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estienne 's review for:
The Inheritance of Loss
by Kiran Desai
Just because a book is written with the flair of a Man Booker winner doesn't mean it should win.
The Inheritance of Loss is densely packed with a bustling crowd of unlikeable characters, burdened with a sense of loss - fulfilling the namesake of the novel. Regardless of what form of loss however (victimisation, absence, regret, guilt, or just genuine suffering), I didn't feel compelled or sympathetic to any of them. Almost all of the characters are bad people. A lot of the time, bad people make for great characters. That's not the case here: they're all uninteresting and genuinely off-putting.
Sai's rushed fling with her pre-radicalised tutor is nothing short of cringeworthy, Biju's struggle to make it in New York is outright boring and the judge's unrivaled, furious hatred of humanity surpasses repugnance.
And it's not like I don't enjoy stories of remorseful protagonists: The Narrow Road to the Deep North (another Man Booker winner) is one of my favourite books of all time. Flanagan's knack for anticlimactic storytelling shines there, bringing out much more interesting characters and a deeper sense of loss than Desai's winner here. But I will acknowledge that Flanagan was much further along than Desai at the time of TNRTTDN's release.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this review though, Desai does write with the flair of a Man Booker winner. The heat of Indian conflict is conveyed admirably, and her gritty and sometimes gruesome descriptions are this novel's most commendable feature.
But at the end of the day, despite how well-written The Inheritance of Loss is, it isn't interesting, inspiring, or entertaining.
The Inheritance of Loss is densely packed with a bustling crowd of unlikeable characters, burdened with a sense of loss - fulfilling the namesake of the novel. Regardless of what form of loss however (victimisation, absence, regret, guilt, or just genuine suffering), I didn't feel compelled or sympathetic to any of them. Almost all of the characters are bad people. A lot of the time, bad people make for great characters. That's not the case here: they're all uninteresting and genuinely off-putting.
Sai's rushed fling with her pre-radicalised tutor is nothing short of cringeworthy, Biju's struggle to make it in New York is outright boring and the judge's unrivaled, furious hatred of humanity surpasses repugnance.
And it's not like I don't enjoy stories of remorseful protagonists: The Narrow Road to the Deep North (another Man Booker winner) is one of my favourite books of all time. Flanagan's knack for anticlimactic storytelling shines there, bringing out much more interesting characters and a deeper sense of loss than Desai's winner here. But I will acknowledge that Flanagan was much further along than Desai at the time of TNRTTDN's release.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this review though, Desai does write with the flair of a Man Booker winner. The heat of Indian conflict is conveyed admirably, and her gritty and sometimes gruesome descriptions are this novel's most commendable feature.
But at the end of the day, despite how well-written The Inheritance of Loss is, it isn't interesting, inspiring, or entertaining.