bookchickdi: SJP/Hogarth

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Monday, February 11, 2019

Golden Child by Claire Adam

Golden Child by Claire Adams
Published by SJP/Hogarth ISBN 9780525572992
Hardcover, $26, 281 pages

Actress Sarah Jessica Parker's first book from her SJP Hogarth imprint at Penguin Random House is the brilliant debut novel by Fatima Farheen Mirza, A Place For Us (my review here). The second book from her imprint is also a debut novel, Golden Child, by Claire Adam, and it is another fantastic novel.

Set in Trinidad, we meet Clyde Deyalsingh, a hardworking man, and his wife Joy. They have twin thirteen year-old boys, Peter and Paul, and live in a modest home that they own in a rural area. The boys travel a long way daily to their Catholic school.

Peter is a brilliant young man, and his parents are very proud of him and hope to be able to send him to a good college. When the boys were born, the cord was wrapped around Paul's neck and it has resulted in him being considered mentally challenged by many.

Joy's brother Vishnu believes that Peter could do great things and encourages Clyde to support Peter, even giving him money to do so. Father Kavanagh from the boys' school does not believe that Paul is mentally challenged and is tutoring him.

One day Paul leaves home to go for a walk and doesn't come back. Did Paul wander off and get lost, did he run away, or has something nefarious happened to him, perhaps related to the recent incident when two men came into their home and robbed and tied up Joy, Peter and Paul?

Much of the book takes place as Clyde tries to discover what has happened to his son. Clyde has always been a strong husband and father, and has worked hard to make a good life for his family. As he pieces together what has happened to Paul, he is forced to confront an unimaginable choice, one that puts him at odds with his family.

Golden Child immerses the reader in the countryside of Trinidad. We meet the neighbors and family of the Deyalsinghs. The homes all have dogs and barred windows to protect them, and in the wealthier neighborhoods, (including where Joy's brother Philip, a judge, lives) security guards on site.
The reader senses the undercurrent of danger that surrounds them, where at any moment they may be accosted by someone looking for money.

There are some wonderful food passages here as well. Joy makes a simple dinner for Clyde of "melongene choka, with plenty of onion and garlic, the way he likes it, some cucumber salad, and some warm paratha roti wrapped up in dishcloth."

Clyde eats at the work canteen, "where they have all kinds of food: dhalpuri roti and buss-up-shut, chicken wings and drumsticks, pelau, corn-soup, callaloo." You'll definitely want to look all these dishes up online.

SJP has done it again with Claire Adams' Golden Child- found a debut novel with a brilliant distinctive voice, one that takes the reader into a culture they may not be familiar with, yet deals with universal theme of what it means to be part of a family, and the joy and heartbreak that can bring. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Claire Adams' tour. The rest of her stops are here:

Instagram Tour:

Monday, January 28th: @hotcocoareads

Tuesday, January 29th: @prose_and_palate

Tuesday, January 29th: @bookstackedblonde

Tuesday, January 29th: @dropandgivemenerdy

Wednesday, January 30th: @jennblogsbooks

Thursday, January 31st: @readingbetweenthe_wines

Thursday, January 31st: @bookishmadeleine

Friday, February 1st: @tbretc

Saturday, February 2nd: @eternalbooks_

Sunday, February 3rd: @bookclubwithbite

Review Tour:

Monday, January 28th: A Bookish Affair

Tuesday, January 29th: Rockin’ Book Reviews

Wednesday, January 30th: BookNAround

Thursday, January 31st: Amy’s Book-et List

Monday, February 4th: Run Wright

Tuesday, February 5th: @booksandpolkadots

Wednesday, February 6th: Book by Book

Thursday, February 7th: Palmer’s Page Turners

Monday, February 11th: Bookchickdi

Tuesday, February 12th: Books and Cats and Coffee

Wednesday, February 13th: Kahakai Kitchen

Thursday, February 14th: Lit and Life

Friday, February 15th: Thoughts from a Highly Caffeinated Mind

Monday, February 18th: Booktimistic and @booktimistic

Tuesday, February 19th: Eliot’s Eats

Wednesday, February 20th: @worldswithinpages

Thursday, February 21st: Wining Wife

Monday, February 25th: Patricia’s Wisdom

Monday, February 25th: @wherethereadergrows

Tuesday, February 26th: Tar Heel Reader and @tarheelreader

Wednesday, February 27th: @thesaggingbookshelf

Friday, March 1st: Thoughts on This ‘n That

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
Published by SJP for Hogarth ISBN 9781524763558
Hardcover, $27, 400 pages

For actress Sarah Jessica Parker's first book under her SJP imprint at Hogarth, she chose Fatima Farheen Mirza's stunning debut novel A Place For Us.

Set in California, the novel opens at the elaborate Indian wedding of Hadia, the eldest child of an American Muslim family. Her parents, Layla and Rafiq, and sister Huda are there to celebrate. The youngest child, her brother Amar, is also there, and it is the first time in three years that the family has seen Amar. There is tension, with everyone walking on eggshells around Amar. Layla begs her husband not to say anything that will upset Amar.

The book then moves back in time, and we see the family at different points in their life together. Layla had a special relationship with her son, an easy closeness that escaped Rafiq. Amar was a quiet boy who liked poetry, and he did not have many friends except for Abbas, an older boy who looked out for Amar.

Hadia was the typical eldest child, she worked hard to get good grades and eagerly tried to please her father. She also had a crush on Abbas, the most popular boy in school.

We see their family life through the eyes of each of the family members. Layla and Rafiq are devout Muslims, and pass their strong beliefs onto their children. They expected to arrange marriages for their daughters, and hoped to make good matches for all of their children.

Mirza writes so beautifully, I found it difficult to believe that she is just 27 years-old. She is able to capture the voices of not only the children at various life stages, but she renders the voices of Layla and Rafiq so vividly for such a young person.

Her language is so eloquent it took my breath away, and I had to re-read several sentences to fully appreciate them, like this:

"As she glided between guests and stopped to hug women she had not yet greeted, it occured to Layla that this was what she might have pictured her life to look like once, when her children were young and she knew who her family would contain but not what life would be like for them."

The theme of this brilliant book might best be expressed by something Hadia thinks- "How were they to know the moments that would define them?" A Place For Us is filled with the moments that come to define each of the family members, and the ones that lead to Amar's estrangement from his family.

The truly saddest part of the book comes in part four, which is narrated by Rafiq. Until this point, we don't really know exactly what he is thinking. He pours his heart out, and the scene where he goes to Amar at the wedding had me in tears.

Although the book moves back and forth in time, and even shifts within chapters, Mirza is such a skilled writer that the reader is never confused. She will be a powerful voice in literary fiction for years to come.

A Place For Us is a compelling story about faith, family, and fathers and sons. I was so moved by it, I didn't want it to end. When I finished it, I wanted to hug it to my chest and just sit quietly and comtemplate it. It is a beautifully rendered story about an American family, and one that I encourage everyone to read. It is the best book I have read this year, period.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Fatima Farheen Mirza's tour. The rest of her stops are here: