Desai’s clever humour, sharp observations and skillful writing made it a pleasure to read. (Reviewed by Margaret von Klemperer, courtesy of The Witness)
Kiran Desai’s novel The
Loneliness Of Sonia And Sunny was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and
although she was not this year’s eventual winner, Desai knows what it is like
to win one of literature’s most prestigious awards – she won in 2006 with The Inheritance of Loss. But it has been
almost 20 years since she published a novel – a long wait for her readers.
When I tackled The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny from my reviewing pile, I have to admit to being a little nervous. It is daunting to pick up a book of almost 700 pages, because, if it doesn’t hook you in, it is going to be a very long slog to the end. But I need not have worried. Desai’s clever humour, sharp observations and skillful writing made it a pleasure to read.
When the novel opens, both Sonia and Sunny are in America where they have gone to study – both have aspirations to be writers. Their families back home in India know each other slightly, and their grandparents cook up a plan to arrange a marriage for them – not something they have any interest in and that they find embarrassing. Both are soon in relationships with other people – in Sonia’s case with a considerably older artist who is controlling, abusive and ultimately destructive. Sunny meanwhile also has an American girlfriend, and here Desai deals cleverly – and very amusingly - with the clash of cultures. But the conundrums she raises are very real, and are central to the book.
Throughout the novel, both main characters and their wider families are coping with issues of belonging, exile and the inner alienation that comes from having two sides to your life that will never quite synchronise. For Sunny, working as a journalist in America, there is an added problem – how can he write as a brown person in a white world, and if he returns to India, has America not skewed his perceptions? Cultural appropriation is an issue South Africans are very aware of, but it is a universal problem.
Both Sonia and Sunny have wider families, often difficult, often embarrassing, but always very much there. And when the pair do finally get together, things are never going to run smoothly. The novel is a love story, but not a tale of star-crossed lovers who will eventually ride off happily into the sunset. Maybe they will, but they are going to have to face down their demons for ever.
And that raises another question, and one that I was not entirely comfortable with. Desai adds a component of magic realism to her writing, which, while it is interesting in itself, sits a little uneasily with the convincing reality and humour of the characters and situations she creates. But, taken as a whole, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is a great read. - Margaret von Klemperer
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is published by Hamish Hamilton: ISBN 978-0-241-77084-9
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