Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Boy with the Topknot: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies

Read for a book set in the area you were born as this was set in Wolverhampton it had too be the book of choice.

I don't usually read Memoirs so this isn't my usual genre. From the description on the back the actual contents of this book came as a surprise.

I was expecting a memoir with the humour of "East is East" film but this was actually dark with a family struggling with schizophrenia in the family.

The actual writer of the book actually came across as conceited at times and I nearly quit the book. I didn't like the way he was critical of Wolverhampton now he led a different life in London. I'm a great believer of never forget your roots but I persevered and although my opinion of the author didn't really change the main heroine of his memoir was his mother as it demonstrated what we women do as women to protect our children.

What unfolds in the book is a compelling and deeply moving family history in which Surjit (his mom) emerges as an amazing credible woman. She was brought to Britain as a teenager in 1969 to marry Jagjit, a man she soon realised was mentally ill (none of those around him realised). His illness made him violent and she bore the worst of it in the form of many beatings and abuse. On top of that, she was blamed for it – his superstitious family claimed she had put some kind of curse on him.

However, she stayed with this man partly for her family, partly for love and partly for the stigma she would have received if she left him.

Overall I enjoyed this book and was good to expand knowledge of different cultures as well as mental health.

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tamaraepps's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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