The loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, by Kiran Desai

 

This was my local book club's September pick, giving us the summer to read this exceedingly long novel, at 670 pages. I found it hard to get into this book, partly because the character of Sonia becomes involved with an older man early on in the book. An artist, Ilan is possessive, controlling, and as it becomes increasingly clear, a complete whack job. I found it difficult to read about Sonia's continuing debasement of herself in this relationship. Sunny is involved in a complicated relationship with a white woman from a conservative family in the Midwest. This book is about not just Sonia and Sunny, both of whom hail from India, but their parents and other relations. So I found myself much more drawn to the character of Sonia's mother who has decided to leave her abusive and overbearing husband and retreat to her own family's estate in the mountains. When Sonia finally leaves her older boyfriend and flies home for comfort from her family, she spends most of her time with her ailing father. Sunny and Sonia finally meet and begin an on-again, off-again relationship. Interspersed throughout the book are the stories of Sunny's mother and her family members who are part of the criminal underworld. The book alternates between all of these perspectives, showing how Sonia and Sunny ultimately find their way back to each other, Sunny's mother comes to terms with her financial and family circumstances, and Sonia's father dies from cancer. While the writing is very good, most of the people in this book are not very likable, making it hard to empathize. The character in whom I was most interested was Sonia's mother, but after she leaves her husband, she barely shows up in the book at all. The writing is very good, and the ending is somewhat satisfying, but it took a lot of meandering to get there.