A review by anushkamarri
China Room by Sunjeev Sahota

dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

 'Not all Prisons have bars. And not all love is a Prison.'

TW: Child Abuse, Purdah, Domestic Violence, Drug Abuse, Marital Rape, Rape, Oppression.

China room is a book that came off as a pleasant surprise to me. Though confusing in the beginning, once all the characters were introduced and the scene was set, I started enjoying the narration while also being positively intrigued as to what would happen next.

It runs in two timelines. The story of Meher, a victim of child marriage, and the current life of her great-grandson, a victim of drug abuse.

It took me a while to put two and two together and understand what was happening. Meher, along with two other women is married to three brothers and she tries her best to find out which of them is hers.

While her great-grandson arrives at his uncle's to get out of drug addiction and makes a decision to go live in their old family home. Here, he is bombarded with bits and pieces of gossip about Meher and how she was locked in a room for straying from her marriage.

While Meher is stuck between the brother she's married to and the brother she was supposed to be married to, the family politics, the 'ego' between the brothers, and the pressure to give them a child while her great-grandson is re-painting and bringing their ancestral home back to life while falling in love with the doctor.

The story had high potential and it does deliver to some extent with the exploration of all the traumas and how they affect lives.

Ultimately, there is an ending to both stories. I'm not exactly in content with them but I am glad we were not left hanging with a vague conclusion.

Spoiler alert and TW: Mai, Meher's dominant mother-in-law summons the women to a 'dark room' when their husbands request for them. Apparently, being the youngest of the three, Meher was betrothed to Suraj, the youngest of the brothers but after having a look at the three of them before the wedding, Jeet, the oldest brother marries her instead.

What happens next is very confusing to me because it seemed as though Meher was warming up to her husband and Suraj, who finds out about how she was supposed to be his wife, out of spite for his older brothers' power over him, persuades her to believe that he is the husband and 'makes love'. This obviously is sexual assault.

Now, I cannot seem to understand why even after learning about the deception, she continues to indulge in her love for him when she had initially warmed up to her husband. Then again, she was a 15-year-old.

Anyway, I can see why this was longlisted for the booker prize. 
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