I started and finished A Sense of Direction in one evening; I couldn't really stop thinking about it, so I couldn't put it down. I found it...
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Rakesh Ahuja, a Government Minister in New Delhi, is beset by problems: thirteen children and another on the way; a wife who mourns the loss of her favorite TV star; and a teenaged son with some really strong opinions about family planning.
To make matters worse, looming over this comical farrago are secrets—both personal and political—that threaten to push the Ahuja household into disastrous turmoil. Following father and son as they blunder their way across the troubled landscape of New Delhi, Karan Mahajan brilliantly captures the frenetic pace of India's capital city to create a searing portrait of modern family life.
Review:
"The patriarch of a chaotic family living in a hectic land must come to terms with himself and what he's wrought at home and at work in this excellent debut. Rakesh Ahuja battles the twin bedlams of his sprawling family and overcrowded home city of New Delhi while simultaneously trying to save his career as the minister of urban development. Rakesh attempts to manipulate and cajole his way through the corrupt and sometimes illogical Indian civil service, often finding himself embroiled in absurd intrigues. Home is no less fraught, where his 13 children battle each other for their often-absent father's love. The lone exception is Arjun, the eldest, whose adolescent rebellion and nascent romantic inclinations prompt him to form a rock band and pull away from his frenetic family. As Rakesh clumsily reaches out to his first-born son, the twists of fate that shaped both their lives are revealed, providing a portrait of a family that is both comical and heartbreaking. Mahajan's effortless blending of comedy and tragedy is irresistible and should help his book stand out." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
Two bittersweet comedies from first-generation Americans speak the universal language of sexual anxiety that young men everywhere understand. One is by Karan Mahajan, who grew up in New Delhi. "Family Planning," his sprightly first novel, portrays India's capital — 10 million strong — in all its explosive fecundity. The city's sprawling tangle of highways and overpasses is the proud... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) work of Rakesh Ahuja, the minister of urban development, who's eager to "rid the city of traffic lights and reinvigorate traffic flow." He's equally productive at home, where he has 13 children and another one on the way. The story opens when Ahuja's oldest son, 16-year-old Arjun, catches his parents making love on the floor of the nursery while four babies are screaming away. He only saw them for "1.67 seconds," but the vision "completely shattered the part of him that'd been taught — mainly by America — that sex was the spontaneous transfer of fluids between very attractive, naked, blond people." He's left wondering: "How did Mama and Papa still have sex? How did their two lumpy bodies stack up, each one lost in the vast, flabby expanse of the other's skin? Was this sex or — swimming"? Witnessing that primal scene disrupts the entire family's equilibrium and drives the sometimes zany action over the next three days. Arjun confronts his father: "Why do you and Mama keep having babies?" The answer to that uncomfortable question sends Mr. Ahuja to the origins of his unhappy marriage and the cruel trick that brought him and his wife together in the throes of grief and desperation. Distraught by these painful memories and his son's disgust, Mr. Ahuja resigns from India's chaotic government for the 63rd time. But like any teenage boy, Arjun is eager to blot his parents' sex life out of his mind. He's far more interested in impressing a pretty girl on the school bus with tales of his rock band. But then he realizes he'll actually have to start one. He doesn't play an instrument. Mahajan's domestic and political comedy bounces along so lightly that the story's moments of despair strike oddly discordant notes: Mr. Ahuja's government antics, his wife's fractured English and their son's musical posing are all genuinely funny, but at times intimations of their loneliness and frustration suck the mirth right out of these pages, and we're left contemplating something much more profound. This is a city and a family pursuing manic growth as a way of ignoring their diverse and mounting crises. Mahajan is only 24 years old, but he has already developed an irresistible voice with a rich sense of humor fueled by sorrow. Ron Charles is a senior editor of The Washington Post Book World. He can be reached at charlesr(at symbol)washpost.com. Reviewed by Ron Charles, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
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Review:
"A great comic romp and a hugely promising debut." Jay McInerney, The Daily Beast
Review:
"{A] spot-on satire of Indian family life, globalization, and intergenerational strife." Billy Heller, New York Post
"Publishers Weekly Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"The patriarch of a chaotic family living in a hectic land must come to terms with himself and what he's wrought at home and at work in this excellent debut. Rakesh Ahuja battles the twin bedlams of his sprawling family and overcrowded home city of New Delhi while simultaneously trying to save his career as the minister of urban development. Rakesh attempts to manipulate and cajole his way through the corrupt and sometimes illogical Indian civil service, often finding himself embroiled in absurd intrigues. Home is no less fraught, where his 13 children battle each other for their often-absent father's love. The lone exception is Arjun, the eldest, whose adolescent rebellion and nascent romantic inclinations prompt him to form a rock band and pull away from his frenetic family. As Rakesh clumsily reaches out to his first-born son, the twists of fate that shaped both their lives are revealed, providing a portrait of a family that is both comical and heartbreaking. Mahajan's effortless blending of comedy and tragedy is irresistible and should help his book stand out." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review"
by Jay McInerney, The Daily Beast,
"A great comic romp and a hugely promising debut."
"Review"
by Billy Heller, New York Post,
"{A] spot-on satire of Indian family life, globalization, and intergenerational strife."
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