The objective of Writer's Book Review is to analyse a book from a writer's perspective to identify good writing techniques and possibly learn a few tricks of the trade.
'Family Life' by Akhil Sharma is quite an unconventional book when it comes to the traditional rules of plot development. The visible absence of a plot asks for expertise to make it a page-turner, which it is, undoubtedly. 'Family Life,' a story of an Indian immigrant family in America dealing with an unfortunate accident that leaves one of their two sons brain-damaged and invalid for life. The narrator, the younger son Ajay lives through trials he family undergoes and the author expertly captures the unassuming, yet poignant narrative of a child who would have happily settled for a normal life.
Usage of fewer dialogues helps in getting the reader pause and soak in the complexity of the situation the narrator finds himself in. The mother's dialogues are often complex sentences with more than two subordinate clauses, typically showing her as someone trying to think in her mother tongue and translating it to English. Later on in the book, you get to see the father do that too. It's interesting to observe the length of the dialogues between the second-generation immigrant (son) and the first-generation immigrants (parents).
The seemingly simple vocabulary, craftily used is another feather in the cap in 'Family Life'. It helps in increasing the pace of the novel since the plot has less scope to do it.
It was first published in the United States in 2014 by W.W.Norton & Co, Inc. Faber and Faber Limited published its UK edition in the same year. A good read for the weekend but be prepared to be soaked up into its complexities for the rest of the weeks to come. 'Family Life' by Akhil Sharma is a technically sound book.
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