FAMILY LIFE

I only recently got to know that this book made it to the New York Times top 10.Also it is written by an Indian,so naturally I was intrigued and picked it up.

This book is an autobiographical story of a family's emigration from India to the US in the late 1970's,and how an accident that left the elder son severly brain damaged brought them close to collapse.The narrator of Family Life is eight years old when the story begins and tells us briefly about the family of four comprising of the parents and two brothers,Birju and Ajay.How their father decides to move to America in search of a better life.Birju adjust more quickly,makes friends easily,gets excellent grades and fulfils his families dreams by being accepted into the Bronx High School of Science.But shortly after ,tragedy strikes as he dives into a pool striking his head and being deprived of oxygen for three minutes which leaves him brain-damaged thus spiralling their family into a dark hole of despair from which they never manage to come out.The family remains devoted to him giving up their lives to take care of him.Ajays father becomes an alcoholic and his mother becomes increasingly angry with the world.Ajay is left lost and fending for himself in the middle of all this and he can never come to terms with all that has happened to his family.

My Views:This book is very dark.It sends the reader spiralling along with the family into that gloom.I read it today and it has left me with a strange feeling.So if you are already in the doldrums I would suggest you save this one for another time because there is not a single happy moment in this book.The narrator is young and the story is told from his point of view and it focuses on the mothers non-stop care for their helpless dependent older son and about his father battling with alcoholism,he speaks about tragedy in a matter of fact manner which at that point evoked no sympathy in me,but I think that was the whole point.He probably wanted the readers to read it with a detached perspective .He speaks about how immigrants are percieved in a foreign land due to which their difficulties are made harder.It speaks about how a normal family can become completely dysfunctional in the face of tragedy and I could understand that.I have lived outside India and I know of the problems faced by people in a foreign land.The narrator makes everything seem so hollow,right from the Indian community coming over and giving them godly status to the miracle-workers who come to their house claiming to cure his brother.There are no pretenses in telling this story.There was no sugar-coating and that is why it was hard to swallow.I felt weird reading about it this way but it made sense in the end and it just overwhelmed me completely.I was left with an empty feeling.This book succeeded in evoking that response from me.I dont think I should rate this one as it is life as it happened to someone somewhere.