Gish Jen: Bad bad girl, 9781803513249, hardback, Granta Books,

Gish Jen's "Bad bad Girl" is definitly on my shelf of best books of the year!

Part memoir, part fictive,  she describes her troubled, almost abusive relationship with her mother  Loo Shu-hsin who came from a wealthy Shanghai banking family to study in the US for a PhD which was exceptional for women in the 1930-40. Instead, short of her degree, she marries a promising Chinese engineering student Chao-Pei, becomes a nationalized American and has five children, whom she all treats differently. Physical beatings are part of Chinese upbringing according to her parents  but her mother has it in for Gish who is smart, talks back and only gets criticism from her mother. "Bad, bad girl, you don't know how to talk" is her mothers standard phrase.  This remains the basis for their relationship until her mothers death during Covid, no matter how successful Gish becomes as an author or a loving mother of two children herself. 

It is a brilliant memoir, particularly since Gish chose a fictive conversation with her dead mother when looking back at her and her family's life going back to China up until her mother's death. My heart went out to her when she never gives up seeking approval or love from her mother only receiving glimps of it. Gish's life story will stay with me for a while, her honesty was heartwrenching to read when she recounts her troubled mother-daughter relationship. 5 stars from me. 

 Kiran Desai: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, Hamish Hamilton, 9780241770848, C format

Rarely do I feel the way I did when I finished Kiran Desai's masterpiece " The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny". It left me stunned, I felt this way the last time when I read "Love in the time of Cholera" by Marquez and in my view she is the Indian equivalent. 

 My book of the year without a doubt, such beautifully crafted sentences and an absolutely magnificant story . 688 pages  took me away into a world of magic, Indian family madness, each a cosmos of their own, overbearing mothers and fathers, with Sonia and Sunny trying to fork out a life of their own,  both sharing the experience of feeling alien in the USA and India, their love for each other doomed or suffocated by family expectations or their secret past relationships.  Mystical experiences give the narration a surreal, magical edge. I could go on and on singing praises for this absolutely gem of a novel but buy a copy and find out for yourself.  

I hope Kiran Desai wins the Booker prize on Monday. She has my vote, 5 stars plus!