Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating Look into Parsi Bombay Society
Review:
This book provides a fascinating look into the lives of middle-class Parsis living in Bombay. It's also about old age, and about the difficulties a family has in taking care of an old man (Nariman) with a broken ankle suffering from Parkinson's. The book does not hold back on the details of Nariman's illness. It's also about religion in India and the narrow mindedness of certain sects. It's a difficult book, not for the squeamish, particularly at the beginning and in discussing the illness of Nariman.
I wouldn't call it a literary masterpiece, and I had issues with some of the random events towards the end of the book (I won't go into details for fear of spoilers). I felt it trailed off the final third of the book as the author tried to bring everything to a close and distanced himself from the writing. But you feel very close to the family by the end - it's very engaging and interesting to read. You also get to learn all about Zoroastrianism (which was all new to me), which is a fascinating religion.
Rating:
Summary: well-written but without much payoff
Review: "Family Matters" is a story about all that goes on behind the closed doors of a family home - lust and love, anger and betrayal, sickness and death. Set in Bombay, it centers on Nariman, a former professor grown old and sickly, and his progeny. His stepchildren Coomy and Jal, still bitter over 30-year-old wounds, refuse to care for him when he becomes bedridden. Instead, they send him to live with his daughter Roxana and her family in a two-room apartment. Roxana's husband, Yezad, must somehow provide for this newly enlarged family, and her children, Murad and Jehangir, must assimilate the lessons the new situation brings into their home.The Indian setting is integral to the book: the languages, the politics, the religion, and the lifestyle are all important elements of the story. Mistry does an admirable job of making the setting appear realistic without becoming obscure and intimidating. "Family Matters" has a number of different plots. Nariman, Jal, Coomy, Roxana, Yezad, Murad and Jehangir all undergo their own personal evolution, and the lives and stories of their friends, colleagues, and neighbors are interwoven with their own. The plots are interspersed in an admirably smooth fashion; however, the lack of a singular driving action makes the book less than compelling. After 430 pages of meandering, the book reaches an end. It's unclear, from a narrative standpoint, why the conclusion is necessary or inevitable; some elements of the book's closing appear to be out of place or even random, and others would be greatly enhanced by further development of aspects of the book's plot. This finale seems like a meager reward for so many pages of buildup; pleasant as the book is to read, it does not seem complete without a more significant denoument.
Rating:
Summary: well-written but without much payoff
Review: "Family Matters" is a story about all that goes on behind the closed doors of a family home - lust and love, anger and betrayal, sickness and death. Set in Bombay, it centers on Nariman, a former professor grown old and sickly, and his progeny. His stepchildren Coomy and Jal, still bitter over 30-year-old wounds, refuse to care for him when he becomes bedridden. Instead, they send him to live with his daughter Roxana and her family in a two-room apartment. Roxana's husband, Yezad, must somehow provide for this newly enlarged family, and her children, Murad and Jehangir, must assimilate the lessons the new situation brings into their home. The Indian setting is integral to the book: the languages, the politics, the religion, and the lifestyle are all important elements of the story. Mistry does an admirable job of making the setting appear realistic without becoming obscure and intimidating. "Family Matters" has a number of different plots. Nariman, Jal, Coomy, Roxana, Yezad, Murad and Jehangir all undergo their own personal evolution, and the lives and stories of their friends, colleagues, and neighbors are interwoven with their own. The plots are interspersed in an admirably smooth fashion; however, the lack of a singular driving action makes the book less than compelling. After 430 pages of meandering, the book reaches an end. It's unclear, from a narrative standpoint, why the conclusion is necessary or inevitable; some elements of the book's closing appear to be out of place or even random, and others would be greatly enhanced by further development of aspects of the book's plot. This finale seems like a meager reward for so many pages of buildup; pleasant as the book is to read, it does not seem complete without a more significant denoument.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, but not A Fine Balance
Review: A very enjoyable book, full of irony, humor, and social commentary. It offers a picture of middle class life in contemporary India, commentary on the state of religious and ethnic relations there, and the stories of several interesting and well drawn characters. Although it deals with mundane people in rather ordinary circumstances, there were several parts of the book that made my heart race. It's a testament to the author's skill that he can make ordinary moments extraordinary (and it's striking that none of the most overtly dramatic moments are told in the present tense or fleshed out very much). Nonetheless, in my view, the book falls short of Mistry's spectacular A Fine Balance. It just doesn't have that book's scope or impact.
Rating: 
Summary: A Winner!
Review: After reading Mistry's latest, there should be no doubt in any reader's mind why Mistry has been hailed as one of the most important writers of the 21st Century. Keeping the formula of his earlier works ("Such a Long Journey", "A Fine Balance"), Mistry takes a small group of people and forms their characters in the simplest ways: by dialogue, actions and re-actions. By doing so, he unravels a splendid story which everyone can relate to, in their own personal interpretation. Though the formula is repeated in each of his novels, it does not grow stale because of his masterful, emotional storytelling. A winning novel in every respect.
Rating:
Summary: "No matter where you go, there is only one important story."
Review: As Mistry makes clear in this novel, the "one important story [is] of youth, and loss, and yearning for redemption...Just the details are different." With these themes as the bedrock of his story, he depicts the world of a multigenerational Parsi family in Bombay, their world changed forever when Nariman Vakeel, a 79-year-old former professor and sufferer from Parkinson's disease, falls and breaks his leg, effectively ending any possibility of an independent life. His stepchildren, Coomy and Jal, quickly dump Nariman in the two-room apartment of their younger half-sister, Roxana Chenoy, her husband Yezad, and two sons, supposedly for only three weeks, while his leg heals. Beset with financial problems, lack of space, and resentment of Coomy and Jal, who remain in their father's 7-room apartment, the family does its best, but tensions rise and slowly erode their relationships, precipitating intense personal crises for each family member. Concentrating more on the world writ small than on the broader, more expansive views of A Fine Balance, Mistry creates a number of vibrant and fully drawn characters. Nariman Vakeel, recalling his dreams and disappointments, his 11-year love for Lucy Braganza, and his disastrous arranged marriage, is touching in his neediness and in his apologetic helplessness. His grandchildren delight in his stories and seek ways to help out; Roxana makes do in every way possible, tending to Nariman's most personal needs; and Yezad, frustrated by the lack of financial support from Coomy and Jal and a job in which he is underpaid, feels jealous of the old man's claims on Roxana. Mistry's dialogue, the subtle and not-so-subtle undercurrents it reflects, the often humorous interactions, the honest but naïve motivations of some of the characters, and the meticulously depicted and subtle decline of the family are the work of a master. The one jarring note for me was the use of Shiv Sena, a fanatic political/religious group, as a motif thoughout the novel, their threats, extortion, violence, and fundamentalist rhetoric intruding periodically (and often dramatically) on the lives of the characters. While this obviously broadens the scope of the novel and offers a context in which to evaluate Coomy's religiosity, the fears of small businessmen like Yezad and his boss, and Yezad's eventual conflicts with one of his sons, it felt contrived to me, too strong and too obvious in what is otherwise a novel of more subtle interactions.
Rating:
Summary: The burden of love
Review: Can love be sustained when the loved one is grossly imperfect? This question is explored on many levels in this absorbing and moving book.
When Nariman, a respected professor of dry wit and warm feelings is incapacitated, he is compelled to move into the tiny apartment of his younger daughter Roxana and her family for round-the-clock care. If you are unaware of what it may feel like to be at the mercy of another's compassion, or to be the caregiver of an invalid, you can get a good sense of the hard work and humiliation by reading Rohinton Mistry's warts-and-all details. But distasteful chores are not all that Nariman brings with him. The tragic consequences of a past love affair has embittered his elder daughter, complicating relationships. And along with Nariman's physical dependency has come financial dependency, putting enormous strains on Roxana's paycheck-to-paycheck existence.
The book's point-of-view eventually centers on two people most challenged by the situation--Roxana's loving but volatile husband, Yezad, and her sweet younger son, Jehangir.
Although he loves and admires his father-in-law, Yezad's responsibility as family breadwinner becomes a crushing burden. Resentment, anxiety, desperate scheming, and remorse all come into play. Novels too seldom embrace the subject of financial desperation--and how it turns into emotional strain--but great understanding is displayed here.
Nine-year-old Jehangir adores his grandfather and almost welcomes the challenges of forced intimacy. At first, the strain on his family is a painful mystery to him, but his growing awareness of the complexities of adulthood makes for a fine coming-of-age story.
Love of country parallels love of family in this book. Yezad's life in the workplace reveals much about modern-day India--full of corruption and horrific injustice but also compassion and diversity.
Like India, this book is full of life. Vices and virtues reside in equal measure everywhere you turn. Compassionate characters reveal shortsightedness, distasteful eccentrics reveal kindliness. There are many voices in this book, and Mistry writes dialogue well and abundantly, which makes the book a fast read!
With all this going for it, why only four stars? Characters were almost always rendered with great care and detail. When character developments, however plausible, seemed short on explanation, they stood out. Exactly how did the young Nariman come to cave into his parents' wishes after he had defied them well into adulthood? How did Yezad's transformation (revealed in the epilogue) occur? And at least one important plot element--an elaborate hoax--seemed unlikely to me.
Never-the-less, I am eager to read more of this author's work. In regard to FAMILY MATTERS, John Updike is quoted, "The reader is moved, even to tears." Some perfectly beautiful moments made this promise true.
Rating:
Summary: Hugely entertaining
Review: Family Matters establishes Rohinton Mistry as a skilled storyteller. It is hugely entertaining and inspirational at the same time. Like all his other books, Family Matters is based on a very simple premise; a family forced on the responsibility of caring for an aged parent. Mr. Mistry is able to so vividly bring alive his characters and the city of Bombay it is hard to believe that he has been based in Canada for some twenty-over years. His stories capture the very essence of India, its people and its culture. Yet, the themes are universal - sibling rivalry, parent-child relationships, challenges in the workplace, friendships, poverty, religion and politics. Every life has a story to tell, and Mr Mistry brings home that point so beautifully in his book. Seemingly everyday people we meet on the street each leads a life wrought full of emotions, rewards and challenges. It examines the way we each thrive, succumb and adapt to our environment. I disagree with the other reviewers that they found it ridiculous for the characters of Jal and Coomy to destroy the ceiling so that they will have an excuse to keep their father away. It is precisely these quirky little elements that seem so ridiculous that it is hard to believe that they are NOT true! It is perhaps that very factor which made Seinfeld one of the most successful sitcoms on TV in the 90's. The only slight flaw I found in this book was his description of Daisy, the neighbour when she was first introduced. It felt a little jarring to me and did not seem to 'flow' well with the story and the development of her character in the latter parts of the book. I believe that Mr. Mistry tries to make Daisy out to be a sensuous woman yet, unconscious of her sex appeal and also to have her be a possible love-interest for one of the other characters later in the book. But he didn't have to make her play the violin naked! In weaving his stories, Mr. Mistry uses prose that is so reflective of his characters - common vocabulary that will make this book an easy and entertaining read for even a non-avid reader. Yet, by doing so, Mr. Mistry shows that he needs none of the purple prose so prevalent in some literary works to illustrate the skill of a prolific writer. Bravo Mr. Mistry! I look forward to your next book.
Rating:
Summary: Unpretentious, profound and masterful
Review: Family Matters is a must read. I read this and later read Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Both are fine books no doubt and perhaps its not a good idea to even compare these books since they belong to different genres. But I must confess I was left wondering how the judges picked Martel over Mistry considering that there is such a strong human element in this book, an uplifting yet realistic theme and a deft handling of the delicate social and political issues that prevail in India - just the elements that characterise the typical Booker. Mistry is a master at letting characters develop simply by allowing them to converse on his pages. He lapses only rarely into the third person narrative style to comment about his characters and when he does, he does with tremendous effect. The portions about Yezad's prayers at the fire temple are so life like that months later, I still have a picture of it in my mind and can almost smell the incense. It will take someone who has lived a long time in India to appreciate the minute details that he records about Indian life - as I read it, I found my attention being drawn to several things that I have seen but never observed. Mistry makes you see just how much magic a great writer can weave out of the mundane details of everyday life. Mistry is in the same league as Salman Rushdie, no I will dare say he is better, since I can hide behind my monitor and avoid the glare from under all those raised eyebrows.
Rating:
Summary: It Has Flaws, but Somehow They Seem To Make It Better
Review: FAMILY MATTERS is absolutely one of the best books I've ever read. It's beautiful, it's old-fashioned (in the sense that it tells a real story), and it's Dickensian in scope and detail, even though it's set in modern day Bombay. And, it's flawed...but just a little and its flaws, somehow, make it an even better book, just as its characters' flaws make them better and more believable characters.
The family that matters or the family whose matters Mistry is going to probe, is a family of Parsis, headed by the aging former professor, Nariman Vakeel. Parkinson's disease troubles Nariman's physical life and the people he's lost trouble him emotionally.
On the eve of his 79th birthday, Nariman goes out for a stroll that will change his life and the lives of those around him. What happens during this stroll isn't life threatening in and of itself--Nariman falls and injures himself--but for an older man, whose health is as fragile as is Nariman's, not surprisingly, he really never heals and he becomes both bedridden and incontinent (and, to his family, a burden).
His stepchildren really aren't much help and they really aren't very nice people. Coomy is a schemer and her brother, Jal, will do what ever Coomy tells him to do. They (or Coomy, rather) decide that, being only stepchildren, Nariman shouldn't be their responsibility and they decide to send him away from their relatively large apartment, in "Chateau Felicity," (don't think the name means the apartment is luxurious, it is anything but) to their half-sister Roxana and her husband, Yezad Chenoy, even though Roxana and Yezad have two school aged sons and a much, much smaller apartment in "Pleasant Villa." Fairness doesn't enter into the equation when one is dealing with Coomy and Jal and, of course, Nariman's move to Roxana's and Yezad's is going to test the Chenoy family to its limits. Coomy, though, has a reason, whether justified or not, for her vendetta against Nariman. She's a devout Parsi and she has never gotten over her anger that her mother, Yasmin, was not Nariman's first choice for a wife (or even the woman he loved), a Catholic woman named Lucy, was. As a Parsi, though, Nariman was forbidden to marry Lucy with, he thinks, disastrous consequences.
I love books set in India but so many of them are poorly written or only "so-so." One of the premier authors of India is, of course, Salman Rushdie. So is Rohintin Mistry, but Mistry's India is certainly not the India of Rushdie, which isn't to say it's not as good. It is, most definitely. It's just very, very different. While Rushdie employs magical realism (and magic) and takes us to the more exotic places of India, Mistry centers his books on home and family and wisely leaves "special effects" to others (home and family are definitely Mistry's strong points). Although, in places, Mistry seems to write with love for Bombay (as defined by the character of Mr. Kapur), the overall effect is one of a city seething with corruption...a place where one would definitely not want to be.
Although Nariman is the character who sets the plot of FAMILY MATTERS in motion, he is not allowed to remain on center stage. His family, and especially Yezad, occupy that coveted spot as they scheme and fight and squabble. All of the characters, the likable as well as the not-so-likable, are so wonderfully and beautifully and believably drawn, but all are a bit stereotypical, in the long run, even the ones that play only a peripheral role, such as Auntie Daisy and Auntie Villie.
There is also a wonderful mix of the old and the new Bombay in FAMILY MATTERS. Yezad and Mr. Punjab Kapur, both wonderful characters, typify the "new" Bombay. Mr. Kapur owns Bombay Sporting Goods Emporium where Yezad works and, once you meet this amateur historian, you'll never forget him, though his role in FAMILY MATTERS is small (but pivotal). Representative of the "old" is the letter writer, Vilas, who plies his trade in front of the Jai Hind Book Mart, which is not too far from Bombay Sporting Goods. Vilas is also a wonderfully drawn character, a man who feels that if he could only cull all the knowledge from all the letters he writes (and has written) that he would be able to see the world in much the same way as God sees it.
Mistry really has a special gift for writing about ordinary people in both ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. He is wonderful when describing the details that make up daily life, whether those details be mundane, a burden or a joy. He is also wonderful at describing family relationships. I'm thinking particularly of the relationship between Nariman and Roxana and Nariman and Yezad's sons, thirteen year old Murad and his more studious nine year old brother, Jehangir. Even the scenes between Nariman and Yezad (the "good" and the "bad") are lovingly and insightfully written.
Shiv Sena, with whom Yezad becomes involved, along with Coomy, on a much smaller scale, are the "bad guys" of FAMILY MATTERS. Shiv Sena seems to typify the corrupt Bombay as he persecutes Muslims and seeks to keep anything Western from infiltrating the city. Coomy, of course, typifies what is bad in family life.
One of the reasons I think FAMILY MATTERS works so well, is because it details a way of life that is disappearing in the west, especially in the US. Families are becoming more and more insular. The large, rambling family portrayed in FAMILY MATTERS is not so common in western society now, and I think people miss that sense of belonging. They miss the grounding that a large family, even a squabbling one, can give them. Mistry has evoked this sense of family beautifully, in all its toil and trouble and all its beauty and, it makes the book work. It makes it touch the heart.
Mistry's previous book, A FINE BALANCE, was set against a political backdrop and FAMILY MATTERS seems to want to explore the religious tensions among the Hindus, Muslims and Parsis in Bombay, but I think Mistry is definitely at his best when simply giving us a family story, fraught with familiar family tensions. When Mistry tries to go beyond the scope of the family, I don't think he succeeds quite as well. There are two horrific tragedies in this book, and, for me, they represented the book's weakest points. In fact, they almost offset the lovely (though not always loving) family story that Mistry has woven throughout the rest of FAMILY MATTERS.
If I have any criticism about FAMILY MATTERS is that the characters, wonderful and believable though they are, are rather stereotypical. Coomy is the embittered daughter; Jal the brother who is so easily pushed around; Roxana the "typical" housewife and sweet, dutiful daughter; and Nariman the harsh patriarch who, at the same time, can manage to retain lovable qualities. This is a quibble, though, because in this book, the bad aren't wholly bad (or if they are, as in the case of Coomy, we can understand why) and the good (Yezad, for one) aren't wholly good and, all of the characters grow and change during the course of the book, even the shrewish Coomy.
It is next to impossible not to care about the characters that people FAMILY MATTERS, though. Mistry has drawn us into their lives so skillfully, he's made us understand them and know them. Everything that happens to them, even the smallest detail, comes to matter to us greatly. Structurally, I didn't care for the seemingly random flashbacks, especially those that detail Nariman's life. They seemed to interrupt the flow of the narrative. I wish Mistry would have found another way to give us this information.
Mistry also drifted into the contrived and the melodramatic when he described the Chenoy family's attempts to obtain more money...ostensibly for the care of Nariman. Some of these scenes and set pieces simply weren't believable to me.
The ending of FAMILY MATTERS is quite melodramatic and it also seemed a little contrived and forced to me. It seemed as though Mistry were rushing to finish the book and shaping it to suit his own needs, rather than simply letting his characters play out their stories. And the denouement, set five years in the future, seemed out of place. It seemed to portray a Yezad who was desperately out of character, at least to me.
Why, if I have some quibbles with FAMILY MATTERS, did I award it five stars rather than four? Because my quibbles were just that...quibbles. In the end, FAMILY MATTERS is a beautiful book. It's gentle, violent, detailed, nuanced. Although some of the characters are a bit stereotypical, they are so lovingly painted that I couldn't help but care about them and be drawn into their lives. Even though I don't live a life that's like the lives of Mistry's characters, I could still find echoes of their lives in my own. I think almost anyone could. Their sufferings and their joys seemed, to me, to be universal.
FAMILY MATTERS is a rich, multi-faceted story. As rich and multi-faceted as is Bombay, or India, herself. Family love, Mistry lets us know, isn't always beautiful and warm and wise. It's sometimes harrowing and trying and heartbreaking, but, in the end, it's one of the things we all need to ground us in this world, to give us a sense of belonging.
Although I didn't find FAMILY MATTERS perfect, I did find it wonderful and certainly better than 99% of the books you'll find in any library or bookshop. This is really a book about human beings and about what it means to be human and what it means to be a part of a family. It's a beautiful book, and its flaws only seem to add depth and richness to an already deep and rich book. I would certainly recommend FAMILY MATTERS to anyone who loves good literature and to anyone just looking for an extremely superior book in which to "lose themselves." This is definitely one of the best books I've read in a long, long time.
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