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A review by breeisreading_
The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage for providing me with an ARC.
The Spoiled Heart is an interesting and intriguing contemporary literary fiction with a story of mystery at its heart, but also a tale of love, family, and the secrets that are held and festered for so long, as well as a warning of politics, misogyny and patriarchy, race and privilege.
There is a lot going on in this book. We follow Nayan Olak, running for general secretary of the union and his relationship with Helen and her son Brandon, who left town twenty years ago (and have just returned) at the same time that Nayan lost his mother and son in a fire that destroyed his life. Although the main portion of the book, these events are being told for us by our narrator Sajjan, who knew Nayan as a child, and quickly becomes obsessed with Nayan’s story and relationship with Helen. He recounts for us Nayan’s past and present, and the perspective and time period jumps around as he fills in the background of these characters for us. There is definitely a sense of an unreliable narrator here, as we hear everything through a third party – a writer none the less – who is crafting this story for us, embellishing what he wishes to embellish.
There is a lot of emphasis on the general secretary run, as Nayan battles against Megha, a newer and more privileged union member. Their ideas clash disastrously, leading to the climax of the novel, where Sahota explores ideas of privilege, race, the working class, and also accountability and ‘cancel culture’. There is a lot of interesting ideas being explored here, sometimes too many themes being commented on at once.
This was such a gripping novel, my first from Sahota, and it definitely has me eager to pick up his previous works. The mystery at the heart of the novel unfolded brilliantly, if a little predictably, but combined with the retelling of the general secretary run and the sense of tragedy, community, and secrets, I couldn’t put the novel down.
The Spoiled Heart is an interesting and intriguing contemporary literary fiction with a story of mystery at its heart, but also a tale of love, family, and the secrets that are held and festered for so long, as well as a warning of politics, misogyny and patriarchy, race and privilege.
There is a lot going on in this book. We follow Nayan Olak, running for general secretary of the union and his relationship with Helen and her son Brandon, who left town twenty years ago (and have just returned) at the same time that Nayan lost his mother and son in a fire that destroyed his life. Although the main portion of the book, these events are being told for us by our narrator Sajjan, who knew Nayan as a child, and quickly becomes obsessed with Nayan’s story and relationship with Helen. He recounts for us Nayan’s past and present, and the perspective and time period jumps around as he fills in the background of these characters for us. There is definitely a sense of an unreliable narrator here, as we hear everything through a third party – a writer none the less – who is crafting this story for us, embellishing what he wishes to embellish.
There is a lot of emphasis on the general secretary run, as Nayan battles against Megha, a newer and more privileged union member. Their ideas clash disastrously, leading to the climax of the novel, where Sahota explores ideas of privilege, race, the working class, and also accountability and ‘cancel culture’. There is a lot of interesting ideas being explored here, sometimes too many themes being commented on at once.
This was such a gripping novel, my first from Sahota, and it definitely has me eager to pick up his previous works. The mystery at the heart of the novel unfolded brilliantly, if a little predictably, but combined with the retelling of the general secretary run and the sense of tragedy, community, and secrets, I couldn’t put the novel down.