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Original Essays | November 5, 2009

John Buntin: IMG Notes from the (Bibliographic) Underground

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For more than 60 years, Los Angeles's origins, its underbelly, and (yes) its blondes have fueled the imagination of writers and directors from... Continue »
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Bitter Sweets

by Roopa Farooki

Bitter Sweets Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

With this spellbinding first novel about the destructive lies three immigrant generations of a Pakistani/Bangladeshi family tell each other, Roopa Farooki adds a fresh new voice to the company of Zadie Smith, Jhumpa Lahiri and Arudhati Roy.Henna Rub is a precocious teenager whose wheeler-dealer father never misses a business opportunity and whose sumptuous Calcutta marriage to wealthy romantic Ricky-Rashid Karim is achieved by an audacious network of lies. Ricky will learn the truth about his seductive bride, but the way is already paved for a future of double lives and deception--family traits that will filter naturally through the generations, forming an instinctive and unspoken tradition. Even as a child, their daughter Shona, herself conceived on a lie and born in a liar's house, finds telling fibs as easy as ABC. But years later, living above a sweatshop in South London's Tooting Bec, it is Shona who is forced to discover unspeakable truths about her loved ones and come to terms with what superficially holds her family together--and also keeps them apart--across geographical, emotional and cultural distance. Roopa Farooki has crafted an intelligent, engrossing and emotionally powerful Indian family saga that will stay with you long after you've read the last page.
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About the Author

ROOPA FAROOKI was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and brought up in London.  She graduated from New College, Oxford in 1995 and worked in advertising before writing fiction full time. Roopa now lives in North London and South West France with her husband and son.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
B&b ex libris, March 3, 2009 (view all comments by B&b ex libris)
A tale of a family who's only facts are interwoven with deceit and false pretensions. Starting out with the lies told in order to become an actress, the grandmother in this story filles her lips with words that are not true in order to capture he ticket out of the country. Once this one ancestor allows lies to be such a central aspect of her life, she not only impacts her own life, but the life of her deceived husband and passes it on in different forms to the generations that follow. A history of falseness is all that the future generations have to live up to. Love, loss, change and growth are themes of Roopa Farooki's Bitter Sweets novel. A family's story through three generations of learned deception and what it takes to break free from the expectation to cover-up and pretend-- to lie.

No matter how much lying the characters are doing to eachother, the truth stood stronger and spoke louder than any lie. This was a great interesting, fun read and was so good. I have read some reviews that said it was superficial, I don't agree. I felt the author did an excellent work with her characters, settings and working in beautiful and timeless themes. This is the story of an Indian family, that is split between two nations but could be the story of so many as the daily lives they lead are very easy to relate to. I did enjoy this book throughly.

Roopa Farooki brings up questions of love, true love and arraigned marriages, however in this book truth is the strongest theme. Where would your family be without truth? She brings up and interesting concept, that truth can sometimes be told at the expense of hurting our loved one only to selfishly clear our own conscience. I loved reading Bitter Sweets, it was interesting to see how things took place.

What do you think? Is it truth at all costs or does it depend? It seems to me that truth may hurt for an instant, but mending is on its way....while lies form a web of guilt and pain that smothers love.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780312382063
Author:
Farooki, Roopa
Publisher:
St. Martin's Griffin
Subject:
Family saga
Subject:
Historical - General
Subject:
Sagas
Subject:
Family
Subject:
Deception
Subject:
Domestic fiction
Edition Description:
Trade Paper
Publication Date:
September 2008
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
355
Dimensions:
8.38x5.34x1.01 in. .79 lbs.
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