Review: Bitter Sweets, by Roopa Farooki

Bitter Sweets is the story of three generations of a Pakistani family. Beginning with Ricky-Rashid and his marriage to the duplicitous Henna, the story then jumps to their daughter Shona, who elopes to England. She eventually has two sons, Omar and Sharif. All the major characters engage in lies, lies, and more lies: cheating, adultery, plagiarism, etc. It gets to the point that the characters can't tell the difference between what is real and what is not. Everything comes to a climax when Ricky-Rashid has a heart attack, and the characters are forced to face their deceptions head-on.

The book is excellently written, with an eye for minute detail. Roopa Farooki's writing style reminds me a lot of Zadie Smith, especially with regards to the plot. It was maybe for this reason that I really liked this novel. I really look forward to reading more of Farooki's writing in the future.

Also reviewed by: Worducopia, Medieval Bookworm, Never Without a Book

Comments

Teddy Rose said…

Thanks for the review. I just added it to my TBR as it sounds like something I would really like too. I love Zadie Smith. Have you read White Teeth? It's a must, IMO.

May 17, 2008 at 1:18 AM

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars...

Review: The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y.K. Lee

The Piano Teacher is a complicated novel. On the surface, it’s about a love affair between two British ex-patriots in Hong Kong in 1952-3. Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong with her husband Martin at a time when the world is still recovering from WWII; Claire takes up work as a piano teacher for the daughter of a wealthy Chinese family, where she meets Will Truesdale, the Chens’ enigmatic chauffeur. The book jumps back in time between the 1950s and the beginning of WWII, when Will is interned in Stanley, a Hong Kong camp for enemies of Japan. On “the outside” is Tudy Liang, Will’s beautiful Eurasian lover. There’s no doubt that Lee’s writing is beautiful. But there’s something lacking in this short, terse novel that I can’t quite put my finger on. First, I think it’s the tenses she uses when taking about each story: that which is set in the 1950s is in the past tense, while the war scenes are talked about in the present tense (confusing, no?) The interpersonal relationships of the m...

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