A review by se_wigget
Dava Shastri's Last Day by Kirthana Ramisetti

4.0

 

I thank Grand Central Publishing for the ARC of Dava Shastri's Last Day. 

 

The expected publication date is December 31, 2021. 

 

This is often humorous for a novel that begins with an obituary. But... the obituary is for a 70-year-old woman who isn't dead. This would be suitable for adopting to film. 

I wanted to read this ARC because the protagonist is a seventy-year-old woman. The worship of youth and the intermingling of ageism and misogyny are so blatant in our society, it's refreshing to see a postmenopausal woman front and center in a book. 

The novel is in third person from multiple perspectives, including Dava Shastri's. All the characters come vividly to life. 

 

I’m so glad this novel includes two queer couples... although the doctor and her wife are not well developed. Lately I've been labeling some novels "straight books" because they apparently only have straight characters and others "queer books" and feel like whenever I read a "straight book," I want to compensate by reading about 5 "queer books." Representation matters. This novel doesn’t fit in either category, since it has both. 

The novel is ethnically diverse, too, even within the same family, thanks to marriages and all. It's a blended family. 

Early in the book I got the impression that Dava Shastri doesn't sound like someone I'd want to be close friends with--she seems a bit on the stern and aloof side, and she's a businesswoman. But... she's more complex than that, and she's definitely impressive. I especially appreciate her donating a vast amount to an organization that helps out poor women and victims of domestic violence. 

Interestingly, this has a soft science fiction element in that it takes place in 2044. The seventy-year-old woman, Dava Shastri, was born several years after me! I can certainly see billionaires building artificial islands with mansions; whether or not Antarctica completely melts. 

I enjoyed the descriptions of the mansion and the island--especially the Underground tunnel from the guesthouse and its entrance behind a bookcase. 

One of the two most developed characters was Dava's husband... who is deceased and only seen in flashbacks. 

"The Shastri-Perssons as a family dynasty on par with the Rockefellers only worked if Dava Shastri herself was taken seriously. A lifetime of work would not be undermined by wagging tongues hungry for scandal (p. 83)." 

Imagine living in a world where women are taken seriously and respected as much as cisgender men are. 

This theme fascinated me: When a famous woman who accomplished a great deal dies, what do people talk about? Her sex life. 

Admittedly, the novel vaguely reminded me of a short story I read for an elementary or junior high class. It was about a grandmother on her deathbed. I remember a classmate making a snide remark like, "I'm not interested in a crazy old hag having hallucinations. " I felt shocked at her disrespect for an old woman. 

 

Page 86: I'm glad the book explains the origin of her first name, Dava. I kept thinking, "Is that a variation on 'Devi?" "Deva" is the male version of a deity or spirit (in Hinduism and Buddhism), and "deva" is the female version. 

 

Page 214: We learn that during a bout of postpartum depression, Dava Shastri listened on repeat to an audio version of a biography on Rockefeller and noted striking similarities between him and herself. No wonder she's so obsessed with her family as wealthy legacy. Rockefeller is her role model: they both make a fortune and practice philanthropy and pass wealth down in their families. 

 

This is such an important moment in the novel—when Dava says to her grandchildren: 

"I wanted to read what the world had to say about me when I died. But maybe I should care more about what you have to say about me (p. 270)." 

 

Sometimes this novel brought tears to my eyes. If you've experienced much grief, well.