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Small Days and Nights
A captivating and original story of family, of the ties that bind and the secrets we bury, set against the vivid and evocative backdrop of modern India
An Irish Times Book of the Year 2019
Escaping her failing marriage, Grace has returned to Pondicherry to cremate her mother. Once there, she finds herself heir to an inheritance she could not have expected – a property on the beaches of Madras, and a sister she never knew she had: Lucia, who was born with Downs Syndrome and has spent her life in a residential facility.
Grace sets up a new and precarious life along the coast of Madras, with Lucia, the village housekeeper Mallika, the drily witty Auntie Kavitha and an ever-multiplying litter of puppies. But Grace's attempts to play house prove first a struggle, then a strain, as she discovers the chaos, tenderness, fury and bewilderment of life with Lucia.
Luminous, funny, surprising and heartbreaking, Small Days and Nights is the story of a woman caught in a moment of transformation, and the sacrifices we make to forge lives that have meaning.
An Irish Times Book of the Year 2019
Escaping her failing marriage, Grace has returned to Pondicherry to cremate her mother. Once there, she finds herself heir to an inheritance she could not have expected – a property on the beaches of Madras, and a sister she never knew she had: Lucia, who was born with Downs Syndrome and has spent her life in a residential facility.
Grace sets up a new and precarious life along the coast of Madras, with Lucia, the village housekeeper Mallika, the drily witty Auntie Kavitha and an ever-multiplying litter of puppies. But Grace's attempts to play house prove first a struggle, then a strain, as she discovers the chaos, tenderness, fury and bewilderment of life with Lucia.
Luminous, funny, surprising and heartbreaking, Small Days and Nights is the story of a woman caught in a moment of transformation, and the sacrifices we make to forge lives that have meaning.
263 pages, Hardcover
First published April 18, 2019
174 people are currently reading
3842 people want to read
About the author
Tishani Doshi
16 books177 followersTishani Doshi (born 1975) is an Indian poet, journalist and dancer based in Chennai. Born in Madras, India, to a Welsh mother and Gujarati father, she received an Eric Gregory Award in 2001. Her first poetry collection, Countries of the Body, won the 2006 Forward Poetry Prize for best first collection.[1] She has been invited to the poetry galas of the Guardian-sponsored Hay Festival of 2006 and the Cartagena Hay Festival of 2007. Her first novel, The Pleasure Seekers, was published by Bloomsbury in 2010 and was long-listed for the Orange Prize in 2011,[2] and shortlisted for The Hindu Best Fiction Award in 2010.
She writes a blog titled "Hit or Miss" on Cricinfo,[3] a cricket-related website. In the blog which she started writing in April 2009, Tishani Doshi makes observations and commentaries as a television viewer of the second season of the Indian Premier League. She is also collaborating with cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan on his biography, to be published when he retires.[4]
She works as a freelance writer and worked with choreographer Chandralekha until the latter's death in December 2006.[5] She graduated with a Masters degree in creative writing from the Johns Hopkins University.
Countries of the Body was launched in 2006 at the Hay-on-Wye festival on a platform with Seamus Heaney, Margaret Atwood, and others. The opening poem, The Day we went to the Sea, won the 2005 British Council supported All India Poetry Competition; she was also a finalist in the Outlook-Picador Non-Fiction Competition.
Her short story Lady Cassandra, Spartacus and the dancing man was published in its entirety in the journal The Drawbridge in 2007.[6]
Her most recent book of poetry, Everything Begins Elsewhere[7] was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2013.
Her newest book, The Adulterous Citizen – poems stories essays (2015) was launched at the 13th annual St. Martin Book Fair by House of Nehesi Publishers, making Tishani Doshi the first important author from India to be published in the Caribbean.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tishani_...
She writes a blog titled "Hit or Miss" on Cricinfo,[3] a cricket-related website. In the blog which she started writing in April 2009, Tishani Doshi makes observations and commentaries as a television viewer of the second season of the Indian Premier League. She is also collaborating with cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan on his biography, to be published when he retires.[4]
She works as a freelance writer and worked with choreographer Chandralekha until the latter's death in December 2006.[5] She graduated with a Masters degree in creative writing from the Johns Hopkins University.
Countries of the Body was launched in 2006 at the Hay-on-Wye festival on a platform with Seamus Heaney, Margaret Atwood, and others. The opening poem, The Day we went to the Sea, won the 2005 British Council supported All India Poetry Competition; she was also a finalist in the Outlook-Picador Non-Fiction Competition.
Her short story Lady Cassandra, Spartacus and the dancing man was published in its entirety in the journal The Drawbridge in 2007.[6]
Her most recent book of poetry, Everything Begins Elsewhere[7] was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2013.
Her newest book, The Adulterous Citizen – poems stories essays (2015) was launched at the 13th annual St. Martin Book Fair by House of Nehesi Publishers, making Tishani Doshi the first important author from India to be published in the Caribbean.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tishani_...
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July 5, 2019
“It is in the little towns that one discovers a country, in the kind of knowledge that comes from small days and nights.”
------James Salter, A Sport and a Pastime.
I have always been intrigued by the human desire to find a meaning in life. To me, this desire is reflective of the human wish to push comfortable boundaries in search of the values that may present a basis upon which the rest of life may be lived. This yearning to engage thus may turn the exploration into something life altering. Which begs the question - how far can one go in the search of a meaning? What sacrifice is one willing to make to achieve that? And will the actions, thus taken along the road, justify the very nature of quest? What if this exploration leads to a discovery of the self veiled from the seeker herself? Can one reconcile with the self then?
These are a few questions, which this beautiful work by Tishani Doshi brings to mind. The above-mentioned quote by James Salter appears before the prologue in the work. One can notice that the title of this work is inspired by the quote, which hinges the discovery of a country to the kind of days spent in small towns. In this novel, it takes the form of an exploration of self in surroundings remote from the chaos of big cities, in living in the kind of austerity that characterises a rustic life.
Grace or Grazia, whose marriage with Blake is crumpling, returns from US after the death of her mother to find a secret that would change her life forever. She comes to know of her sister Lucia living in a centre for people suffering from Down syndrome. She decides to take Lucia home with her instead of visiting her as her mother did on a weekly basis. Her mother has left them a huge seaside property in a village near Madras where both of them take residence. The story navigates through the routine life that Grazia and Lucia come to assume in Paramankeni, the tussle that Grazia seems to go through in the inevitability of a life removed from her very structured life in the US. A life, where she is challenged by the task of taking care of her sister while trying to find moments of respite for herself.
“Return is never the experience you hope for.”
The first sentence of first chapter presents before us a hint of the theme recurring throughout the length of the novel. It is not only her return to India after the death of her mother but also her subsequent returns to different places, that Grazia realises that it is not only the places that change their face, or the people you know who move on with their lives, it is also that you no longer remain the same person either.
Grazia returns for her mother’s funeral, but in light of the secret unveiled before her, the return also turns symbolically into a return to her past where she tries to connect the missing dots to complete a family portrait in her mind. While growing up, she had witnessed her mother’s weekly outings, which she had thought of as getaways from family life. It is when she comes to know the truth, she becomes aware that it was the weekly visits to meet Lucia that her mother had undertook.
As Grazia revisits her past and understands the discord that had sometimes permeated her parents’ married life, she also recognises her own discontent with her life in the US.
Her marriage with Blake is troubled because she does not want children while Blake does. Still she chooses to take Lucia home and take care of her because, in her own words:
“I had wanted to give up my life, though. I was desperate for it.”
However, her decision to take Lucia home with her does not sound very convincing to the reader. Why would a person who does not want children take care of her elder sister suffering from Down syndrome? What is it that she really wants to explore with this decision? Is it only because she had wanted to give up her routine life or is it out of guilt, because she misunderstood her mother’s weekly disappearances while growing up, that she decides so?
And then she tells us:
“The irreversibility of having a child. This is what I think about as I watch Lucia, trying to learn her ways.”
Both the sisters start settling down in their house with their house helper and a continuously growing family of their dogs, spending their days lazily. Through Grazia’s interactions with a bunch of people in sleepy village around, the author very deftly portrays the social structure and rituals as followed by the people of the village. The author also makes a social commentary on the young of urban India through Grazia’s regular monthly visits to some friends in City and her relation with young Vik. This experience perhaps is also not, what she had hoped for.
Grazia escapes to the city once a month since she has nobody to talk to at home. She seeks it as a relief from the everyday life at Paramankeni. The conflict in situation arises when once she stays a day longer than she does usually in the city. She returns to find no one in the house. Desperately, she looks everywhere and later finds out that her aid Mallika had vanished, leaving Lucia in a terrible state by herself. Her teacher, Mrs. Gayatri, had then taken Lucia back to the Sneha centre.
Grazia goes looking for her at the centre but is not allowed to go inside. After spending some time then with her father in Venice, she comes back to India. In her letter to Lucia, which is necessarily a letter to herself, she writes:
“I want to take you to Venice to meet Papi and Marcella. Now that I’ve had the idea, everything is clear. It’s not about living away from the world but living in it....”
It is only when she sees the failure of her notions and understands the responsibility of her actions that she returns finally with a clear view for her and Lucia’s future.
What adds beauty to this exploration is Grazia’s reconciliation with herself, her coming to terms with her life in her acceptance of the futility of escape, the vicissitude of life turning into a joyous reunion, paving the way to a more tranquil, even if an uncertain, future.
------James Salter, A Sport and a Pastime.
I have always been intrigued by the human desire to find a meaning in life. To me, this desire is reflective of the human wish to push comfortable boundaries in search of the values that may present a basis upon which the rest of life may be lived. This yearning to engage thus may turn the exploration into something life altering. Which begs the question - how far can one go in the search of a meaning? What sacrifice is one willing to make to achieve that? And will the actions, thus taken along the road, justify the very nature of quest? What if this exploration leads to a discovery of the self veiled from the seeker herself? Can one reconcile with the self then?
These are a few questions, which this beautiful work by Tishani Doshi brings to mind. The above-mentioned quote by James Salter appears before the prologue in the work. One can notice that the title of this work is inspired by the quote, which hinges the discovery of a country to the kind of days spent in small towns. In this novel, it takes the form of an exploration of self in surroundings remote from the chaos of big cities, in living in the kind of austerity that characterises a rustic life.
Grace or Grazia, whose marriage with Blake is crumpling, returns from US after the death of her mother to find a secret that would change her life forever. She comes to know of her sister Lucia living in a centre for people suffering from Down syndrome. She decides to take Lucia home with her instead of visiting her as her mother did on a weekly basis. Her mother has left them a huge seaside property in a village near Madras where both of them take residence. The story navigates through the routine life that Grazia and Lucia come to assume in Paramankeni, the tussle that Grazia seems to go through in the inevitability of a life removed from her very structured life in the US. A life, where she is challenged by the task of taking care of her sister while trying to find moments of respite for herself.
“Return is never the experience you hope for.”
The first sentence of first chapter presents before us a hint of the theme recurring throughout the length of the novel. It is not only her return to India after the death of her mother but also her subsequent returns to different places, that Grazia realises that it is not only the places that change their face, or the people you know who move on with their lives, it is also that you no longer remain the same person either.
Grazia returns for her mother’s funeral, but in light of the secret unveiled before her, the return also turns symbolically into a return to her past where she tries to connect the missing dots to complete a family portrait in her mind. While growing up, she had witnessed her mother’s weekly outings, which she had thought of as getaways from family life. It is when she comes to know the truth, she becomes aware that it was the weekly visits to meet Lucia that her mother had undertook.
As Grazia revisits her past and understands the discord that had sometimes permeated her parents’ married life, she also recognises her own discontent with her life in the US.
Her marriage with Blake is troubled because she does not want children while Blake does. Still she chooses to take Lucia home and take care of her because, in her own words:
“I had wanted to give up my life, though. I was desperate for it.”
However, her decision to take Lucia home with her does not sound very convincing to the reader. Why would a person who does not want children take care of her elder sister suffering from Down syndrome? What is it that she really wants to explore with this decision? Is it only because she had wanted to give up her routine life or is it out of guilt, because she misunderstood her mother’s weekly disappearances while growing up, that she decides so?
And then she tells us:
“The irreversibility of having a child. This is what I think about as I watch Lucia, trying to learn her ways.”
Both the sisters start settling down in their house with their house helper and a continuously growing family of their dogs, spending their days lazily. Through Grazia’s interactions with a bunch of people in sleepy village around, the author very deftly portrays the social structure and rituals as followed by the people of the village. The author also makes a social commentary on the young of urban India through Grazia’s regular monthly visits to some friends in City and her relation with young Vik. This experience perhaps is also not, what she had hoped for.
Grazia escapes to the city once a month since she has nobody to talk to at home. She seeks it as a relief from the everyday life at Paramankeni. The conflict in situation arises when once she stays a day longer than she does usually in the city. She returns to find no one in the house. Desperately, she looks everywhere and later finds out that her aid Mallika had vanished, leaving Lucia in a terrible state by herself. Her teacher, Mrs. Gayatri, had then taken Lucia back to the Sneha centre.
Grazia goes looking for her at the centre but is not allowed to go inside. After spending some time then with her father in Venice, she comes back to India. In her letter to Lucia, which is necessarily a letter to herself, she writes:
“I want to take you to Venice to meet Papi and Marcella. Now that I’ve had the idea, everything is clear. It’s not about living away from the world but living in it....”
It is only when she sees the failure of her notions and understands the responsibility of her actions that she returns finally with a clear view for her and Lucia’s future.
What adds beauty to this exploration is Grazia’s reconciliation with herself, her coming to terms with her life in her acceptance of the futility of escape, the vicissitude of life turning into a joyous reunion, paving the way to a more tranquil, even if an uncertain, future.
October 30, 2019
A hippie dandelion in flight. . .
You know there are some people when they stumble upon comfort, stability, enduring happiness, or such reassuring things, they look at them closely for a minute, cherish them, and then for some inexplicable reason take the other road. This book is about such a girl. I'll remember her as a girl (not a woman) who wasn't fated to find the proverbial anchor but instead a perpetual disillusionment and absurdity that would lift her away into a strange lonely blue sky.
Inevitably, she would then find herself drifting on a distant island beach, entering through a blue door of an old abode faintly smelling of seaweed, fish, rusted iron, salty wood, damp walls, and sweet acceptance of perpetuity. . .
You know there are some people when they stumble upon comfort, stability, enduring happiness, or such reassuring things, they look at them closely for a minute, cherish them, and then for some inexplicable reason take the other road. This book is about such a girl. I'll remember her as a girl (not a woman) who wasn't fated to find the proverbial anchor but instead a perpetual disillusionment and absurdity that would lift her away into a strange lonely blue sky.
Inevitably, she would then find herself drifting on a distant island beach, entering through a blue door of an old abode faintly smelling of seaweed, fish, rusted iron, salty wood, damp walls, and sweet acceptance of perpetuity. . .
October 21, 2021
Running away from a failing marriage in the USA, Grace arrives in Pondicherry to cremate her Indian mother, where she learns from Auntie Kavitha that her inheritance is to be much more than she bargained for. Apart from a large pink house with blue shutters by the sea at Parakameni, Grace is also bequeathed the secret of an older sister she knew nothing about. Lucia has Down Syndrome and has lived her entire life in a residential facility, largely developed and run on the funds provided by her divorced parents. Stunned at the deception of 30+ years, Grace travels to Venice to visit her Italian father and try to find out more about the circumstances of what she considers to be her parents' betrayal. What she discovers in Venice is that her father remains steadfastly reconciled to the decision he and his wife took at Lucia's birth, but that it had been a heavy burden on her mother for all those years. With this knowledge, Grace returns to Parakameni to try to build a new, sisterly life for her and Lucia by the sea.
It's not easy. Grace recognises the irony of her situation - a woman who didn't want to have children with her husband, becoming mother/sister to an adult child. While Lucia can communicate to a degree, her intellectual disability seems more than mild (I have little knowledge or experience here, so please forgive me if I've read this wrong), but what they bond over are their shared love of their seaside environment, their ever-growing pack of dogs and their memories of a mother they both knew and loved. Grace tries hard to create a safe, loving environment for Lucia, but she has to take regular breaks, and every few weeks she leaves Lucia with Mallika, the village woman who helps around the house and provides some form of physical security, and heads to Madras for weekends of freedom with her friends. When a proposed coal plant further down the coast and an upcoming election bring violence to the area, and then Lucia disappears, Grace's carefully constructed haven begins to fall apart.
I really enjoyed this absorbing tale of longing, belonging and duality, the first of poet Tishani Doshi's novels I have read. To discover that there are so many parallels with her own life or circumstances (article) warmed my heart even further. It's a story of modern India that doesn't shy away from the darker elements, but brims with compassion and love.
It's not easy. Grace recognises the irony of her situation - a woman who didn't want to have children with her husband, becoming mother/sister to an adult child. While Lucia can communicate to a degree, her intellectual disability seems more than mild (I have little knowledge or experience here, so please forgive me if I've read this wrong), but what they bond over are their shared love of their seaside environment, their ever-growing pack of dogs and their memories of a mother they both knew and loved. Grace tries hard to create a safe, loving environment for Lucia, but she has to take regular breaks, and every few weeks she leaves Lucia with Mallika, the village woman who helps around the house and provides some form of physical security, and heads to Madras for weekends of freedom with her friends. When a proposed coal plant further down the coast and an upcoming election bring violence to the area, and then Lucia disappears, Grace's carefully constructed haven begins to fall apart.
I really enjoyed this absorbing tale of longing, belonging and duality, the first of poet Tishani Doshi's novels I have read. To discover that there are so many parallels with her own life or circumstances (article) warmed my heart even further. It's a story of modern India that doesn't shy away from the darker elements, but brims with compassion and love.
April 26, 2019
Baring a striking resemblance to Mani Ratnam's movie Anjali, Small Days & Nights is simply extraordinary. At its heart, this melancholy masterpiece addresses the drama family secrets and apparent betrayal can cause when revealed and feels so heartbreakingly close to true life. On hearing of her mothers passing protagonist, Grace leaves her adopted American homeland and returns to put her affairs in order back in Madras. Starting her life effectively anew Grace delves into her past and that of her parents in the hope of experiencing an epiphany and moving forward from her all-encompassing feelings of anger, discontent and alienation.
This is far from an easy read and far from the calm and serenity depicted on the cover but it's a sad, thought-provoking novel written exquisitely by a celebrated poet and essayist. After returning to cremate her mother, flawed Grace discovers she has been left a house on the beach and a sister with Down syndrome who has spent her life institutionalised. She then decides to bring her sister home to take over her care. Doshi cites the institutionalisation of Arthur Miller's son who also suffered from Downs as inspiration for this story but that growing up with a brother with the condition also helped craft her narrative. It's a book that reminds us how we all must strive to do out best in our family environment no matter the circumstances. Many thanks to Bloomsbury Circus for an ARC.
This is far from an easy read and far from the calm and serenity depicted on the cover but it's a sad, thought-provoking novel written exquisitely by a celebrated poet and essayist. After returning to cremate her mother, flawed Grace discovers she has been left a house on the beach and a sister with Down syndrome who has spent her life institutionalised. She then decides to bring her sister home to take over her care. Doshi cites the institutionalisation of Arthur Miller's son who also suffered from Downs as inspiration for this story but that growing up with a brother with the condition also helped craft her narrative. It's a book that reminds us how we all must strive to do out best in our family environment no matter the circumstances. Many thanks to Bloomsbury Circus for an ARC.
March 4, 2020
This is a furious, difficult book. It tells the story of Grazia, a woman with Italian and Indian heritage who returns to India on the death of her mother to find complicated family secrets that unravel her life. Grazia is disaffected with her life, purposeless and angry. She's a brilliant and coruscating narrator, struggling with herself and with India. It's a fierce book - there's no false comfort or warmth to be found, just flashes of love and meaning amidst sadness, selfishness, anger and death. I loved it.
April 24, 2021
"We raise our heads to the sky as if the sea was a window and we were climbing out of it."
.
.
RATING: 4.75/5
It is quite evident that Doshi's mastery of poetry extends to prose as well. Small Days and Nights is a fascinatingly captivating read. Tishani builds a seamless bridge over troubled waters but the calm exterior masks relentless turbulence with small instants of stillness. There are passages of startling rawness and vitality which evoke vibrant emotions. Sections where Grace describes the roving, always staring eyes of the creepy men wherever she goes come to mind particularly. The life that Grace and Lucia, whose mutual love has a primal nature, lead in the village has a stark simplicity to it which gets highlighted when punctuated with sections set in Madras and Italy. It is different from Grace's volatile past when her family, which is rendered typical by its atypicalness, was together and Lucia's existence was a secret. The constant going back to the sea also juxtaposes nature's permanence against human temporality. There is also repeated callbacks to the darkness that resides in humans through the two mass dog-killing incidents in different parts of the novel or even the beating up to Valluvan by thugs. But Doshi somehow manages to balance the dark with the light, indifference with intimacy.
.
.
The book is expertly multi-layered in its construction and should be even more bountiful on a second reading. The novel at its core is about the implications of a woman living all by herself in a remote area, a plot point which Doshi then uses to examine ideas about home and belonging especially when you have mixed parentage like Grace (and like Doshi herself in real life). It talks about the unhappy, yet happy, marriage of Grace's parents which is then mirrored in her own marriage with Blake. It explores the ideas of caste and class with nuance in a small seaside village. The novel also offers commentary on what's it's like to have a special needs family member, a sister suffering from Down Syndrome in this case, without trying to sugarcoat the hardships that come along with it. The world that Doshi creates is unforgiving, there is no doubt about that. But it still has its moments of grace, love, kindness, empathy and fellow-feeling. The somewhat happy open ending also drives home the fact that the peace which is ultimately reclaimed is most probably temporary but that doesn't mean that one has to be stop being who they are. Life goes on.
.
.
RATING: 4.75/5
It is quite evident that Doshi's mastery of poetry extends to prose as well. Small Days and Nights is a fascinatingly captivating read. Tishani builds a seamless bridge over troubled waters but the calm exterior masks relentless turbulence with small instants of stillness. There are passages of startling rawness and vitality which evoke vibrant emotions. Sections where Grace describes the roving, always staring eyes of the creepy men wherever she goes come to mind particularly. The life that Grace and Lucia, whose mutual love has a primal nature, lead in the village has a stark simplicity to it which gets highlighted when punctuated with sections set in Madras and Italy. It is different from Grace's volatile past when her family, which is rendered typical by its atypicalness, was together and Lucia's existence was a secret. The constant going back to the sea also juxtaposes nature's permanence against human temporality. There is also repeated callbacks to the darkness that resides in humans through the two mass dog-killing incidents in different parts of the novel or even the beating up to Valluvan by thugs. But Doshi somehow manages to balance the dark with the light, indifference with intimacy.
.
.
The book is expertly multi-layered in its construction and should be even more bountiful on a second reading. The novel at its core is about the implications of a woman living all by herself in a remote area, a plot point which Doshi then uses to examine ideas about home and belonging especially when you have mixed parentage like Grace (and like Doshi herself in real life). It talks about the unhappy, yet happy, marriage of Grace's parents which is then mirrored in her own marriage with Blake. It explores the ideas of caste and class with nuance in a small seaside village. The novel also offers commentary on what's it's like to have a special needs family member, a sister suffering from Down Syndrome in this case, without trying to sugarcoat the hardships that come along with it. The world that Doshi creates is unforgiving, there is no doubt about that. But it still has its moments of grace, love, kindness, empathy and fellow-feeling. The somewhat happy open ending also drives home the fact that the peace which is ultimately reclaimed is most probably temporary but that doesn't mean that one has to be stop being who they are. Life goes on.
April 23, 2019
Grace’s story isn’t extraordinary but it’s definitely thought-provoking. After a failed marriage and the death of her Mother, Grace returns to India with only one goal- to meet Lucia, her sister who was probably the most well-kept secret of her family. Lucia suffers from Down’s Syndrome, a conditions that make her dependant on others for day to day activities.
When’s Grace’s father refused to raise Lucia with the notion that they were inefficient in caring for a differently abled child, her parents decided to keep her hidden from most of the world, in an institution far away. As Grace makes up her mind for this new responsibility, she also inherits a house near the beach in Madras from her mother, which later becomes her home with Lucia.
Grace had a normal childhood, but she always craved from things different from what she was offered. She didn’t have a lot of friends and grew up into someone detached from familial ties. She married her childhood sweetheart, but their needs in life turned out to be different.
As Grace tries to build a life in India, she is subjected to random speculations about her whereabouts and financial state and is judged repeatedly for the choices she makes. Over time, she gets close to a stray dog but that falls apart because of certain vengeful villagers. Grace constantly suffers from the feeling of being incomplete. She is looking for something, maybe closure or love or just companionship.
“Small Days and Nights’ is the story of survival, of finding one’s place and accepting one’s family that has been divided through secrets, mistrust, and misunderstandings. But more than that, it brings to us everything that’s wrong with modern India. It’s all about change- both as an Individual and as a society.
When’s Grace’s father refused to raise Lucia with the notion that they were inefficient in caring for a differently abled child, her parents decided to keep her hidden from most of the world, in an institution far away. As Grace makes up her mind for this new responsibility, she also inherits a house near the beach in Madras from her mother, which later becomes her home with Lucia.
Grace had a normal childhood, but she always craved from things different from what she was offered. She didn’t have a lot of friends and grew up into someone detached from familial ties. She married her childhood sweetheart, but their needs in life turned out to be different.
As Grace tries to build a life in India, she is subjected to random speculations about her whereabouts and financial state and is judged repeatedly for the choices she makes. Over time, she gets close to a stray dog but that falls apart because of certain vengeful villagers. Grace constantly suffers from the feeling of being incomplete. She is looking for something, maybe closure or love or just companionship.
“Small Days and Nights’ is the story of survival, of finding one’s place and accepting one’s family that has been divided through secrets, mistrust, and misunderstandings. But more than that, it brings to us everything that’s wrong with modern India. It’s all about change- both as an Individual and as a society.
April 27, 2019
"We raise our heads to the sky as if the sea was a window and we were climbing out of it."
- Tisha Doshani, Small Days and Nights.
🌊
Having had a normal childhood, born to parents of Italian and Indian descent, Grace finds herself in a small coastal village of Paramankeni, running away from her failed marriage and having found her sister, Lucia who was born with Down's syndrome and was kept a secret from her all these years.
🌊
Escaping the restless and highly active social life in States, grace decides to move into her mother's house, with Lucy, the village housekeeper Mallika and little dogs to surround the house.
A story that looks so simple on the surface, turns complicated as one unveils the layers of a life of a single woman living alone without any men in a village in India, by the sea.
🌊
Grace's days are filled with taking care of her sister, feeding the dogs, taking them to the beach and in the process trying to find her lost self, and make meaning of a life she has spent in Madras, Italy, the States, Kodaikanal and now Pondicherry.
But the nights are full of fear and anxiety, for the endless glares and attention a house being lived by a single woman attracts, of someone breaking in, of someone marring the beauty of the life they are trying to build here.
🌊
The prose is absolutely lyrical full of metaphors and analogies, that warms the heart and can be cherished long after one is done reading.
The beautiful description of the sea and the sand, and the nights and the days, and you can almost feel yourself walking on the beach or strolling on the streets of Italy suckling on a gelato.
The writing reminded me of Subhangi Swarup's portrayal of all the alluring landscapes.
🌊
An absolutely marvellous account of a story of survival, or finding one's lost self, making peace with the misgivings of a family, of mistrust and finding trust, unveiling secrets and accepting them.
But above all, it is a tale of the one's self-discovery amongst all the chaos, loneliness, heartbreaks and confusion.
.
.
.
.
A sad yet thought-provoking novel full of life and the various emotions of ecstasy it has to offer.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Genre: contemporary, fiction, indian-literature
Reading Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐.5/5
- Tisha Doshani, Small Days and Nights.
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Having had a normal childhood, born to parents of Italian and Indian descent, Grace finds herself in a small coastal village of Paramankeni, running away from her failed marriage and having found her sister, Lucia who was born with Down's syndrome and was kept a secret from her all these years.
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Escaping the restless and highly active social life in States, grace decides to move into her mother's house, with Lucy, the village housekeeper Mallika and little dogs to surround the house.
A story that looks so simple on the surface, turns complicated as one unveils the layers of a life of a single woman living alone without any men in a village in India, by the sea.
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Grace's days are filled with taking care of her sister, feeding the dogs, taking them to the beach and in the process trying to find her lost self, and make meaning of a life she has spent in Madras, Italy, the States, Kodaikanal and now Pondicherry.
But the nights are full of fear and anxiety, for the endless glares and attention a house being lived by a single woman attracts, of someone breaking in, of someone marring the beauty of the life they are trying to build here.
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The prose is absolutely lyrical full of metaphors and analogies, that warms the heart and can be cherished long after one is done reading.
The beautiful description of the sea and the sand, and the nights and the days, and you can almost feel yourself walking on the beach or strolling on the streets of Italy suckling on a gelato.
The writing reminded me of Subhangi Swarup's portrayal of all the alluring landscapes.
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An absolutely marvellous account of a story of survival, or finding one's lost self, making peace with the misgivings of a family, of mistrust and finding trust, unveiling secrets and accepting them.
But above all, it is a tale of the one's self-discovery amongst all the chaos, loneliness, heartbreaks and confusion.
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A sad yet thought-provoking novel full of life and the various emotions of ecstasy it has to offer.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Genre: contemporary, fiction, indian-literature
Reading Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐.5/5
April 12, 2019
Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi has Grace at the center of things: she is the narrator and it is through her that readers are compelled to contemplate the world she inhabits. Set in 2010, the book shifts back and forth from the time she comes back from an unfulfilling life in the US to Paramankeni, a tiny coastal village in Tamil Nadu for her mother’s funeral. If this premise makes readers look for grief and looking at lost time and ties, you couldn’t be more mistaken. There is none of the maudlin or emotional crisis happening at all. Rather, there is a deep seated no nonsense look at coping with what life throws at Grace – in this case, a sister she never knew she had; a younger sister Lucia/Lucy with Downs Syndrome, who has been institutionalized.
This is not so much about a story or plot structure or dramatis but more of musings over life and relationships and how existing social order in the way of norms and attitudes mark the lives of women. The brief interludes that Grace has with a local leader to whom she must pay protection money and the reminders about getting a man to ‘look into’ her matters signifies the manner in which women are never allowed to be their own creatures.
This is a book that you will want to read and ponder and then re read again.
This is not so much about a story or plot structure or dramatis but more of musings over life and relationships and how existing social order in the way of norms and attitudes mark the lives of women. The brief interludes that Grace has with a local leader to whom she must pay protection money and the reminders about getting a man to ‘look into’ her matters signifies the manner in which women are never allowed to be their own creatures.
This is a book that you will want to read and ponder and then re read again.
May 22, 2019
Small Days and Nights is a story of Grace, who returns home from the US for her mother’s cremation only to find out after her death that she also has a sister of whom she never realized had an existence. Lucia, her sister was spending her life in a residential facility after her parents abandoned her being a down syndrome child.
Grace decides to live separately from his husband in the US and brings her sister home to live a life with her and a pack of dogs, a life of which she herself was not sure of.
The way author narrates what it constitutes to be a woman living alone, security issues, community outlook of a single woman, isolation and how it is difficult to be a woman, surely, it’s a commendable piece of fiction. The profound portrayal of failed relationships, love and family along with the eloquent writing is a reason to pick this book.
Moreover, I loved how the character of Grace was written, tough yet realistic, strong yet vulnerable. She faced all the challenges thrown at her, be it cultural or political, in the manner a broken or imperfect woman or a normal woman who is no hero would do.
Despite all the praise, the story incontinently switches in and out of two different backgrounds of India and Italy, which were kind of bringing reading discomfort to me. The narrative of a few places, people, though, was profound, was quite too stretched and also insignificant making the plot uninteresting and dull. I felt the story was kind of moving in monotony which didn’t work well for me.
It’s not a five-star read for me, so definitely I’ll not recommend it. But surely, will tell you that I’ve read some great admiration for the book.
Grace decides to live separately from his husband in the US and brings her sister home to live a life with her and a pack of dogs, a life of which she herself was not sure of.
The way author narrates what it constitutes to be a woman living alone, security issues, community outlook of a single woman, isolation and how it is difficult to be a woman, surely, it’s a commendable piece of fiction. The profound portrayal of failed relationships, love and family along with the eloquent writing is a reason to pick this book.
Moreover, I loved how the character of Grace was written, tough yet realistic, strong yet vulnerable. She faced all the challenges thrown at her, be it cultural or political, in the manner a broken or imperfect woman or a normal woman who is no hero would do.
Despite all the praise, the story incontinently switches in and out of two different backgrounds of India and Italy, which were kind of bringing reading discomfort to me. The narrative of a few places, people, though, was profound, was quite too stretched and also insignificant making the plot uninteresting and dull. I felt the story was kind of moving in monotony which didn’t work well for me.
It’s not a five-star read for me, so definitely I’ll not recommend it. But surely, will tell you that I’ve read some great admiration for the book.
March 29, 2019
Small days and nights.
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Thank you @bloomsburyindia for sending over this beautiful book.
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The cover is what drew me in. A free-spirited woman with three dogs accompanying her, depicts a lot of things and when I finished this book, I knew exactly what the cover was trying to say. Small days and nights is a book that talks about the feeling of home and the people you build one with. This is the kind of writing that I truly enjoy, something that reminded me of Jhumpa Lahiri and Arundhati Roy. For this is the reason why I couldn't put it down till I read the last page.
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The protagonist is a middle-aged woman named Grace, who experiences a sudden change post her mother's death. She reminiscences about her childhood days as she analyses her parent's relationship over the years and how unhappy it made them as the years proceeded. Grace was born to an Italian man and an Indian woman, the result of her talking vastly about her life in both Italy and India. Grace then discovers the secret of her sister whom she never knew existed until her mother died.
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Lucia, a young woman suffering from Down's syndrome has been growing up in a residential centre until Grace takes her home and assumes the responsibilitity of being her mother. The story talks in detail about her life in Madras, Italy and Pondicherry making me miss the feel of sand in my feet and wind in my hair. An almost nostalgic feeling. This is the story of Grace that revolves around her sister Lucia, the housekeeper Mallika, the many dogs that she comes to love and the coastal beauty of the city she lives in.
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It's a wonderful read that tugs at your heart and makes you miss your family and the place you're from. Though the story was well written, there was something amiss. Probably it was the constant switching between many places that Grace recalls and talks about. Or maybe the lack of depth in her mother's character description. But the book has a natural flair of being emotionally exhausting. The kind of read that you'd want to take up when your heart craves for love and loss.
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Rating - 3.9/5.
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Thank you @bloomsburyindia for sending over this beautiful book.
~
The cover is what drew me in. A free-spirited woman with three dogs accompanying her, depicts a lot of things and when I finished this book, I knew exactly what the cover was trying to say. Small days and nights is a book that talks about the feeling of home and the people you build one with. This is the kind of writing that I truly enjoy, something that reminded me of Jhumpa Lahiri and Arundhati Roy. For this is the reason why I couldn't put it down till I read the last page.
~
The protagonist is a middle-aged woman named Grace, who experiences a sudden change post her mother's death. She reminiscences about her childhood days as she analyses her parent's relationship over the years and how unhappy it made them as the years proceeded. Grace was born to an Italian man and an Indian woman, the result of her talking vastly about her life in both Italy and India. Grace then discovers the secret of her sister whom she never knew existed until her mother died.
~
Lucia, a young woman suffering from Down's syndrome has been growing up in a residential centre until Grace takes her home and assumes the responsibilitity of being her mother. The story talks in detail about her life in Madras, Italy and Pondicherry making me miss the feel of sand in my feet and wind in my hair. An almost nostalgic feeling. This is the story of Grace that revolves around her sister Lucia, the housekeeper Mallika, the many dogs that she comes to love and the coastal beauty of the city she lives in.
~
It's a wonderful read that tugs at your heart and makes you miss your family and the place you're from. Though the story was well written, there was something amiss. Probably it was the constant switching between many places that Grace recalls and talks about. Or maybe the lack of depth in her mother's character description. But the book has a natural flair of being emotionally exhausting. The kind of read that you'd want to take up when your heart craves for love and loss.
~
Rating - 3.9/5.
December 13, 2020
I really enjoyed how underwhelmed I felt reading this book. I felt like the author articulated feelings that I haven't been able to put into words myself. It was so realistically boring and bittersweet. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but wow this is definitely on my favorites and will be a book I am going to re-read slowly to take more in.
May 1, 2020
Some stories thrive in the unsaid. Asking the readers to fill gaps in a story can make for a unique experience for each of them, without having anything to do with any kind of laziness on the author’s part. On the contrary, by letting us believe that we are smart enough to only need a few words to understand their message, we feel closer to the novel and its universe than we ever would have had the author laid down everything to simply passively consume. What could have been an ordinary experience becomes a beautiful secret, a hushed conversation between the pages.
The untold parts that make so much of Tishani Doshi’s Small Days and Nights have the unfortunate opposite effect. The premise of the novel is enough to keep us intrigued at first: Grace, an Indian-born American emigree, returns to her hometown as the heiress of her recently deceased mother. Expecting this trip to be a break from her failing marriage and uncertain future on the American continent, her mother’s inheritance quickly turns out to be more than she bargained for. First on the list comes a mysterious pink and blue house standing by the shore of Paramankeni. And second comes the biggest surprise of all: an older sister suffering from Down Syndrome that Grace’s parents had put in an institution and thoroughly hid from her.
The novel’s non-linear structure is formerly disorienting, as our only real way to locate ourselves in time is often the number of ever-expanding puppies that Grace, her new found sister Lucia and the often mentioned yet seldom developed housekeeper Mallika keep under their roof. If this attempt at originality can pique our curiosity, it quickly grows exhausting, and only serves to show how thin Doshi’s plot and characters truly are. The descriptions made of Lucia, Grace’s disabled sister, seem out of a decades old representation of mental illness. Seeing such a recent book choosing to depict what could have been a fully developed disabled adult character as a particularly exhausting child who does nothing but be a burden for the abled people around her can’t help but feel like a huge step backwards.
It is worth remembering that everything we read about is from Grace’s perspective. This could excuse the particularly insensitive ways that the novel chooses to depict Lucia at times: an unreliable narrator trying to get us to sympathise with a situation they had no obligation to be a part of in the first place wouldn’t be unheard of. Grace turns out to be less of an unreliable narrator than a lifeless one, talking of her feelings, family, friends and lovers like she would of her furniture. Her past life in America is evoked through flashbacks, yet never expanded on for long enough for us to get a sense of how this past life affected her. The small days and even shorter nights that the novel’s title takes after merge into a confusing mass of unexplained and not frankly captivating routines. We learn a lot about the duo’s daily walks, Grace’s outings, sometimes getting a lackluster insight into the ambivalent feelings she carries towards her sister (and apparently everyone that isn’t herself). We don’t know much more about what allowed this lifestyle to happen in the first place. What did she study? Did she ever have a job? Any hobbies, even? What allowed her to live her life apparently feeding herself on mood shifts and dog breeding?
Few writers are good enough to make boredom interesting, and Small Days and Nights unfortunately only proves how difficult of a task it can be. There is without a doubt a hint of a good story hidden somewhere, either in Paramankeni or on the American continent. The India that Doshi depicts is not the one we are used to. This is the rare part of the novel where its lack of descriptions works to its advantage: as Grace travels through continents, presumably in search for herself or a higher meaning to life, India is not any less or more welcoming than America or Italy. For once, the lack of flourish around an emigree’s return to “home” feels refreshing rather than confusing, and it is unfortunate that this rare yet compelling energy isn’t carried to the rest of the novel.
Somehow too shy and too abrasive at once, Small Days and Nights sadly finds itself falling into the same oblivion as its protagonists. The hints of what could have been are not enough to compensate the emptiness of the narrative and characters as every chapter blends into the next in a short yet overlong novel that seldom justifies its existence. There are many great stories to be told about the confusion of coming back home after spending years away from it, and many have already been written — this just isn’t one of them.
The untold parts that make so much of Tishani Doshi’s Small Days and Nights have the unfortunate opposite effect. The premise of the novel is enough to keep us intrigued at first: Grace, an Indian-born American emigree, returns to her hometown as the heiress of her recently deceased mother. Expecting this trip to be a break from her failing marriage and uncertain future on the American continent, her mother’s inheritance quickly turns out to be more than she bargained for. First on the list comes a mysterious pink and blue house standing by the shore of Paramankeni. And second comes the biggest surprise of all: an older sister suffering from Down Syndrome that Grace’s parents had put in an institution and thoroughly hid from her.
The novel’s non-linear structure is formerly disorienting, as our only real way to locate ourselves in time is often the number of ever-expanding puppies that Grace, her new found sister Lucia and the often mentioned yet seldom developed housekeeper Mallika keep under their roof. If this attempt at originality can pique our curiosity, it quickly grows exhausting, and only serves to show how thin Doshi’s plot and characters truly are. The descriptions made of Lucia, Grace’s disabled sister, seem out of a decades old representation of mental illness. Seeing such a recent book choosing to depict what could have been a fully developed disabled adult character as a particularly exhausting child who does nothing but be a burden for the abled people around her can’t help but feel like a huge step backwards.
It is worth remembering that everything we read about is from Grace’s perspective. This could excuse the particularly insensitive ways that the novel chooses to depict Lucia at times: an unreliable narrator trying to get us to sympathise with a situation they had no obligation to be a part of in the first place wouldn’t be unheard of. Grace turns out to be less of an unreliable narrator than a lifeless one, talking of her feelings, family, friends and lovers like she would of her furniture. Her past life in America is evoked through flashbacks, yet never expanded on for long enough for us to get a sense of how this past life affected her. The small days and even shorter nights that the novel’s title takes after merge into a confusing mass of unexplained and not frankly captivating routines. We learn a lot about the duo’s daily walks, Grace’s outings, sometimes getting a lackluster insight into the ambivalent feelings she carries towards her sister (and apparently everyone that isn’t herself). We don’t know much more about what allowed this lifestyle to happen in the first place. What did she study? Did she ever have a job? Any hobbies, even? What allowed her to live her life apparently feeding herself on mood shifts and dog breeding?
Few writers are good enough to make boredom interesting, and Small Days and Nights unfortunately only proves how difficult of a task it can be. There is without a doubt a hint of a good story hidden somewhere, either in Paramankeni or on the American continent. The India that Doshi depicts is not the one we are used to. This is the rare part of the novel where its lack of descriptions works to its advantage: as Grace travels through continents, presumably in search for herself or a higher meaning to life, India is not any less or more welcoming than America or Italy. For once, the lack of flourish around an emigree’s return to “home” feels refreshing rather than confusing, and it is unfortunate that this rare yet compelling energy isn’t carried to the rest of the novel.
Somehow too shy and too abrasive at once, Small Days and Nights sadly finds itself falling into the same oblivion as its protagonists. The hints of what could have been are not enough to compensate the emptiness of the narrative and characters as every chapter blends into the next in a short yet overlong novel that seldom justifies its existence. There are many great stories to be told about the confusion of coming back home after spending years away from it, and many have already been written — this just isn’t one of them.
January 3, 2020
I love books that take place in unfamiliar cultures, but I did not love this book. Basically, a female version of Rain Man, I never empathized with the main character who finds out about her institutionalized sister with Down Syndrome until after there mother's death. Only 261 pages, I should have read this in 2 or 3 days instead of the 11 it took.
I was always okay when I was reading the book, but I had no drive to get back to it when I wasn't.
And I wish a glossary would be included with books that pepper the writing with italicized words that are not in my vocabulary - meaning, words common in the culture that I am reading about.
I was always okay when I was reading the book, but I had no drive to get back to it when I wasn't.
And I wish a glossary would be included with books that pepper the writing with italicized words that are not in my vocabulary - meaning, words common in the culture that I am reading about.
November 20, 2020
Grace returns home to India from America and a marriage that has gone stale, at least for her. She has returned due to her mother's death and is surprised to learn not only that she has inherited a property on an isolated beach in Madras but also that she has an older sister with Downs Syndrome that has lived all of her life in an institution. Grace struggles with how to deal with these new revelations as well as unresolved issues from her childhood.
I didn't really like Grace or most of the decisions she makes. She is adrift - seeming to always be seeking for what she thinks she has missed in life. But her emotions and inner struggles are authentically told and in the end she is somewhat redeemed. I was totally absorbed in this novel with it's beautiful language and images by an author who is also an award winning poet and dancer.
I didn't really like Grace or most of the decisions she makes. She is adrift - seeming to always be seeking for what she thinks she has missed in life. But her emotions and inner struggles are authentically told and in the end she is somewhat redeemed. I was totally absorbed in this novel with it's beautiful language and images by an author who is also an award winning poet and dancer.
May 6, 2019
Review : Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi pursues the story of Grace, who returns home to Paramankeni, a small coastal village in Madras after her failed marriage in America and upon hearing the sudden news of her mother's death. What makes Grace's story special is that it is ordinary.
Having had a normal and almost happy childhood being the only daughter of her parents, Grace is stuck by a blow when she learns that she has a sister back in India, who was kept a secret from her and the world, due to her condition i.e Down's Syndrome.
Grace who always felt a tinge of melancholy and sadness, for not having one to share her her happiness and sorrows with someone in the family like her other friends did, decides to stay back in India and care for her sister. She makes up her mind to settle in her mother's old house along with her sister, the housekeeper Mallika and their pet dogs.
Grace, as a person has always felt a sense of hollowness in her heart and as starts her new life in India, she decides to give herself a chance at life, trying her luck at with a new relationship.
But her life in India, isn't a smooth sail, curious stares from the villagers, inability to make her sister feel at home at times , aching thoughts of her already strained marriage and the judgement that she faces from herself within makes her restless.
Doshi with brilliance sketches various themes in her story like kindness and compassion that Grace and Lucia shows towards their pets, the difficult life Grace as a single woman faces in a small village filled with not so open-minded villagers , the exceptional care that a mentally disabled person requires that Grace finds rather challenging to figure out.
The writing has a lyrical emotion to it . The sea and its rage and calm is outlined with utmost fragility that is bound to stay with you for a moment too long
Having had a normal and almost happy childhood being the only daughter of her parents, Grace is stuck by a blow when she learns that she has a sister back in India, who was kept a secret from her and the world, due to her condition i.e Down's Syndrome.
Grace who always felt a tinge of melancholy and sadness, for not having one to share her her happiness and sorrows with someone in the family like her other friends did, decides to stay back in India and care for her sister. She makes up her mind to settle in her mother's old house along with her sister, the housekeeper Mallika and their pet dogs.
Grace, as a person has always felt a sense of hollowness in her heart and as starts her new life in India, she decides to give herself a chance at life, trying her luck at with a new relationship.
But her life in India, isn't a smooth sail, curious stares from the villagers, inability to make her sister feel at home at times , aching thoughts of her already strained marriage and the judgement that she faces from herself within makes her restless.
Doshi with brilliance sketches various themes in her story like kindness and compassion that Grace and Lucia shows towards their pets, the difficult life Grace as a single woman faces in a small village filled with not so open-minded villagers , the exceptional care that a mentally disabled person requires that Grace finds rather challenging to figure out.
The writing has a lyrical emotion to it . The sea and its rage and calm is outlined with utmost fragility that is bound to stay with you for a moment too long
April 11, 2019
"Small Days and Nights" by Tishani Doshi is an exceptional, a sheer abyssal and a prodigious book. It touched me to the core holding a myriad of ecstasy.
This is a story of Grace who returns to Pondicherry for the cremation rituals of her mother. Soon after the funeral, she unravels some secrets left by her mother and discovers that she has been bequeathed a strange pink house by a beach in Tamil Nadu and a sister, named Lucia about whom she never knew. Lucia, a girl who suffers from Down Syndrome and love dogs.
Grace's father, Giacinto, an exuberant potpourri of Italian optimism was an acousticophobe. She lived happily with her parents in their small house on Gilchrist Avenue in Madras but ended up witnessing their unsuccessful marriage.
This story is all about two sisters setting up a new life. The life in which Grace starts to match the speeds of her sister, Lucia and eventually discovers her own identity.
The book is heartwrenching and heartwarming. Words that made me ponder about the phases of life. A life that can be cruel and allows a gleam of sunshine at the same time. Grace's life is relevant to so many women out there. Searching for their identity. Women with mixed cultures due to geographical alienation struggling for their existence.
.
.
Love, loss, death, mental syndrome, relationships and Grace's chaos and turmoil are poetically narrated by the author and turned out to be a fervent and ravishing read. While reading the book I felt every single word by @tishanidoshi stirring to the abyss of my heart.
.
This book deserves all the love. Absolutely recommending this charm to each and everyone out there. Go and read it. ❤
A exquisite ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 for me.
Thanks to Bloomsbury India for sending me this gem.🌻
This is a story of Grace who returns to Pondicherry for the cremation rituals of her mother. Soon after the funeral, she unravels some secrets left by her mother and discovers that she has been bequeathed a strange pink house by a beach in Tamil Nadu and a sister, named Lucia about whom she never knew. Lucia, a girl who suffers from Down Syndrome and love dogs.
Grace's father, Giacinto, an exuberant potpourri of Italian optimism was an acousticophobe. She lived happily with her parents in their small house on Gilchrist Avenue in Madras but ended up witnessing their unsuccessful marriage.
This story is all about two sisters setting up a new life. The life in which Grace starts to match the speeds of her sister, Lucia and eventually discovers her own identity.
The book is heartwrenching and heartwarming. Words that made me ponder about the phases of life. A life that can be cruel and allows a gleam of sunshine at the same time. Grace's life is relevant to so many women out there. Searching for their identity. Women with mixed cultures due to geographical alienation struggling for their existence.
.
.
Love, loss, death, mental syndrome, relationships and Grace's chaos and turmoil are poetically narrated by the author and turned out to be a fervent and ravishing read. While reading the book I felt every single word by @tishanidoshi stirring to the abyss of my heart.
.
This book deserves all the love. Absolutely recommending this charm to each and everyone out there. Go and read it. ❤
A exquisite ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 for me.
Thanks to Bloomsbury India for sending me this gem.🌻
January 5, 2021
While the mixed reviews surely confused me, I definitely wanted to read it. I am glad, I did. It may not be for everyone who thinks a lot about the little things from your childhood and how it shaped you into the adult that you are today. It is poetic and devastating at the same time.
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The story begins with Grace, the daughter of an Italian man and a Tamil Catholic woman settled in Chennai. She has these vivid memories of her childhood and how it's made her feel empty and void upto her adult life. Her mom's sudden death has revealed this life-changing secret about having an elder sibling, who's autistic and living in a care home. She completely uproots her life from the US, moves to Pondicherry with her sister and starts living there with her. Also, with a lot of doggos. The book moves back and forth between Chennai, Pondicherry, Kodaikanal, Venice and it's a heavy dosage and I couldn't binge it in a day or two. At 250 pages, it's as heavy duty as it could get.
.
The writer holds no barres as she dwells right into a troubled marriage and the impact it could have on the child witnessing it. Not everyone forgets it and moves on. It scars the child into thinking how empty she or he feels. This happened with Grace and she feels a lot more content when she meets her sister, Lucy. The void diminishes a little and it's Grace's battle in settling down with her sister to a quiet life.
.
.
The writer leaves a lot of incidents to your wild imagination and plenty of times I broke into a sweat wondering what could have happened. Please pick up this gem if you like a little slow burn and deep pondering in your life. I surely did.
.
The story begins with Grace, the daughter of an Italian man and a Tamil Catholic woman settled in Chennai. She has these vivid memories of her childhood and how it's made her feel empty and void upto her adult life. Her mom's sudden death has revealed this life-changing secret about having an elder sibling, who's autistic and living in a care home. She completely uproots her life from the US, moves to Pondicherry with her sister and starts living there with her. Also, with a lot of doggos. The book moves back and forth between Chennai, Pondicherry, Kodaikanal, Venice and it's a heavy dosage and I couldn't binge it in a day or two. At 250 pages, it's as heavy duty as it could get.
.
The writer holds no barres as she dwells right into a troubled marriage and the impact it could have on the child witnessing it. Not everyone forgets it and moves on. It scars the child into thinking how empty she or he feels. This happened with Grace and she feels a lot more content when she meets her sister, Lucy. The void diminishes a little and it's Grace's battle in settling down with her sister to a quiet life.
.
.
The writer leaves a lot of incidents to your wild imagination and plenty of times I broke into a sweat wondering what could have happened. Please pick up this gem if you like a little slow burn and deep pondering in your life. I surely did.
March 1, 2020
Let me preface my review by saying I'm an American female in my fifties, so I may not be a great judge of this novel. First, I loved reading about India and learning about its current culture. Learning about another place is so gratifying. Second, I hated the central character: she is self-centered, spoiled, mopey, and has no gratitude. I could understand her "journey" to find herself and a sense of happiness if she had survived a terrible childhood or trauma, but she came from two nice parents and lived an affluent life. College in America, a marriage to a nice guy which is coming to a quiet end, an inherited beach house in India, lives off of an inheritance... Please. I could not find an ounce of compassion or understanding for this character.
I read this book because of my reading challenge - read a novel set in another country.
I read this book because of my reading challenge - read a novel set in another country.
December 21, 2019
I won this in a goodreads giveaway. Page turner
March 25, 2024
Devastating!
April 8, 2019
"The noise comes from the centre of her, and I feel it pulling something out of me -- unreasonable and insistent".
This is a story of two sisters. One with Down's syndrome and the other who is trying not to drown herself in her failing marriage. Grace returns to Pondicherry to cremate her mother and there she comes to know that her mother has left behind a property on the beaches of Madras and a sister named Lucy with Down's syndrome for her.
On that property, she finds a new life for her and her sister. It wasn't easy following a routine with someone like that but she wants to do it and make herself worthy of something in this fleeting life. Thereby, she comes to know some secrets of her mother and the life her parents had led without her knowing.
This literary fiction of Grace was lyrical, poetic and heart wrenching. It left me wondering so many things and moved me immensely. It kind of made me feel grateful for all the things I have in my life which I have never noticed before. This is not just an another story to be read. It has to be read again and again to grasp it's meaning and the power it has within the words.
She talks about death : "I am angry too, because there's such easy acceptance of death. The cheapness of it. Those beautiful animals gone. And we chatter here about things I don't comprehend but am somehow part of".
She talks about oppression of women: "You could trace a line from the present all the way back to Mohenjo-daro and there would be women with lots in the curve of their hips, waiting to collect water".
And she talks about feeling you can't name it: "All that had made me feel was that there was a ladder inside me - climbing, conquering, descending, dwindling. But I wanted to explain how sometimes what you wanted was not a ladder but a lake. Something that spread all around you".
She talks about every single thing that is bottled up inside her right from loneliness, happiness, about broken marriage, culture, freedom, and literally everything. I would highly recommend it. Go and read it asap.
This is a story of two sisters. One with Down's syndrome and the other who is trying not to drown herself in her failing marriage. Grace returns to Pondicherry to cremate her mother and there she comes to know that her mother has left behind a property on the beaches of Madras and a sister named Lucy with Down's syndrome for her.
On that property, she finds a new life for her and her sister. It wasn't easy following a routine with someone like that but she wants to do it and make herself worthy of something in this fleeting life. Thereby, she comes to know some secrets of her mother and the life her parents had led without her knowing.
This literary fiction of Grace was lyrical, poetic and heart wrenching. It left me wondering so many things and moved me immensely. It kind of made me feel grateful for all the things I have in my life which I have never noticed before. This is not just an another story to be read. It has to be read again and again to grasp it's meaning and the power it has within the words.
She talks about death : "I am angry too, because there's such easy acceptance of death. The cheapness of it. Those beautiful animals gone. And we chatter here about things I don't comprehend but am somehow part of".
She talks about oppression of women: "You could trace a line from the present all the way back to Mohenjo-daro and there would be women with lots in the curve of their hips, waiting to collect water".
And she talks about feeling you can't name it: "All that had made me feel was that there was a ladder inside me - climbing, conquering, descending, dwindling. But I wanted to explain how sometimes what you wanted was not a ladder but a lake. Something that spread all around you".
She talks about every single thing that is bottled up inside her right from loneliness, happiness, about broken marriage, culture, freedom, and literally everything. I would highly recommend it. Go and read it asap.
April 30, 2020
Lyrical and captivating, Tishani Doshi's book delves into human complications, of love and betrayal, of tenderness and brevity. When Grace returns to Pondicherry from America to cremate her mother, she finds herself walking on eggshells. Her marriage has hit a dead end, and she discovers she has a sister who has down syndrome and has been living in a residential facility.
Grace starts a new life alongside her sister in a property facing the beach in Madras. The story revolves around grace finding a place she can call home. Her father was an Italian, and her mother, Indian, so Grace has spent a large part of her life in both countries. The differences in her cultural upbringing and her parents' broken marriage during her childhood have made Grace wary of relationships and attachments. Things only get harder when she has to take care of Lucia who she struggles to form a bond with.
I believe the novel also deals with the complications and struggles a modern woman living on her own undergoes. Grace is living with her sister, and housekeeper, Mallika and a litter of puppies that keep multiplying. The way the protagonist deals with her inner turmoil, trying to come to terms with this life that is now thrust upon her is interesting to see.
I loved the parts where Grace traces her life back to her childhood in hopes of recalling the crack in their parents relationship and how it all started falling apart. All her life she grew up as the only daughter only to find out later, that she wasn't the only child.
Tishani's writing is visceral. Her words tug at your heart and resonate with you on a deeper level. I could imagine the vastness of the beach, the texture of sand beneath my feet, and the smell of food and laughter reverberating while walking down the streets of Italy. I think it's a character driven plot that kept me hooked.
I would highly recommend Small Days and Nights. .
Grace starts a new life alongside her sister in a property facing the beach in Madras. The story revolves around grace finding a place she can call home. Her father was an Italian, and her mother, Indian, so Grace has spent a large part of her life in both countries. The differences in her cultural upbringing and her parents' broken marriage during her childhood have made Grace wary of relationships and attachments. Things only get harder when she has to take care of Lucia who she struggles to form a bond with.
I believe the novel also deals with the complications and struggles a modern woman living on her own undergoes. Grace is living with her sister, and housekeeper, Mallika and a litter of puppies that keep multiplying. The way the protagonist deals with her inner turmoil, trying to come to terms with this life that is now thrust upon her is interesting to see.
I loved the parts where Grace traces her life back to her childhood in hopes of recalling the crack in their parents relationship and how it all started falling apart. All her life she grew up as the only daughter only to find out later, that she wasn't the only child.
Tishani's writing is visceral. Her words tug at your heart and resonate with you on a deeper level. I could imagine the vastness of the beach, the texture of sand beneath my feet, and the smell of food and laughter reverberating while walking down the streets of Italy. I think it's a character driven plot that kept me hooked.
I would highly recommend Small Days and Nights. .
October 19, 2019
I wish there wasn't a star rating system because sometimes a book rates 5 stars, then nosedives into the 2 zone, then back up to 4, before settling into a 3. Sometimes the rating seems more how you felt when the book ended than how you felt throughout. This is a relatively easy read, and mostly pleasant, except for when the books shifts in time and the transitions aren't always that clear as to where we are with Grace, our main character. It wasn't until the end of the novel that I realized she was married for so many years and met him when she was so young, because we hear about these other men throughout the novel, as we jump from here to there, and she meets her sister after her mother has died, and the ex-husband returns for a visit, and I was left wondering how long had they been apart? Little things that do matter. Grace isn't a likable character. She yells at her hired help, beats on her sister who has Down syndrome, and overall, is a one-dimensional character who has inherited a home and money and more or less lives the privileged life in India. I kept wishing she'd transform, or something more large than fretting about sex would happen, but it didn't. I guess the novel is realistic because often times people are abrasive to others and do not change.
March 25, 2020
Small days and nights written by Tishani Doshi is a riot of emotions I didn't think I could handle.
It's more of a story about self discovery and realization and also of how to be at peace. Grace's discovery about her sister whom she never met cause her parents decided to keep her existence a secret could have easily being referred to a new beginning in her life. Lucia's existence in her life did not just change her but helped her find a way to be herself. Grace's acceptance of Lucia her sister who has Down Syndrome and finding a new direction to her life in India is definitely what I loved in the book.
Doshi captured perfectly the picturesque towns in India along with their rawness that lies both in the terrain and within the people. The relationship that they both shared, Grace's description of her parents, of the relationship they shared, the good days and the tough days are described in a manner that'll transport you to their lives and take you places you'll want to revisit.
The poignant narrative takes you through different stages of Grace's life and her relationships that she shared with her Mom, Dad, Blake, Lucia, the dogs, who plays a crucial role in their lives.
The story leaves a lingering taste in your life which will act as a void and force you to ask for more.
It's more of a story about self discovery and realization and also of how to be at peace. Grace's discovery about her sister whom she never met cause her parents decided to keep her existence a secret could have easily being referred to a new beginning in her life. Lucia's existence in her life did not just change her but helped her find a way to be herself. Grace's acceptance of Lucia her sister who has Down Syndrome and finding a new direction to her life in India is definitely what I loved in the book.
Doshi captured perfectly the picturesque towns in India along with their rawness that lies both in the terrain and within the people. The relationship that they both shared, Grace's description of her parents, of the relationship they shared, the good days and the tough days are described in a manner that'll transport you to their lives and take you places you'll want to revisit.
The poignant narrative takes you through different stages of Grace's life and her relationships that she shared with her Mom, Dad, Blake, Lucia, the dogs, who plays a crucial role in their lives.
The story leaves a lingering taste in your life which will act as a void and force you to ask for more.
November 16, 2019
SMALL DAYS AND NIGHTS by Tishani Doshi
I so wanted to like this book. And I did –parts of it anyway. Doshi in some places (mostly descriptive parts of the book) is lyrical and enchanting, but in other parts (mostly conversations and character development) she is stilted and unpolished. Did she need a good editor? I also found the general outline of the book to be confusing as it jumped back and forth in time.
That said the maturing of the relationship between the sisters grows and changes in lovely ways. Both sisters and Teacher developed as the book progressed. Mother, however, seemed static, even as Grace reveals more and more of her personality and their relationship. Lucia was my favorite part of the book and was sympathetically drawn. I found my smiling as she made her wants and needs known.
Overall, I give the book 3 out of 5 stars for the parts of wonderful writing and Lucia. It is not a book I would recommend wholeheartedly.
3 of 5 stars
I so wanted to like this book. And I did –parts of it anyway. Doshi in some places (mostly descriptive parts of the book) is lyrical and enchanting, but in other parts (mostly conversations and character development) she is stilted and unpolished. Did she need a good editor? I also found the general outline of the book to be confusing as it jumped back and forth in time.
That said the maturing of the relationship between the sisters grows and changes in lovely ways. Both sisters and Teacher developed as the book progressed. Mother, however, seemed static, even as Grace reveals more and more of her personality and their relationship. Lucia was my favorite part of the book and was sympathetically drawn. I found my smiling as she made her wants and needs known.
Overall, I give the book 3 out of 5 stars for the parts of wonderful writing and Lucia. It is not a book I would recommend wholeheartedly.
3 of 5 stars
April 19, 2019
Unfortunately the story has been largely lifted from Mani Ratnams movie Anjali and I cannot understand how the publisher allowed the word "Nigger" negrone in the book. Disappointing read the movie was better.
April 9, 2020
Beautifully written, evocative and poignant
October 21, 2021
I found this to be basically intolerable. No need to trash it, I just did not enjoy any aspect of it.
July 21, 2024
Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi is a novel about disaffection and how trauma distances us from the world. It is also a book that alternates between luminous prose that reads like poetry and poor character development, a meandering pace and the barest bones of a plot.
This novel is about Grace - a mixed race Indian whose Italian father and South Indian mother have a tumultuous courtship and romance which breaks down into a bitter marriage at some point in the narrator's teenage years. Grace arrives in Pondicherry, fleeing an unsatisfactory marriage in the wake of her mother's death, where she discovers she isn't an only child. Her elder sister, Lucia was born with Down's syndrome and kept in a home for disabled children, her existence a carefully guarded family secret. Grace, devastated and hurting from this betrayal sets up home with Lucia in a small beachfront property in a Tamil fishing village - their only companions a servant called Mallika and an ever increasing number of stray puppies.
Grace's narrative is solipsistic - and zig zags through various moments in her life, circling around the important events of the plot - you might be expecting to stumble upon a revelation only for Grace to shy away in the last moment and talk about something entirely different. These digressions lack any semblance of thematic unity - the reader is kept off balance. Grace moves around a lot in her childhood and you might be reading about a life in Kodaikanal on one page , followed by a description of a holiday in Italy in another. The book chugs at a leisurely pace through Chennai, Pondicherry, Venice, Kodaikanal and the USA, always centering back on the house at Paramankeni. I think this approach is deliberate - a calculated attempt to replicate the effect of an only child being forced to face change alone but the only thing it actually does is prevent the reader from ever feeling comfortable or making an acquaintance with any of the secondary characters.
The most important of these is Lucia - a grown woman with the mind of a child. I am not expert in Child psychiatry or developmental disorders but Lucia comes across like a caricature. There are moments where she seems capable of understanding and empathy - other moments where she is unable to care for herself. Grace's narrative conveniently avoids most of the difficulties in caring for a mentally challenged individual with severe developmental delay. There are mentions of stubbornness, a sense of otherness, and some passages dealing with her frustration with the manner in which Lucia is stared at in public but very little substance to her as a character. Lucia is often treated as a convenient plot point - a way to move things along, an unpredictable quantity who can be relied upon to introduce the barest element of discomfort into Grace's selfish life. She never actually exists beyond this role and the lack of attention to her character is a glaring fault on the part of Doshi.
Other characters share the same fate. We meet several people over the course of this narrative - Mallika, Doshi's servant in Paramankeni, Valluvan , the local leader, his wife, their children. Apart form the locals we are also introduced to a large number of Grace's friends in Chennai, her lovers and their conversations about the world. There is also auntie Kavitha, Grace's mothers close friend and others. Doshi makes elementary mistakes in character development - assuming that naming a character and allowing them to exist on the page alongside her narrator is enough to ensure they exist as separate beings in the mind of the reader. This is, of course, not the case. Grace's friends in Chennai blur together. Grace often says that so and so person is her "friend" but we find no evidence in the text for the same. Doshi does a whole lot of telling but very little showing with absolutely no effort made.
Grace's lovers suffer the same fate. I think this is the strongest portion of the novel - a window into the mind of someone almost toxically avoidant in relationships , unable to commit and filled with a kind of existential dread. It is the strongest portion but it isn't perfect. We know the problem but we aren't ever given the satisfaction of a solution , nor do we ever see Grace being made aware of the same or moving towards a solution. Grace's peregrination from the arms of one lover to the next is a factor of her upbringing and her reasons for leaving each lover are vague. Grace leaves Blake, her childhood love and husband because she doesn't want children - she then cheats on him, leaves her Indian lover - etc etc. These form the weak dramatic backbone to the book. There is no crescendo of emotions, no revelation, no one calls Grace out on her behaviour and lack of empathy (at least for Blake, who seems like a nice guy, if a little bland). Grace is allowed to exist in a moral vacuum of sorts, with no ultimate realization. When she realises that one lover has moved on, she descends into a sort of self serving depression - but even this is not allowed to breathe on the page - her recollections meandering away and the focus shifting away from Grace's sorrow.
And therein lies the nub of the problem. I think most authors would like to write a sympathetic but flawed character and do it well - it is probably what they reach towards. This is not the case with Grace - she is enormously flawed but most of her actions do not evoke sympathy, they evoke a sort of disgust. She seems to be unprepared to take care of her sister, has no plan for the future and seems to have infinite sums of money that allow her to throw it at most of the problems that come in her way. I always imagine an alternative narrative where Grace is forced to take care of her sister after her mother's death and has very little money with which to do it - what would that tell us about her character and would she grow and develop into a different person? We will never really know the answer to that because Grace is never forced to develop beyond the selfish version of herself that exists on the page.
Apart from all these issues there is another glaring issue with this novel - the Cynicism and the portrayal of the locals in Tamil Nadu. It is obvious that a woman living alone with her mentally challenged sister would feel a sense of unease, however Doshi insists on writing about the locals as some sort of savages and makes Paramnkeni and Chennai - for lack of a better word - ugly. There is a sense of cynicism about India. The people are venal, corrupt and incapable of making you feel safe - and Doshi keeps telling you this, there is even a point where she calls this country ugly. I am an Indian and am the first to accept that yes - this country is not safe, the people can sometimes be annoying and there are a lot of issues, however, I have lived here for 35 years and have come across beauty and kindness that far outweighs the ugliness that Doshi portrays, and she does this despite being an Indian Citizen herself.
When I read the first chapter of this novel, I loved it. I think Doshi does an excellent job describing the chaos at Chennai airport as well as the drive to Pondicherry. She is a visual artist and paints her scenes very well. I had a good feeling about the book and was waiting for the story to wow me. It never did. It felt incomplete, rather superficial and never really endeared me to the main character and her problems. This was an ok book and I think it might appeal to someone who values prose over plot, character development and thematic unity. That someone is definitely not me.
2 stars on 5
This novel is about Grace - a mixed race Indian whose Italian father and South Indian mother have a tumultuous courtship and romance which breaks down into a bitter marriage at some point in the narrator's teenage years. Grace arrives in Pondicherry, fleeing an unsatisfactory marriage in the wake of her mother's death, where she discovers she isn't an only child. Her elder sister, Lucia was born with Down's syndrome and kept in a home for disabled children, her existence a carefully guarded family secret. Grace, devastated and hurting from this betrayal sets up home with Lucia in a small beachfront property in a Tamil fishing village - their only companions a servant called Mallika and an ever increasing number of stray puppies.
Grace's narrative is solipsistic - and zig zags through various moments in her life, circling around the important events of the plot - you might be expecting to stumble upon a revelation only for Grace to shy away in the last moment and talk about something entirely different. These digressions lack any semblance of thematic unity - the reader is kept off balance. Grace moves around a lot in her childhood and you might be reading about a life in Kodaikanal on one page , followed by a description of a holiday in Italy in another. The book chugs at a leisurely pace through Chennai, Pondicherry, Venice, Kodaikanal and the USA, always centering back on the house at Paramankeni. I think this approach is deliberate - a calculated attempt to replicate the effect of an only child being forced to face change alone but the only thing it actually does is prevent the reader from ever feeling comfortable or making an acquaintance with any of the secondary characters.
The most important of these is Lucia - a grown woman with the mind of a child. I am not expert in Child psychiatry or developmental disorders but Lucia comes across like a caricature. There are moments where she seems capable of understanding and empathy - other moments where she is unable to care for herself. Grace's narrative conveniently avoids most of the difficulties in caring for a mentally challenged individual with severe developmental delay. There are mentions of stubbornness, a sense of otherness, and some passages dealing with her frustration with the manner in which Lucia is stared at in public but very little substance to her as a character. Lucia is often treated as a convenient plot point - a way to move things along, an unpredictable quantity who can be relied upon to introduce the barest element of discomfort into Grace's selfish life. She never actually exists beyond this role and the lack of attention to her character is a glaring fault on the part of Doshi.
Other characters share the same fate. We meet several people over the course of this narrative - Mallika, Doshi's servant in Paramankeni, Valluvan , the local leader, his wife, their children. Apart form the locals we are also introduced to a large number of Grace's friends in Chennai, her lovers and their conversations about the world. There is also auntie Kavitha, Grace's mothers close friend and others. Doshi makes elementary mistakes in character development - assuming that naming a character and allowing them to exist on the page alongside her narrator is enough to ensure they exist as separate beings in the mind of the reader. This is, of course, not the case. Grace's friends in Chennai blur together. Grace often says that so and so person is her "friend" but we find no evidence in the text for the same. Doshi does a whole lot of telling but very little showing with absolutely no effort made.
Grace's lovers suffer the same fate. I think this is the strongest portion of the novel - a window into the mind of someone almost toxically avoidant in relationships , unable to commit and filled with a kind of existential dread. It is the strongest portion but it isn't perfect. We know the problem but we aren't ever given the satisfaction of a solution , nor do we ever see Grace being made aware of the same or moving towards a solution. Grace's peregrination from the arms of one lover to the next is a factor of her upbringing and her reasons for leaving each lover are vague. Grace leaves Blake, her childhood love and husband because she doesn't want children - she then cheats on him, leaves her Indian lover - etc etc. These form the weak dramatic backbone to the book. There is no crescendo of emotions, no revelation, no one calls Grace out on her behaviour and lack of empathy (at least for Blake, who seems like a nice guy, if a little bland). Grace is allowed to exist in a moral vacuum of sorts, with no ultimate realization. When she realises that one lover has moved on, she descends into a sort of self serving depression - but even this is not allowed to breathe on the page - her recollections meandering away and the focus shifting away from Grace's sorrow.
And therein lies the nub of the problem. I think most authors would like to write a sympathetic but flawed character and do it well - it is probably what they reach towards. This is not the case with Grace - she is enormously flawed but most of her actions do not evoke sympathy, they evoke a sort of disgust. She seems to be unprepared to take care of her sister, has no plan for the future and seems to have infinite sums of money that allow her to throw it at most of the problems that come in her way. I always imagine an alternative narrative where Grace is forced to take care of her sister after her mother's death and has very little money with which to do it - what would that tell us about her character and would she grow and develop into a different person? We will never really know the answer to that because Grace is never forced to develop beyond the selfish version of herself that exists on the page.
Apart from all these issues there is another glaring issue with this novel - the Cynicism and the portrayal of the locals in Tamil Nadu. It is obvious that a woman living alone with her mentally challenged sister would feel a sense of unease, however Doshi insists on writing about the locals as some sort of savages and makes Paramnkeni and Chennai - for lack of a better word - ugly. There is a sense of cynicism about India. The people are venal, corrupt and incapable of making you feel safe - and Doshi keeps telling you this, there is even a point where she calls this country ugly. I am an Indian and am the first to accept that yes - this country is not safe, the people can sometimes be annoying and there are a lot of issues, however, I have lived here for 35 years and have come across beauty and kindness that far outweighs the ugliness that Doshi portrays, and she does this despite being an Indian Citizen herself.
When I read the first chapter of this novel, I loved it. I think Doshi does an excellent job describing the chaos at Chennai airport as well as the drive to Pondicherry. She is a visual artist and paints her scenes very well. I had a good feeling about the book and was waiting for the story to wow me. It never did. It felt incomplete, rather superficial and never really endeared me to the main character and her problems. This was an ok book and I think it might appeal to someone who values prose over plot, character development and thematic unity. That someone is definitely not me.
2 stars on 5
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