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A review by mike_morse
The Forgotten Daughter by Renita D'Silva
3.0
If possible, I would give 5 stars to 2/3 of this book, and 1 star to the other 1/3. There are three main characters in the book, Nisha, Devi, and Shilpa, and the chapters alternate between their voices. Devi and Shilpa are interesting, but Nisha's chapters are intolerable because they are relentlessly repetitive. Nisha’s problem is that her brain constantly reviews the same issues, probably a form of OCD. But why must the reader suffer through it? The Indian sides of the book are rich with culture and life dilemmas, which I enjoyed. But I’m not sure I actually believe the level of emotion in this book. Is finding out that you were adopted really enough of an emotional blow to make your life go off the rails?
This book has an amazingly complex structure, but it works mostly. Much of the story is told by characters either reading another character’s (or there own) writing or relating things that happen in the past (in other words, one character is telling a story to another character). As such, there are very frequent switches in time, place, tense and person. Some of these can be a little jarring, until you remember, “Oh that’s right, she was telling this story in that situation,” but it’s to the author’s credit that it works pretty well.
A note on the audio book: The story takes place in London and India, and the reader has marvelous accents for both, which I think adds a lot to the listening experience. It makes me wonder what it would be like to read the print version of the book. How much would be lost?
This book has an amazingly complex structure, but it works mostly. Much of the story is told by characters either reading another character’s (or there own) writing or relating things that happen in the past (in other words, one character is telling a story to another character). As such, there are very frequent switches in time, place, tense and person. Some of these can be a little jarring, until you remember, “Oh that’s right, she was telling this story in that situation,” but it’s to the author’s credit that it works pretty well.
A note on the audio book: The story takes place in London and India, and the reader has marvelous accents for both, which I think adds a lot to the listening experience. It makes me wonder what it would be like to read the print version of the book. How much would be lost?