Family Matters (Rohinton Mistry)

This is a close-up, unflinching portrait of a family in present-day Bombay struggling with many issues. The central character for most of the book is the family patriarch, living with his two adult stepchildren, who seem to be too bitter and focused on complaining about life to have ever married. He has Parkinson's and, on one of his daily walks, is injured, putting an intolerable burden of nursing and care on these two. Across town his biological daughter is living with her husband and two children in a two-room apartment, and his relationship with them is loving and tender. How will this family deal with the patriarch's escalating needs for care when money, space, and patience are stretched thin? Mistry paints unforgettable pictures of all the people, from the patriarch to the laborers hired to haul heavy things, and the epic city of Bombay itself. My personal preference is for stories with more likeable characters; as this story goes on, there are fewer and fewer of those to curl up with. The last section of the book, which I originally took for a small epilogue but spanned at least a chapter, seemed almost to come from a different story entirely - the main character had changed in ways that did not feel entirely justified. These are the only weaknesses in an otherwise fine novel.