Family Matters
Ratings5
Average rating3.4
15
Ratings5
Average rating3.4
Rohinton Mistry’s enthralling novel is at once a domestic drama and an intently observed portrait of present-day Bombay in all its vitality and corruption. At the age of seventy-nine, Nariman Vakeel, already suffering from Parkinson’s disease, breaks an ankle and finds himself wholly dependent on his family. His step-children, Coomy and Jal, have a spacious apartment (in the inaptly named Chateau Felicity), but are too squeamish and resentful to tend to his physical needs. Nariman must now turn to his younger daughter, Roxana, her husband, Yezad, and their two sons, who share a small, crowded home. Their decision will test not only their material resources but, in surprising ways, all their tolerance, compassion, integrity, and faith. Sweeping and intimate, tragic and mirthful, Family Matters is a work of enormous emotional power.
Reviews with the most likes.
Poignant. Sometimes a tad too dramatic but that can be forgiven. Some of the characters are so real you can reach out and touch them.
Rohinton Mistry takes us right into the life of a family in this book, a family with all its
conflicts, its misunderstandings, its jealousies, and unexpected moments of redeeming love. India, his setting, seems to make
everything feel bigger and more important, both hopeless and hopeful.
Nariman is an old man who has experienced much sadness and pain in his life. He lives with his stepchildren, Jal
and Coomy, who try without much success to protect him from the world. His natural daughter, Roxana, lives with her
husband and two sons apart from her father. The lives of all the family, however, are intricately bound together.
The title, Family Matters, is wonderful, with its dual meanings of both family concerns and the importance of family.
There are no simple answers in this story. Plans, even clever plans, go awry. Good acts are not rewarded. Out of good
intentions come undeserved troubles. Despite our best efforts to stop wickedness, people continue to do the wrong things.
Moments of peace in this confusing world—acts of genuine compassion, a little laughter, a little music—are rare, but
provide us with just enough hope to continue to slog on.
Mistry is a gifted writer, excellent at writing dialogue with edgy comedy, with a whiff of hysteria, and at creating
plots that twist and turn unexpectedly, like life itself.
Recommended.
