry's jangling prose smacks very much of overextension, throwing in esoteric words that seem more showoff than useful. And he trips over himself with his comic secondary characters that are too colourful and include a self-insert proofreader who pops up every once in a while to state for the reader the book's themes.
His depictions of internal class, caste, gender and family divisions works sometimes and other times just seems like his character has suddenly changed personality to advance the plot or drive the theme.
It's a helluvan effort, and never really drags, but feels almost like a write-by-numbers novel for a literary prize, hitting its marks of politics and misery and criticism so it can be Important without ever feeling like more than a semi-successful historical fiction. The book informs, but it doesn't breathe.
Set in the mid 1970s India against the backdrop of huge political unrest, four strangers are forced to share a cramped apartment. Marked with violence, detention and even forced sterilization, this bleak, heart wrenching yet somehow hopeful novel is an apt portrayal of undying human spirit against all odds.
5/5 for Rohinton Mistry's astonishing book.
5/5 for Rohinton Mistry's astonishing book.
Bleak. Brutal. Hope and humor are here too. The characters do have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair. A powerful lesson on how much we mean to one another, and how the kindness shared between strangers can have a monumental impact.
I have read quite a few Indian novels and never before has one made me so fully convinced that this is a country I never want to visit. The stories of caste violence and government corruption were breathtakingly horrifying.
I have read quite a few Indian novels and never before has one made me so fully convinced that this is a country I never want to visit. The stories of caste violence and government corruption were breathtakingly horrifying.
hopeful
sad
tense
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes