Skip to main content

Book Review: A Murderous Family by Manish Dubey


Book: A Murderous Family

Author: Manish Dubey 

Pages: 61 

Read on: ARC kindly sent by Juggernaut

Read in: An hour 

Plot Summary: Things aren’t going well in Ranjana Agarwal’s household. Husband Kamal has sunk further into the cult of Isvari Mata, and refuses to warm up to Gurgaon, the new dog and the Cool Parents' Group from son Prateek’s new school.

Things I Liked:
  • I love reading about dysfunctional families and stories set in our current urban milieu. These are so relatable and I am sure each of us knows of a family like the Agarwals- where each person is unhappy but keeps trying their best to adjust with the demands of urban, showing-off-on-social-media type of life. So, I was quite excited when Juggernaut approached me to review this book. 
  • The Agarwals are your typical urban family. An upper-middle class couple with one son, who live with their in-laws. They are trying to provide the best opportunities for their only son, which includes uprooting him from a "bania school" in Delhi to a new fangled International school in Gurugram, even though the poor kid is so lonely and is almost-bullied in that school!
  • The gradual dissolution of this family unit is really well done in this book. Ranjana keeps pushing Kamal and Prateek to do things they don't want to do. She keeps trying to suck up to the pretentious parents in Prateek's school. She blames everyone else for her plight but takes no responsibility for her unhappiness and that of her husband and son. She is self-absorbed and obsessed with curating a certain image. I really enjoyed reading about this family falling apart. 
  • Ranjana is a typical over-involved, helicopter mom. She is also a really bitter and smug woman. Her husband is not good enough for her, his parents are not good enough, his sister is not up to her standards (whatever they are!). She is constantly trying to appease and befriend the, apparently, 'Cool Parents Group' in her son's school. She is kinda pathetic but relatable, I guess. She had imagined a certain kind of life for herself and whatever life she is leading is not good enough. 
  • Kamal, Ranjana's husband, feels lost and over-looked and trapped in his own house. He has to walk a dog he didn't want. He has to throw a lavish party for people he can't stand. He just doesn't understand why his wife is so deeply unhappy and why she constantly tries to get him to do things he doesn't want to do. Kamal is a deeply unhappy man and, again, a relatable character. 
  • Prateek, Ranjana's son, is the one I felt the worse for. He is over-weight, made fun of in his school, over-looked by teachers and has to live up to his mom's ever-increasing expectations. All of this gets to him and pushes him to do something terrible. 
Rating: 4/5 
This is a great little book, especially, if you enjoy reading about families and of families set in our current context. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Magic of the Lost Temple by Sudha Murthy.

Book: The Magic of the Lost Temple Author: Sudha Murthy Pages: 163 Read On: Paperback How Long it took Me To Read: 1 day Plot Summary:   City girl Nooni is surprised at the pace of life in her grandparents' village in Karnataka. But she quickly gets used to the gentle routine there and involves herself in a flurry of activities, including papad making, organizing picnics and learning to ride a cycle, with her new-found friends. Things get exciting when Nooni stumbles upon an ancient fabled stepwell right in the middle of a forest.Join the intrepid Nooni on an adventure of a lifetime in this much-awaited book by Sudha Murty that is heart-warming, charming and absolutely unputdownable. General Thoughts: Ah! A happy little Children's Book! I wanted it the minute I spotted it in the bookshop. And I started reading it pretty much immediately. :)  I read it after reading a beyond dull and boring and soulless book. This book just cured my bookish blues. I l

Book Review: The Room on the Roof by Ruskin Bond.

Some snippets of the stunning art inside the book!  Book: The Room on the Roof Author: Ruskin Bond Illustrator: Ahlawat Gunjan Pages: 171 Read On: Hardback How Long It Took Me To Read: 3 days or so. Plot Summary:   Rusty, a sixteen-year-old Anglo-Indian boy, is orphaned and has to live with his English guardian in the claustrophobic European part in Dehra Dun. Unhappy with the strict ways of his guardian, Rusty runs away from home to live with his Indian friends. Plunging for the first time into the dream-bright world of the bazaar, Hindu festivals and other aspects of Indian life, Rusty is enchanted … and is lost forever to the prim proprieties of the European community.  General Thoughts: This book is super special. Not only this 60th anniversary edition an absolute beauty. This is also a signed copy I picked up from Mussoorie when I was in Landour earlier in the year. This is perhaps one of Ruskin Bond's most well kn

Review: Grandma's Bag of Stories by Sudha Murthy.

Book: Grandma's Bag of Stories Author: Sudha Murthy Pages: 176 Read On: Paperback How Long It Took Me Read: 2 hours Plot Summary:   When Grandma opens her bag of stories, everyone gathers Around. Who can resist a good story, especially when it’s being told by Grandma? From her bag emerges tales of kings and cheats, monkeys and mice, bears and gods. Here comes the bear who ate some really bad dessert and got very angry; a lazy man who would not put out a fire till it reached his beard; a princess who got turned into an onion; a queen who discovered silk, and many more weird and wonderful people and animals. Grandma tells the stories over long summer days and nights, as seven children enjoy life in her little town. The stories entertain, educate and provide hours of enjoyment to them. So come, why don’t you too join in the fun? General Thoughts: I've read quite a few Sudha Murthy books this year and really enjoyed them. I find them soothing, simple a