Parable of a nation
Damon Galgut’s novel reflects the slow and partial fulfillment of the promise of the country it is set in: South Africa. It is a memorable read, the kind that stays with you for weeks afterwards, the kind where a passage...
Officers and convicts
Having enjoyed The Lieutenant, I was looking forward to another Kate Grenville novel. A Room Made of Leaves is the account Elizabeth MacArthur nee Veale writes 12 years after her husband’s death, contradicting the narrative he had spun. John MacArthur...
A span of black American history
Heads-up: this novel has a daunting cast of characters. In their favour, they are interestingly diverse: they live over multiple decades in two continents, they are black, white, married, single, straight, gay, male, female, and of various ages. Some are...
An interesting debut, imperfectly executed
We first encounter our protagonist, Hayat, a 2nd generation Pakistani American lad, in college, but very quickly, the narrative goes back to a time when Hayat was 10 years old. He lives with Muneer his mum, and Naveed, his dad,...
The push and pull of motherhood
Emily Itami’s protagonist, Mizuki, is a fulltime housewife in Tokyo with an exhausted salaryman husband and two children. On the surface, her life looks fine, but she is miserable. I wanted this life, wanted my children. I guess that, like...
Husband pic’n’mix
This third novel of Sahota’s is mostly set in rural Punjab, in 1929; whereas his first two novels were British-based for most part. However, there is a parallel storyline happening in 1999, of a British Asian 18 year old who...
Catalan hallucination
Barcelona in the early 2000s is the backdrop for this set of 3 loosely linked novellas. This is not the Barcelona of tourists — Las Ramblas, the bars, the seashore and Gaudi. Rupert Thomson’s stories touch on immigration, racism, migrants,...
Kiasu Rom-Com
I should have been warned by the blub that said this is for fans of Crazy Rich Asians, that this book is going to be exaggerated and over-the-top. Yes, I know this is a rom-com, but there have been quite...
The best Marigold Hotel is definitely the film
An entertaining film was The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, raised from complete lightweight status by the quality of the acting. It turns out to have been based on a book which recently came my way at the library. Deborah Moggach’s...
“The sweet lovely mess that is real life”
To situate a novel partly in 1960s Italy with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and partly in 2000s Hollywood is surely a unique approach. This novel goes quite a bit further in both location and time. Beautiful Ruins opens in...
Risking it all in the hope of a better life
A seriously compelling read, one of those you can barely stand to have to put the book down to attend to life. The quality of the storytelling is what makes this novel so unput-down-able, as well as its characters whom...
East LA Investigations
A black unofficial private investigator on the mean streets of LA. Many readers will think immediately of Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins, but Joe Ide’s IQ deserves to stand on its own pedestal. IQ stands for Isaiah Quintana, a young man...
Quiet, delightful charm
Mary Lawson charms the socks off me. It is very difficult to put one’s finger on exactly what makes her writing so appealing, but the attraction is there and powerful, from cover to cover, unwavering. This is, on the surface...
Forgettable Asian-Americans
A Taiwanese-American coming-of-age story, set in a blended family? It could have potential. Despite the title, the protagonist is not, in fact, a Tiger Mom, but is Lexa, the result of a romance between her Caucasian-American mother and a Taiwanese...
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