Eight months ago, I specifically requested my mother (not the biological one, but my Kris Kringle mother) for the book The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai.
She was kind enough to give in to my request and I was so happy with my new book. The night after I received it, I covered it in plastic and started reading.
I was expecting that I would finish it in no time, but I didn’t. After a few chapters, I was already exhausted. I had put off reading it for months. It was only this month that I tried, albeit with difficulty, to finish it. I found Desai’s style too lyrical. The sentences were too long and dramatic making it a dragging read. There were too much Indian phrases, which seemed pretty relevant, but which I never understood. And the story was too depressing. I can’t remember a single moment of happiness in the entirety of the story. Even Gyan and Sai’s love story, which was supposed to be sweet and crazy, was depressing. The story was full of hatred, sadness, bitterness, and violence.
But then, there were a lot of good reviews about it (the exact reason why it was in my wish list in the first place), so I guess it’s fair to say that this book isn’t all that bad. But then again, I guess the book is not for everybody, just like all other things in this world are. As the saying goes, to each his own. But then again (again), I will not recommend it as I did not enjoy reading it.
The Daily Braid 