Title: Burnt Sugar
Author: Avni Doshi
Rating: 4 stars / 5 stars
Favorite Quote: “I asked him not to idealize the polite veneer of his childhood because everyone knows what Americans are really capable of.” Doshi, Avni. Burnt Sugar. The Overlook Press, 2021, p. 90.
Review: Burnt Sugar is a novel that follows narrator Antara as she grapples both with her aging mother in the present, who is exhibiting concerning memory issues, as well as her past with her mother that shows exactly where the schisms in their relationship began.
I read this book for two reasons: first, because I was trying to read the Women’s Prize longlist this year, and second, because I recommended it to my book club and was therefore in charge of leading our discussion. It’s a short book, and a compulsive read. But it is by no means an easy read. Novelizations about complicated mother-daughter relationships are often favorites of mine, but are also often ripe for projection.
I really liked this book, though it doesn’t strike me as one that I can necessarily say I enjoyed. Doshi is clearly a talented writer, and manages to weave a narrative that, even at its ending, with a shift towards the surreal, seems to flow naturally instead of being jarring, which would have been an easy narrative hole for a lesser writer to fall in to.
One aspect of this narrative that Doshi captures particularly well is the balance between Antara’s resentment towards her mother and her need to care for her. Even as most of the narrative centers on how Antara felt neglected when she was younger and how she is terrified to the point of being angry at the thought of having to provide care for her mother now, she is still the one to take her mother to doctor appointments and advocating for her mother in the face of a doctor who seems willing to disregard Antara’s concerns. This really does seem to capture a balance that is struck between many adult children and their ailing parents.
The ending, that I mentioned briefly above, is another strong point of the novel. Most of the novel, while certainly hard to read (from a content perspective), is very much rooted in a realistic timeline and a series of events that, though fiction, could absolutely happen. The ending, though, takes a turn for the surreal as Antara [SPOILER HERE] ultimately makes a break from the life she is living. As she’s making her way through the streets, the world no longer seems to exist in the same way it has throughout the rest of the novel - or at the very least, Antara’s perception of the world has changed.
This ending stuck with me long after I read the book, and stands out, to this day, as one of the more powerful scenes in a novel filled with scenes that seem noteworthy.
About that Quote: So, this quote doesn’t really have much to do with the storyline as a whole. But I remember reading it and (as an American) pausing when I did because of how true that one, simple, sentence was. I often find myself thinking about how the atrocities committed (both historically and currently) by this country and in the name of this country’s “superiority” are perceived in other countries, and this quote really hints at that. “[W]hat Americans are really capable of” doesn’t need to be explained. It doesn’t need context. This quote speaks to Doshi’s ability to write in a fairly minimalist style while still evoking in readers the specific message she intends to convey.
Have you read Burnt Sugar? Share your thoughts below!
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