Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

“I would be lying if I say my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure," says Antara, Tara’s now-adult daughter.

This is a love story and a story about betrayal—not between lovers but between a mother and a daughter. . . . In her youth, Tara was wild. She abandoned her arranged marriage to join an ashram, embarked on a stint as a beggar (mostly to spite her affluent parents), and spent years chasing a disheveled, homeless “artist,” all with little Antara in tow.

But now Tara is forgetting things, and Antara is an adult—an artist and married—and must search for a way to make peace with a past that haunts her as she confronts the task of caring for a woman who never cared for her.

Sharp as a blade and laced with caustic wit, Burnt Sugar unpicks the slippery, choking cord of memory and myth that binds mother and daughter: Is Tara’s memory loss real? Are Antara’s memories fair? In vivid and visceral prose, Avni Doshi tells a story at once shocking and empathetic of a mother-daughter relationship and a daughter’s search for self. A journey into shifting memories, altering identities, and the subjective nature of truth, Burnt Sugar is the stunning and unforgettable debut of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

Tldr; ‘Burnt Sugar' is the worst ‘highly recommended' book I read in 2020. Stay far away.

‘Burnt Sugar' is a mediocre, choppily written (no it isn't ‘crisp') novel that masquerades as a deep dive into the mother-daughter but ends up sacrificing plot, insight, storytelling (and basically every other ingredient) for the banal commitment to ‘caustic humor' that rarely ever lands. Though the book is readable in the first dozen pages, it soon becomes a tiring slog of dislikable characters trashing each other for no apparent reason. Finally, it culminates in a rather unsatisfying ending which made me regret ever-picking up this book. Something is broken in our literary scene when an author for the sake of being ‘subversive' can ramble on about the most jarring aspects of bodily fluids and human waste, without utilizing that rambling for any literary purpose or insight. At various points throughout the story, the author integrates a ‘hot topic' as a through-line in the narrative (dementia, post-partum depression, infidelity etc.) and then explores it in the most superficial way possible- mediated by the most obvious stock stereotypes like that of the dislikable ‘Indian-American aunty', the ‘NRI husband' and the ‘crazy hippie'. Nuance is so shockingly non-existent and the narration through these caricatures so impersonal that it impedes actual understanding of the novel. Unless you enjoy reading vulgarity and filth for its own sake- this isn't for you.

In conclusion, ‘Burnt Sugar' represent peak formulaic fiction in the literary genre where zero insights + enough ‘themes' that are ‘important' coming from the ‘right' quarters equal award nominations. Please stay far away

FUCK i just wrote a whole review and my dumbass browser deleted it. fuck this i have a work meeting in 3 minutes so

It's slow in some places, rushed in others, wavered between good pace and bad pace for me
Dust jacket on the hardcover says this is about dementia and the line between truth and lie and like yes, but also, is it?
Was recommended this as a “bad mom bad child” book but I think it's more about faith and art than it is about family and generational trauma, I certainly think it's telling a story about femininity and duty the same way a “bad mom bad child” book does
I think I liked it but it didn't quite win me over