Deepa’s Reviews > Have You Seen Romit?: A Novel > Status Update

Figuring out how to find readers for this book is going to be harder. That is deeply unfair. This is not actually an adventure story. It’s not a tragedy. It is a near flawless almost domestic fiction. 5 stars from me.

What I like more is what we find out about Romit at the end and non-answer ending to the story. It’s not an explanation but it is interesting.

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I think this story is great and the writer is great. I’m going to be so honest that is not my wheelhouse. I read fiction like this very occasionally. I misunderstood when I signed up for this. I’m happy I did.

Each of these characters play the part of the stereotypes or what could be expectations, really well. They’re not our “rebels” but they’re not stock either. There is enough tension among each other as well as with the reader given how time is passing in Romit’s disappearance. They’re not dangerous unstable. But we don’t full know that yet.

For example, the husband focus on the shop or Pari.

There are frequent pov changes in this book. I like that facet a lot. The povs are unexpected to the reader. Mehta is not repetitive about whose pov it can be. We get minor character povs and main characters. It keeps story wide. That’s interesting in the context of a missing person.

The actions from siblings, the husband, Romit, and Usha—they’re all a little off. Not odd or strange but unpredictable.

Is their nonchalance dysfunction or is it more sinister? Is the husband more violent than just merely patriarchal? And how do the kids fit into this system as well. Do they use that to control our protagonist, Usha. We are left to wonder this well into the 40% range.

There is observational quality to writing that implies that pov is not casually included. The changing povs push this further.

He’s a writer. It’s not stable and especially in comparison. The stereotypical dissatisfaction from the precararity of it all. Her husband is particularly patriarchal. That shows over and over again. Romit is the hapless wandering child, roaming and trekking alone in a forest.

As I said, we don’t know what kind of story this is and that’s intentional. Who are we judging in this family?

The siblings have these frayed bonds. Ashmit the older son is jealous that Romit ( our missing adult man) is more loved than him. Pari the younger sister has a relationship to Romit that is more copasetic but she too believes their mom, Usha, our protagonist, loves Romit more because he’s adopted. Usha rightly believes her husband cares lives less about Romit for that reason. Then there is Romit’s occupation.

They’re looking but not with as much concern. It looks bad. As reader, I was never sure what kind of story this would become. We know a missing person cannot be missing for 6 to 7 days and still turn up. I was constantly wondering if this case or her son disappearing from god knows what or is this just trivial case of son not informing his family. Mehta injects reasons for speculation.

This was selected by R.O Kwon for a prize fiction. The acknowledgement includes Sheila Sundar and Nicole Chung- big names in the fiction space as well as literary teaching organizations and programs. Also published via University of Nebraska press.

This isn’t a suspense. It is domestic fiction to an extent but ultimately this story is about mom worried about her missing son while the rest of the fam is slacking.