![]() Letting the reader in on Em’s past was a brilliant touch, because the Em we get to see in the present is depressed, suicidal, manic, witty in a caustic, corrosive way, mean, and just plain nasty. Narrated through the eyes of the son who remains unnamed, this account comprises, not just of his own memories and experiences with Imelda aka Em but we also get glimpses of Em and Augustine – The Big Hoom’s life before they were married and before she was afflicted by her illness (which is not pinpointed but rather hinted at to be a cocktail of post-partum depression/manic depression/Bipolar disorder and/or schizophrenia). If I had to describe this book in the barest sense, I’d say this is an account of the life of a family where the lady of the household is severely mentally ill, presented through lush writing, which is a delight to read but then I wouldn’t be doing justice to the book by saying just that because Em and the Big Hoom was so much more. Between Em, the beedi – smoking, hyperactive mother, driven frequently to hospital by her mania and failed suicide attempts, and The Big Hoom, the rock-solid, dependable father, trying to hold things together as best he can, they are an extraordinary family.įilled with endearing and eccentric characters, and marked by sparkling dialogue and restrained emotion, this is one of the most powerful and moving novels to be published in India in a long time. ![]() ![]() Set in Bombay during the last decades of the twentieth century, Em and The Big Hoom tells the compelling story of the Mendeses mother, father, daughter and son. ![]()
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