Book review: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

The Booker-25 shortlisted THE LONELINESS OF SONIA AND SUNNY by Kiran Desai,  Penguin/Hamish Hamilton Books, is a veritable tome (almost 700 pages) dedicated almost single- mindedly to loneliness and its eviscerating effects, how to survive it, stay afloat, not go under… or get across if one does go under.

Written in a melancholy manner, the tale tells of the immense desolation embedded in bad marriages, being the loved child of failed marriages, exploitative relationships, bitter bickering over property (yes, loneliness lurks in the hallways of houses where the occupants are warring over land and money), insignificant romances,  the immigrant experience, specifically the Indian immigrant experience in the Land hitherto of Plenty , now seemingly the Land  of Plenty of Rancour.

A sly but real humour informs the narrative which occasionally dips its toes in the waters of magic realism; some sentences turn beautifully; the beauty of the story lies in the ugliness it depicts.

A long meditation

On the one hand, it`s quite self-indulgent, even bloated, the way the author meanders all over a massive field while taking the ball to the goalpost. Some of the conversations the characters have seem but a distillation of the author`s thoughts…on loneliness, of course.

On the other, the characterisation is simply brilliant, with the reader forming decided pictures of vulnerable, sometimes skittish Sonia, a preternaturally befogged Sunny,  Sonia`s distant half-German mother, her Svengali-like European boyfriend/tormentor, her bluff and hearty, battling his own demons (yes, solitude lurks here, too) father, Sunny`s mother Babita Bhatia, Babita`s young `servants` Vini-Puni, his uncles Ravi-Rana, his friend Satya, and all  the others who spin in Sonia and Sunny`s slow, inexorable orbit.

Now let`s wait and see if Kiran Desai wins the prize, to be announced next Monday.

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