Family Matters

By: Rohinton Mistry

Narrated by: Martin Jarvis

Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

From the author of the highly acclaimed A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry's eagerly anticipated novel is set in Bombay in the mid-1990s. Nariman, an ailing, elderly Parsi widower, lives with his middle-aged stepchildren and dreams of the past. When he breaks an ankle and can no longer partake of his one pleasure, a daily walk through the neighborhood, his bitter stepdaughter schemes to move him to her sister's home and relieve herself of the burden of caring for him.

The move is accomplished, but living in a new household with Roxana, her husband and two young boys sets into motion a series of events that lead to the unraveling of the family's secrets and surprising revelations from the past. Family Matters is a brilliantly evocative novel that confirms Mistry's reputation as one of the finest writers of our time.

©2002 Rohinton Mistry (P)2002 New Millennium Audio, All Rights Reserved

Critic reviews

"As close to perfect as a novel can get." (Booklist)

Disappointed

I'm sorry to say that I found this book just too tedious to finish. I listened for eight hours and then gave up. Fifteen years ago I read Mistry's first book and was most impressed. Later I read "A Fine Balance." As I recall, something about the reviews for this book made me shy away. It's hard to believe that anything read by the supremely talented Martin Jarvis would not enthrall, but his skilled reading was not enough. The family's little dramas are just that, little, repetitive, mundane, boring.

Not as Good as "A Fine Balance"

The only reason I originally gave this three rather than two stars was that:

1. it accurately describes the deplorable way we today deal with old age and sickness in MANY countries of the world, and

2. not all blame was heaped on the government. People are who they are and unfortunately we often fail in coping with sick and/or elderly in our own family.

The book was realistic. In its realism I found it terribly depressing.

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All I can say is that this book made me miserable. I cannot deal with stories about dysfunctional families. I get frustrated and unhappy. When you read stories about how people have a hard time because they get caught in a war or a storm or genocide, you watch them fight to survive and you feel a bit of hope for mankind. These characters are strong and have fought for survival and at least some have succeeded. When you watch how normal people are mean to each other you only get filled with despair. I don’t know what to do with my unhappiness when I read such books, books like this one by Robinton Mistry.

The events described were very realistic, it is not that I am criticizing. I am in fact not criticizing the book in any way. It is about the importance of family. I mean look at that title! You learn about life in Bombay in the 90s. Corruption – there it is in one word. Life is a struggle for so many. Poor health care and no social network for the aged. This book is about not only the importance of family, but also about aging and how the young and old have so much to teach each other, but the message is clear that we rarely have the energy to stop and learn from each other. We are too busy just getting through life day by day.

Did I learn anything? Well maybe a bit about Parsi traditions and culture.

This book makes me thankful for living in countries that provide good health care and a relatively good social standard for ALL.

Martin Jarvis’ narration of the audiobook was excellent. Really excellent. Each character had their own intonation and you knew who was speaking just by the tone.

Sadly, not as interesting as I was hoping!

What would have made Family Matters better?

I just found it very slow (which some people are completely happy with). For more than the first half of the book I was going to only give it one star, but the final part at least kept me interested enough to give it two.

What could Rohinton Mistry have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

It's a fine book, just not enough going on for me.

What aspect of Martin Jarvis’s performance would you have changed?

I was very happy with his performance.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It was well written and a nice story (dragged out for 16 hours).