Rohinton Mistry’s first book A Fine Balance left me with
strong feelings. I want to say it made me somber. But the literary excellence
of the book drew me to the second book by Mistry. A friend of mine told me over
chat that Family Matters is not all that sad.
Family Matters does talk about ills of Indian society, much
like A Fine Balance, but it is not that condescending in nature, albeit
relatively. There is no main protagonist
in the book. In fact, that is that I really liked about the book. Mistry has made a struggling middle class family the protagonist.
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Nariman, whose wife has passed away, lives with his step
children Coomy and Jaal. Coomy is cunning, does not like to take care of his
step father. She believes Nariman is responsible for death of their mother. Jaal
is a confused soul. He is totally subservient to Coomy.
Nariman breaks his ankle and is advised complete bed rest.
Coomy’s sinister plan sees Nariman going to his daughter Roxana’s small one
bedroom flat for a temporary stay. Roxana lives with her husband Yezad and two
sons Muard and Jehangir. Coomy’s sinister plans reach their summit when
Nariman’s temporary stay at Roxana’s becomes permanent.
Here on story focuses on Roxana and Yezad’s struggles and
their endeavor to keep the things in order when nothing seems to be going
according to plans. Two terrible incidents happen and they turn everybody’s
life topsy-turvy.
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Mistry’s hallmark style, which focuses on narration using a
lot of dialogue is present here as well. He has used simple language, devoid of
any verbose jargon.
First part of the book focuses more on Nariman’s illness and
it delves on developing characters of Narmian, Coomy and Jaal. However,
Mistry’s use of Nariman’s earlier life in flashback to explain the complex
relationship between the above three is not convincing.
The flashback does not contribute anything to the main plot
of the novel. It confused the hell out of me as to what Mistry is trying to
convey from Nariman’s premarital affair. Only thing I could take from the whole
affair was Nariman’s cowardice in sacrificing his love for his father’s choice
for him. I guess, Mistry’s penchant for showcasing every prevalent ill in
Indian society compelled him to include this track to show how feudal Indian
society was.
Once Nariman enters Roxana and Yezad’s household, Mistry’s
focus shifts to a middle class family’s struggle in cruel Mumbai. In A Fine
Balance Mistry delved heavily on 1970s Emergency and political actions
affecting a common man. Here Mistry has left no stone untouched in expressing
his dislike for militant politics of Shiv Sena. In fact, communal riots result
in a major turn of events that impacts the story.
Roxana’s valiant attempts to keep the things going with
shoestring budget, Yezad’s frustration with not being able to make more money
to support the family, couple’s compromised privacy due to presence of an
unwanted permanent guest, problems at Yezad’s workplace and add to that
political tension – all this leaves you with a lot of pity for the family.
The climax of the book is rather dramatic. Quite unlike
Mistry’s style. It is not all that convincing either. It seems like Mistry ran
out of ideas to come to the climax he had visualized so he cooked up an
over-the-top incident. I don’t want to divulge the details, yet I must say it
made me feel for a minute as to why Mistry spent more than 300 pages to come to
this culmination.
Despite all the above negatives, the main plus point is
Mistry’s lucid story telling style. It never leaves to bored. I think the
reason why I have been so harsh on Mistry is because I had very high
expectations after reading A Fine Balance.
On the whole, I think it is worth a read for once. It sure
is better than some of the crap one sees nowadays.
