Synopses & Reviews
Dark, raw, and very funny, Problems introduces us to Maya, a
young woman with a smart mouth, time to kill, and a heroin hobby that
isn’t much fun anymore. Maya’s been able to get by in New York on her
wits and a dead-end bookstore job for years, but when her husband leaves
her and her favorite professor ends their affair, her barely-calibrated
life descends into chaos, and she has to make some choices. Maya’s
struggle to be alone, to be a woman, and to be thoughtful and imperfect
and alive in a world that doesn’t really care what happens to her is
rendered with dead-eyed clarity and unnerving charm. This book takes
every tired trope about addiction and recovery, “likeable” characters,
and redemption narratives, and blows them to pieces.
Review
“Sharma’s debut novel is an uncompromising and unforgettable depiction
of the corrosive loop of addiction. . . . there is a propulsive energy
in Maya’s story, guided by her askew yet precise perspective . . . in
Maya’s voice, Sharma has crafted a momentous force that never flags and
feels painfully honest.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
“The novel is written so well that the relentless and destructive rhythm
of heroin abuse seems calming, metaphysical, and occasionally even
funny. Sharma’s descriptions are vivid and sage . . . lulling readers
into a similarly opiate state to which they will readily succumb and
from which, like the protagonist, it will take some time to recover. An
absorbing novel carried by a seemingly hopeless protagonist you will
want to befriend and save.” Kirkus
Review
“The problem with Jade Sharma’s novel, Problems, is that it
ends. The narrator, Maya, is a hot mess with zero percent of her shit
together, and yet as I got to know her through the Sharma’s inventive
narrative voice, I saw her as—or perhaps wanted her to be—my friend.” The Rumpus