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booklywookly's review
1.0
Fooled by a visually calming cover, and that clever title, I expected it to be a sombre and slow depiction of grief, trauma and wait for justice.
This was anything but. Explaining the title three times in the first two pages itself should have been an indication for me to put the book down.
A very self righteous out of touch with times prejudiced geriatric main character, ready to spew misogynistic gospel at the drop of a hat, seemingly harboring hatred towards migrant workers in his city. I don’t have aversion to unlikeable flawed characters, but this didn’t seem like an intentional character design. It felt like the author superimposing their stance on various topics on this poor old fellow. And that has me worried.
Then we have this young woman, characteristically anti establishment, revel, a painfully caricaturish wiser beyond the years, self righteous (surprise surprise), talk to the hand character who unexpectedly wields cast-iron idealism.
The story had potential till it became a report on a crime procedural. It would have really worked for me had the author enlisted a proper ghostwriter to write and edit for them. Pedestrian English, uneven pacing, no literary merit. A very tell not show book. The old man is conveniently available 24x7 to this other family. Makes me think, was this “outsider” character essential for the book? The role could have been taken by someone from the family itself. Questioning the relevance of your MC is never a good sign for a book.
This book got long listed for an Indian literary prize and that makes me even more disappointed in that prize.
An old man who remembers every single minor detail about his friend’s granddaughter? Even the names of her friends? His obsession with describing an adolescent’s eyes, shape of nose, too many instances of him being in her room comforting her, patting back, touching hair. Felt cute to the author, super creepy to me.
byronic_reader's review
3.0
I'm going, to be honest here. I have read this book recently for Jcb literature long list reading challenge. And I'm totally unflattered.
This book reminded me of Ruchika's case and how the criminal escaped from the law by using loopholes. This book kinda has the same theme but I can't tolerate the protagonist Janaki at all.
Janaki is self-righteous and thinks whatever she does is right. Though I admired her courage to stand up for her friend, it was not impactful. Also, she's such a hypocrite.
And as the story progresses, I literally got frustrated with her behaviour. I liked Ajoba and his calm demeanour.
And I feel that the story is kind of rushed. The characters are not impactful. And the writing is just lazy. This is just a one time read for me.
This book reminded me of Ruchika's case and how the criminal escaped from the law by using loopholes. This book kinda has the same theme but I can't tolerate the protagonist Janaki at all.
Janaki is self-righteous and thinks whatever she does is right. Though I admired her courage to stand up for her friend, it was not impactful. Also, she's such a hypocrite.
And as the story progresses, I literally got frustrated with her behaviour. I liked Ajoba and his calm demeanour.
And I feel that the story is kind of rushed. The characters are not impactful. And the writing is just lazy. This is just a one time read for me.
thebookishtales's review against another edition
3.0
I really liked this book. If this book wasn't longlisted for The JCB prize for literature 2019, I wouldn't have come to know of this socially relevant book.
The story is told through two persons, Janaki and Ajoba (grandfather in Marathi). Ajoba is Janaki's confidante since childhood and their bond is really beautiful.
~
Janaki is a strong willed child who grows up into a headstrong young woman. She is a lawyer. Janaki witnesses her best friend getting raped brutally and violently, the dilemma over justice starts. Her personal turmoils and her testimony in the court wreaks havoc on her personal life and at her home. This book brilliantly explored the subject of psychological effects happening on a person who seeks justice. Through her best friend's court trial, we are given a first hand experience of how flawed our judicial system is. This book also reminded me a lot of the 2004 Marathi movie, Saat chya aat gharat, watch it if you haven't already.
~
This book grows on you. The story is very sweeping in its scope and covers a lot of subjects like rape, justice, familial ties and the constant dilemma between right and wrong. In less than 200 pages, I am amazed at how much this little book covered.
Narrated in simple prose, this book is impossible to put down once you've started it. It was a really honest social commentary with very realistic perspectives.
Sathe sounds like a very promising author and I will definitely look forward to more of her work.
~
I discussed this book in length with my husband also because I couldn't get it out of my mind for a long time.
Minor qualms aside, I rate this book 3.75⭐
The story is told through two persons, Janaki and Ajoba (grandfather in Marathi). Ajoba is Janaki's confidante since childhood and their bond is really beautiful.
~
Janaki is a strong willed child who grows up into a headstrong young woman. She is a lawyer. Janaki witnesses her best friend getting raped brutally and violently, the dilemma over justice starts. Her personal turmoils and her testimony in the court wreaks havoc on her personal life and at her home. This book brilliantly explored the subject of psychological effects happening on a person who seeks justice. Through her best friend's court trial, we are given a first hand experience of how flawed our judicial system is. This book also reminded me a lot of the 2004 Marathi movie, Saat chya aat gharat, watch it if you haven't already.
~
This book grows on you. The story is very sweeping in its scope and covers a lot of subjects like rape, justice, familial ties and the constant dilemma between right and wrong. In less than 200 pages, I am amazed at how much this little book covered.
Narrated in simple prose, this book is impossible to put down once you've started it. It was a really honest social commentary with very realistic perspectives.
Sathe sounds like a very promising author and I will definitely look forward to more of her work.
~
I discussed this book in length with my husband also because I couldn't get it out of my mind for a long time.
Minor qualms aside, I rate this book 3.75⭐
byronicreader's review
3.0
I'm going, to be honest here. I have read this book recently for Jcb literature long list reading challenge. And I'm totally unflattered.
This book reminded me of Ruchika's case and how the criminal escaped from the law by using loopholes. This book kinda has the same theme but I can't tolerate the protagonist Janaki at all.
Janaki is self-righteous and thinks whatever she does is right. Though I admired her courage to stand up for her friend, it was not impactful. Also, she's such a hypocrite.
And as the story progresses, I literally got frustrated with her behaviour. I liked Ajoba and his calm demeanour.
And I feel that the story is kind of rushed. The characters are not impactful. And the writing is just lazy. This is just a one time read for me.
This book reminded me of Ruchika's case and how the criminal escaped from the law by using loopholes. This book kinda has the same theme but I can't tolerate the protagonist Janaki at all.
Janaki is self-righteous and thinks whatever she does is right. Though I admired her courage to stand up for her friend, it was not impactful. Also, she's such a hypocrite.
And as the story progresses, I literally got frustrated with her behaviour. I liked Ajoba and his calm demeanour.
And I feel that the story is kind of rushed. The characters are not impactful. And the writing is just lazy. This is just a one time read for me.
thebookishtales's review
3.0
I really liked this book. If this book wasn't longlisted for The JCB prize for literature 2019, I wouldn't have come to know of this socially relevant book.
The story is told through two persons, Janaki and Ajoba (grandfather in Marathi). Ajoba is Janaki's confidante since childhood and their bond is really beautiful.
~
Janaki is a strong willed child who grows up into a headstrong young woman. She is a lawyer. Janaki witnesses her best friend getting raped brutally and violently, the dilemma over justice starts. Her personal turmoils and her testimony in the court wreaks havoc on her personal life and at her home. This book brilliantly explored the subject of psychological effects happening on a person who seeks justice. Through her best friend's court trial, we are given a first hand experience of how flawed our judicial system is. This book also reminded me a lot of the 2004 Marathi movie, Saat chya aat gharat, watch it if you haven't already.
~
This book grows on you. The story is very sweeping in its scope and covers a lot of subjects like rape, justice, familial ties and the constant dilemma between right and wrong. In less than 200 pages, I am amazed at how much this little book covered.
Narrated in simple prose, this book is impossible to put down once you've started it. It was a really honest social commentary with very realistic perspectives.
Sathe sounds like a very promising author and I will definitely look forward to more of her work.
~
I discussed this book in length with my husband also because I couldn't get it out of my mind for a long time.
Minor qualms aside, I rate this book 3.75⭐
The story is told through two persons, Janaki and Ajoba (grandfather in Marathi). Ajoba is Janaki's confidante since childhood and their bond is really beautiful.
~
Janaki is a strong willed child who grows up into a headstrong young woman. She is a lawyer. Janaki witnesses her best friend getting raped brutally and violently, the dilemma over justice starts. Her personal turmoils and her testimony in the court wreaks havoc on her personal life and at her home. This book brilliantly explored the subject of psychological effects happening on a person who seeks justice. Through her best friend's court trial, we are given a first hand experience of how flawed our judicial system is. This book also reminded me a lot of the 2004 Marathi movie, Saat chya aat gharat, watch it if you haven't already.
~
This book grows on you. The story is very sweeping in its scope and covers a lot of subjects like rape, justice, familial ties and the constant dilemma between right and wrong. In less than 200 pages, I am amazed at how much this little book covered.
Narrated in simple prose, this book is impossible to put down once you've started it. It was a really honest social commentary with very realistic perspectives.
Sathe sounds like a very promising author and I will definitely look forward to more of her work.
~
I discussed this book in length with my husband also because I couldn't get it out of my mind for a long time.
Minor qualms aside, I rate this book 3.75⭐
suprita's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.0
The Patchwork Family by Mukta Sathe, quite simply, is a story about how a tragedy rips apart an entire family. Dig a little deeper and it's a story about survivor‘a guilt and how everyone reacts to grief in a very different way. In 200 pages Mukta Sathe manages to highlight issues that we as a society are still uncomfortable talking about. The story which is fast paced and gripping, exposes you to the shortcomings of our legal system and how justice is not always fair.
Now the book does a great job when it comes to describing the guilt and the strong sense of responsibility that you feel when it comes to getting justice for someone you think you’ve failed. How the guilt makes you relive the tragedy over and over again, hoping that you had done things differently, hoping that you were just a little braver. It also very subtly shows us how this quest for justice, over time becomes less about the victim and more about the survivor. The writing is simple and crisp which helps add gravitas to the story. There’s not a single word in the book that is not needed and thus your focus never shifts from the issues being talked about.
But the writing does get awkward and a little too idealistic sometimes. There is an entire section towards the end of the book where the protagonist, Janaki, is having a heated discussion with her brother Rahul about what justice means, who has the right to award justice, and who deserves justice in the first place, which just seems really really forced. Also, talking about Janaki, in a lot of places, especially towards the end, she did not seem like a real person anymore. She was more like a checklist, doing all the things and saying all the words necessary to paint her as a crusader for truth and justice and doing the right thing. For someone who has been through as much as she has, it was really disconcerting to see her look at these systems, that fail citizens, especially women (all the time), through these rose tinted glasses.
But inspite of this The Patchwork Family was so much more than what I was expecting it to be. I definitely recommend it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
TW- rape, murder, death of a child, death of a parent, suicide, terminal illness.
Now the book does a great job when it comes to describing the guilt and the strong sense of responsibility that you feel when it comes to getting justice for someone you think you’ve failed. How the guilt makes you relive the tragedy over and over again, hoping that you had done things differently, hoping that you were just a little braver. It also very subtly shows us how this quest for justice, over time becomes less about the victim and more about the survivor. The writing is simple and crisp which helps add gravitas to the story. There’s not a single word in the book that is not needed and thus your focus never shifts from the issues being talked about.
But the writing does get awkward and a little too idealistic sometimes. There is an entire section towards the end of the book where the protagonist, Janaki, is having a heated discussion with her brother Rahul about what justice means, who has the right to award justice, and who deserves justice in the first place, which just seems really really forced. Also, talking about Janaki, in a lot of places, especially towards the end, she did not seem like a real person anymore. She was more like a checklist, doing all the things and saying all the words necessary to paint her as a crusader for truth and justice and doing the right thing. For someone who has been through as much as she has, it was really disconcerting to see her look at these systems, that fail citizens, especially women (all the time), through these rose tinted glasses.
But inspite of this The Patchwork Family was so much more than what I was expecting it to be. I definitely recommend it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
TW- rape, murder, death of a child, death of a parent, suicide, terminal illness.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Sexism, and Suicide
Minor: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Terminal illness
islejazz's review against another edition
2.0
Have you ever felt deceived by a book?
I picked up A Patchwork Family yesterday afternoon and was done with it by night. And while I started the book with a lot of anticipation, 24 hours later I feel completely deceived by it.
Towards the end of 2019 I realized how white my reading was. It comprised only of books by white authors. This fact left a very unsavory feeling in me. On top of it I realised that my knowledge of my country's literature was almost zero. Double that unsavory feeling. Therefore, I decided to undo this and set a goal to read more Indian literature and more works by Authors of color in 2020.
I came across A Patchwork Family late last year in bookstagram. The book title was my first intrigue and next was that solemn cover picture. The blurb promised me a tale of unrelated characters coming together and forming a family after having lost their own. This premise got all my mind bells tingling. I have always been intrigued by strangers forming bonds that run deeper than the ties of blood. Hence, I immediately added the book to my TBR.
A Patchwork Family is the debut novel by Pune-based lawyer Mukta Sathe and it was longlisted for the JCB Literature Prize in 2019. This is not a bad book. Considering that it is a debut, it is a good book. The themes that the story covers is eye-opening and very relevant. The intent of the author is on point. I so wanted to give this book 1 extra star just for the intent.
Being a lawyer, Sathe has tried to bring out the follies of the Indian Judicial System through the tale in A Patchwork Family. And I think that is a really brave and honest thing to do. Apart from that, she has also tried to broach subjects like patriarchy, feminism, and privilege blended with the life of an Indian middle class family.
The story is told from the point of view of two characters - Ajoba and Janaki. Ajoba (meaning grandfather in Marathi) is Janaki's grandfather's best friend. Sathe initiated the book by establishing the fact of how these two characters came to be related. Ajoba is a regular visitor in Janaki's house and has known the girl right from her birth. Across the course of the story, through stand-alone incidents, Sathe tries her best to convey how deep is the bond between Ajoba and Janaki. And that's where my qualms with the book begins.
When I started the book, I expected that I will get to see how these two unrelated people will make their patchwork family function. But I did not get that. Infact, after finishing the book I felt that the entire story would have still been the same had Ajoba not been in the scene. Ofcourse the book would have been shorter, but the story would have stood. This redundancy of a main character really made me uncomfortable. In all honesty the relationship between Ajoba and Janaki didn't make any sense to me and felt very unrealistic given the Indian setting.
Next was Janaki's character. We are introduced to this headstrong female protagonist who initially seems like a fighter but later succumbs to hypocrisy and self-righteousness. I hate it when that happens. May be the author wanted to show character growth, however the metamorphosis lacked credibility. She seemed like someone who latches on to people and ideals based on her convenience and abandons them when they don't agree with her mind space. I tried a lot to give her the benefit of the doubt considering all that she goes through, but towards the end she lost all my empathy.
Another complain from the book were underdeveloped characters. The characters of Rahul (Janaki's brother) and Pratiksha (Janaki's college friend) showed such great potential. But I was left unquenched by their treatment. Infact, instead of Ajoba, if Rahul would have been the other protagonist, the book would have made more sense. Sandhya was another character that had immense potential but was completely left hollow.
I really wanted to like this book. No doubt writer has put in a lot of heart in it. This book, this storyline could have been easily developed into 300+ pages book had the editor guided the writer. Mukta Sathe has not disappointed me. She gives me hope. But the editing was heartless, and that was the book's prime folly.
I picked up A Patchwork Family yesterday afternoon and was done with it by night. And while I started the book with a lot of anticipation, 24 hours later I feel completely deceived by it.
Towards the end of 2019 I realized how white my reading was. It comprised only of books by white authors. This fact left a very unsavory feeling in me. On top of it I realised that my knowledge of my country's literature was almost zero. Double that unsavory feeling. Therefore, I decided to undo this and set a goal to read more Indian literature and more works by Authors of color in 2020.
I came across A Patchwork Family late last year in bookstagram. The book title was my first intrigue and next was that solemn cover picture. The blurb promised me a tale of unrelated characters coming together and forming a family after having lost their own. This premise got all my mind bells tingling. I have always been intrigued by strangers forming bonds that run deeper than the ties of blood. Hence, I immediately added the book to my TBR.
A Patchwork Family is the debut novel by Pune-based lawyer Mukta Sathe and it was longlisted for the JCB Literature Prize in 2019. This is not a bad book. Considering that it is a debut, it is a good book. The themes that the story covers is eye-opening and very relevant. The intent of the author is on point. I so wanted to give this book 1 extra star just for the intent.
Being a lawyer, Sathe has tried to bring out the follies of the Indian Judicial System through the tale in A Patchwork Family. And I think that is a really brave and honest thing to do. Apart from that, she has also tried to broach subjects like patriarchy, feminism, and privilege blended with the life of an Indian middle class family.
The story is told from the point of view of two characters - Ajoba and Janaki. Ajoba (meaning grandfather in Marathi) is Janaki's grandfather's best friend. Sathe initiated the book by establishing the fact of how these two characters came to be related. Ajoba is a regular visitor in Janaki's house and has known the girl right from her birth. Across the course of the story, through stand-alone incidents, Sathe tries her best to convey how deep is the bond between Ajoba and Janaki. And that's where my qualms with the book begins.
When I started the book, I expected that I will get to see how these two unrelated people will make their patchwork family function. But I did not get that. Infact, after finishing the book I felt that the entire story would have still been the same had Ajoba not been in the scene. Ofcourse the book would have been shorter, but the story would have stood. This redundancy of a main character really made me uncomfortable. In all honesty the relationship between Ajoba and Janaki didn't make any sense to me and felt very unrealistic given the Indian setting.
Next was Janaki's character. We are introduced to this headstrong female protagonist who initially seems like a fighter but later succumbs to hypocrisy and self-righteousness. I hate it when that happens. May be the author wanted to show character growth, however the metamorphosis lacked credibility. She seemed like someone who latches on to people and ideals based on her convenience and abandons them when they don't agree with her mind space. I tried a lot to give her the benefit of the doubt considering all that she goes through, but towards the end she lost all my empathy.
Another complain from the book were underdeveloped characters. The characters of Rahul (Janaki's brother) and Pratiksha (Janaki's college friend) showed such great potential. But I was left unquenched by their treatment. Infact, instead of Ajoba, if Rahul would have been the other protagonist, the book would have made more sense. Sandhya was another character that had immense potential but was completely left hollow.
I really wanted to like this book. No doubt writer has put in a lot of heart in it. This book, this storyline could have been easily developed into 300+ pages book had the editor guided the writer. Mukta Sathe has not disappointed me. She gives me hope. But the editing was heartless, and that was the book's prime folly.
b0rn_2_read's review
4.0
It is a story which will make you think and will stay with you long after you have closed the book. I'm grateful to @jcbprize coz, if not for #jcblonglist2019 I never would've come across this book. The narrative is captivating, once I started I couldn't put it down. It is a very short book, I finished it in a day. I loved how Janaki's childhood is described, it felt like that I was part of their household. It made me question myself, only when something happens to someone close to us do we care about justice.
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