Family Matters
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Amazon.co.uk Review
As an epigraph to his humane and generous novel Family Matters, Rohinton Mistry uses a reverse version of Tolstoy's words from Anna Karenina--"Each happy family is happy in its own way, but all unhappy families resemble one another". The unhappy family in this book belongs to Nariman Vakeel, an elderly, retired English teacher in Bombay. His stepson Jal and stepdaughter Coomy look after the old man, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, but a street accident renders him even more in need of help. Resentfully Jal and Coomy provide it but, when opportunity offers, they deliver Nariman into the care (and flat) of his daughter Roxana, the much-loved offspring of what was an otherwise loveless marriage. Roxana is married with two children and lives in cramped conditions that the arrival of the now bed-ridden old man makes worse. The tensions of the present and rankling discontents from the past collide as Mistry's narrative unfolds. At the heart of the story is the literal claustrophobia of the flat and the metaphorical claustrophobia of a family bound tightly together by the deeply ambivalent emotions of its members but Family Matters is not a limited or restricted novel.
Through the stories of Roxana's husband Yezad and her sons Murad and Jehangir, Mistry opens the book to lives outside the family. Characters like Yezad's ebullient employer Mr Kapur, the eager but incompetent handyman Edul Munshi, the violinist Daisy Ichhaporia and others provide a keen sense of the wider world of Bombay in which the family dramas are secretively played out. What best emerges from the novel is Mistry's compassionate sense of the frustrations, temptations and everyday sufferings life imposes on all his characters. All, in the end, resemble one another in the accommodations and compromises they are obliged to make. --Nick Rennison --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"'One of India's finest living novelists.' Observer" --Observer#34
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Painted on a much smaller canvas than his earlier novels (Such a Long Journey; A Fine Balance; Tales from the Firozshah Baag), it is a wonderful as the others. It focuses on one family and revolves round the care of the 79 year old patriarch who is crippled and afflicted with progressive Parkinsonism. Though there are some mean-spirited characters in the novel, the affection of others is very touching. The love of the nine year old boy for his grandfather is especially heart-warming. Mistry has the gift of bringing sheer unforced goodness to life like no other writer.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I adored this book about an Indian family, with a sad past, living in Bombay (Mumbai). Roxana's ageing father, Nariman, comes to live with the family in their tiny flat. He has Parkinsons, has broken his leg and is unable to move and requires full caring which Roxana is happy to provide. However, her husband Yezad resents his presence in the flat. He also has money worries which later lead him to folly.
The book deals with the caste system, as well as getting old in a really touching way. There is a wonderful passage which moved me to tears when Yezad sets aside his mixed feelings of resentment and respect, and cuts Narimans fingernails, toenails and shaves him. How very true when Yezad is pondering sickness in old age "....But in the end all human beings became candidates for compassion, all of us, without exeption..... and if we could recognise this from the start what a saving in pain and grief and misery."
I cannot recommend this book highly enough, it is written really tenderly but there is also humour and you cannot help but feel anguish for the characters, who, with Mistry's beautiful writing, are real and touchable.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book gives insight into life in Bombay for a struggling young family - and the privations and problems of being old in that society too. There is warmth and a kind of innocence in the way the stories unfold, giving a skilfully woven picture of a whole layer of society - its tragedies and comedies, its sadness and joy.
It's a very long book in which much happens to not very much effect, and there is a certain schoolbook simplicity in the way people are portrayed that made me rather impatient to get to the end. This book is not a patch on his later novel A Fine Balance. For true Mistry magic, read that one.
It's a very long book in which much happens to not very much effect, and there is a certain schoolbook simplicity in the way people are portrayed that made me rather impatient to get to the end. This book is not a patch on his later novel A Fine Balance. For true Mistry magic, read that one.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
'a novel in which the characters are so well drawn that you feel...
An outstanding novel set in a Zoroastrian family in Bombay. When elderly Nariman, suffering from Parkinson's disease and a broken ankle becomes too much to cope with, his... Read more
Published 1 month ago by sally tarbox
Fine Literature
How RM manages to turn a plot that could be almost be written on the back of the proverbial postage stamp into a full length novel, and maintain interest and the urge to turn to... Read more
Published 8 months ago by pantodame
Good but not as good as A Fine Balance
I read A Fine Balance a while ago, Family Matters was certainly another great book, but quite up to the same level as Mistry's other book. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Manda Moo
Longish, but a masterpiece of the genre
Mistry's previous novel, 'A very fine balance', was a great insight into the lives of people living in Mumbai (Bombay). Read more
Published 11 months ago by ijhodgson
Superb read - as good as his others
Having read 'A Fine Balance' by Rohinton Mistry I bought this book with as high expectations and I was not disappointed. Read more
Published 21 months ago by ASax
Beautful, Mournful and Truthful
This wonderfully well written book is about an elderly Parsi gentleman, Nariman, and his family, who all live in Bombay. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Jennifer Malsingh
I still think about them all
I recently read this book, and have read about half a dozen other books since I finished it, and I can still remember all the characters and their names. Read more
Published on 27 Feb 2010 by Siblah
Endearing
As other reviewers have stated the characters in this story appear very real and you can find yourself really concerned with what happens to them. Read more
Published on 14 Nov 2009 by Josie-Jo
Marvellous
A superb novel exploring old age, displacement, family relationships, and inter-faith marriage in wonderful detail. Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2009 by hiljean
Very moving
Rohinton Mistry is an extremely talented writer. He writes with compassion and humour, and deftly creates characters that are so rounded, human, and compelling you almost can't... Read more
Published on 25 July 2009 by H. Streeter
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