The book follows the fortunes of Aleisha, a teenager reluctantly working at a library and living with her brother Aidan and their agoraphobic and depressed mother Leilah, and Mukesh Patel, a retired man, recently widowed, newly living alone, about whom his three daughters are concerned. The narrative hops from one of these to another, sometimes including other, minor characters, each PoV designated at the top of the chapter (There's also a small amount of time-hopping, just to keep the reader on their toes). Each of the characters is reading the books on a reading list which mysteriously crops up, a list of books intended to help people cope with life.
I really appreciated the fact that this book is written about ordinary working class people with everyday problems. So many books nowadays are either fantastic (speculative fiction, both fantasy and sci fi) or crime-based or revolve around middle-class characters; protagonists never seem to have to worry about earning a living or cleaning the house or going to the shops. Okay, Mukesh is retired and Aleisha's job doesn't chain her body and soul as my employments always have done, but at least it's a start.
However, I thought the motif of the reading list was over-contrived. There seemed to be moments when the book chosen was entirely apposite, and really shaped the story, and other times when the connections seemed only tangential. I found this made the plot feel artificial and formulaic. I wasn't invested properly in the story until at least half-way through.
Even the theme (that reading fiction helps you with the challenges in your life) seemed to be contrived so that people who like reading books would feel affirmed and therefore more positive about the book.
Although the two principal protagonists are three-dimensional, most of the other characters seemed rather flat. They were bit parts, who had their lines. Even Aidan, with all the enigmatic foreshadowing, seemed empty and unreal. This meant the question of why he did what he did, a crucial question for the last quarter of the book, was scarcely explored.
Nevertheless, I cried several times after the very significant twist at the 75% mark and I have to honour a book that can pack an emotional punch like that.
Some of the bits with Mukesh are really quite funny.
Strangely, one of the books that the author acknowledges as her own personal reading list, The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter, is the one I am about to start reading. (I've now read it. It's very different but I much preferred it.)
Selected quotes:
- "no one’s trying to be someone they’re not in a library." (Ch 2)
- "But from Mukesh’s own experience, he knew that a warning, no matter how stark, was never a comfort; it was only the slow drip of fear through all the good and all the bad times." (Ch 3)
- "He wished more than anything that – rather than suffering creaking joints and ailing eyesight – he’d started losing his hearing first. In his family, where each of his daughters liked to talk a thousand decibels louder than the average human, that would have been particularly useful." (Ch 5)
- "this book wasn’t just for him, it was for everyone. All these people who had taken it out before him, people who would take it out after him. They might have read it on a beach, on the train, on the bus, in the park, in their living room. On the toilet? He hoped not!" (Ch 9)
- "Mukesh nodded meaning ‘absolutely not’." (Ch 12)
- "Her fingers clutched the palm of her right hand, the thumb pushing in as hard as it could. She was checking if she still had the ability to feel, to understand the world around her. Hoping, praying, that this was just a dream." (Ch 32)
- "‘Hey, I’m Harishbhai’s son,’ Harishbhai’s son said. ... ‘Harishbhai’s son,’ Mukesh said, wondering if the boy had a name, but appreciating Harishbhai’s clear and strong sense of branding." (Ch 37)
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