The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A winning, irreverent debut novel about a family wrestling with its future and its past “With wit and a rich understanding of human foibles, [Mira] Jacob unspools a story that will touch your heart.”—People ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Boston Globe, The Millions, Kirkus Reviews With depth, heart, and agility, debut novelist Mira Jacob takes us on a deftly plotted journey that ranges from 1970s India to suburban 1980s New Mexico to Seattle during the dot.com boom. The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing is an epic, irreverent testimony to the bonds of love, the pull of hope, and the power of making peace with life’s uncertainties. Celebrated brain surgeon Thomas Eapen has been sitting on his porch, talking to dead relatives. At least that is the story his wife, Kamala, prone to exaggeration, tells their daughter, Amina, a photographer living in Seattle. Reluctantly Amina returns home and finds a situation that is far more complicated than her mother let on, with roots in a trip the family, including Amina’s rebellious brother Akhil, took to India twenty years earlier. Confronted by Thomas’s unwillingness to explain himself, strange looks from the hospital staff, and a series of puzzling items buried in her mother’s garden, Amina soon realizes that the only way she can help her father is by coming to terms with her family’s painful past. In doing so, she must reckon with the ghosts that haunt all of the Eapens.

This book had an interesting premise and some decent writing (although some objectionable metaphors and similes, and a weird rape comment). But it was just too long and seemed to drag on, lots of nothing happening and going around in circles. I liked the past sections with Akhil, but not much of the present day stuff.

I don't remember what I was thinking when I requested an advanced reader's copy of The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing. I know when it showed up in the mail, however, I was wondering why I had wanted this book in the first place. The premise and the cover no longer enticed me. I set it aside and put off reading it until the last minute. I believe the fates must have been looking out for me when I originally requested this book because it was great.

One of my concerns was that this was going to be yet another story of the Indian diaspora in America. That's a great story and all, but I've personally had a bit too much of it lately. There are certainly elements of that story here, but they're minor and it's not the focus. The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing is a delightfully-written story of career, family, and destiny—all those things that make people love Star Wars. Seriously, people should be standing in line to read this book. The prose is fantastic. The story remains interesting and poignant through all its 500 pages. It's wonderful, and it does so much. Mira Jacob goes back and forth between places and time, and she does so without a hiccup. There are so many subplots going on, yet they all fit together and are not only terrific in their own right, but relevant to the larger story. It flows so seamlessly that you have to applaud the author and her editors. The characters are detailed. The dialogue is witty. The story itself has moments of humor and heartbreak. I really enjoyed this book.

The biggest problem I foresee this novel facing is that it is being published in a year with so many great novels. If it doesn't get the right publicity, doesn't hit the target audience, doesn't attract enough prepub attention, this debut may be ignored on the lists of the year's best. I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen. Take note, this is one of the most compelling, breathtaking, and lyrical books to be published this year. It's full of life. Put it on your to-read list now and if you want to thank me, you can do so later.