This novel I picked up solely because of its gaunt title - baring it’s teeth out at me from a bright background cover.I was sorely dissapointed not have seen a review for it on mouthshut. Hope that this one brings in a new fold of fans for my recent discovery of a lady called Zadie Smith.
Frankly, when I began, it sounded almost like yet another ’’Ground beneath her feet’’ (aka. Rushdie)....the book begins with the Peculiar second marriage of Archie Jones to a toothless Jamaican wonder - Clara.
There is also the mention of Clara’s mother being born during an earthquake.Just when you start feeling Rushdie creeping up your back, Zadie thankfully regains control and takes you headfirst into a heady cocktail of characters and their merrily quagmired lives with no pretensions of the fatwaed author.
The book is replete with sensitively drawn out characterisations of the Jones’ and Iqbal families (the asian immigrant bit). There are the Iqbal twins- Millat and Magid-one who becomes more Brit than a tonne of them staying with a Cleric in Bangladesh whilst the other has jehadi ambitions staying put in London!Irie, the Jones’ daughter, who sleeps with both the twins within the space of an hour and has no way of finding out who the father is!
The Chalfens - a painfully uptight Brit family who takes it upon themselves to be saviours to the poor immigrant children while ignoring what’s in the dark closets in their own home.
There are more and more angles, interminglings, juxtapositions happening in this book which make it so immensely readable.Frankly it is not so much the climax as much as the entire length of the story that you enjoy.
There is so much of sheer reading pleasure in it, that writing a review with a synopsis of the story could only be tragic.
So instead, I would just go ahead and recommend you to read it for the sheer joy of enjoying a story told well. Smith is an observant and intelligent author who outwits and surprises you throughout. But you need to forgive her on some bits - she has a almost non-digestable take on our very own Mangal Pande- who keeps popping up every now and then as an important bone of contention for Samad Iqbal - another key guy in the story.
Overall - the book is extremely well written - a must read for all modern literature lovers.Wonder how many I did convince? Let me know.