The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing - Mira Jacob

photo courtesy:goodreads.com

An unusual title for a story about loss.

It was the title that hooked me in. I do not remember a more offbeat title that I have read in recent times. Sometime back, I was travelling to the US and got the chance to read it while visiting the country. Two reasons why I have been wanting to read this for a while - firstly because of the title and secondly because of its author.

The book promised to be a diasporic read (one of my favourite genres) and the timing felt right. It is a tome of a book and despite friendly warning by a fellow reader "not to keep my expectations high" and that it was "still a good read".

Gist:

A malayalee family settled in the US visits family in Kerala for holidays in the 70s. There is a matriach mother who wants to bring her prodigal son back home. A son who resents the trappings of a tight knit family and a child who sees everything through her own childlike vision.

Years later, when the son, now a famous surgeon is seen as behaving erratically, the daughter Amina Eapen is called back home. She has to piece together events in the past and present as she delves into family secrets and tries to find direction in her own life in the process.

What works:

• The prose. It is beautifully written though a bit of sharp editing would have helped a bit.

• The characters. It was reminicent of God of small things, mainly because of the Syrian family connection. However the story is completely different and very diasporic in nature.

• The story moves well back and forth in time. I loved the incident in India and the growing up years of Amina and her brother more than the present timeline. For me, that held a better connection than Amina's current situation.

What doesn't:

• There are times when the plot loses the reader especially pertaining to Amina's life. The author takes for granted that the reader will be familiar with Amina's line of work or setting. That is not the case.

• The writing sounds a bit alien at times, failing to build the connection with the reader.

• The story with its weighty paragraphs can be very heavy, affecting the reader's interest levels.

It is a good one off read but then like the fellow reader also suggested, go in expecting much else and you may be disappointed.