Rating: 
Summary: warm with good voice and characters, lags a bit in pace
Review: Set in Bombay during the '90's, Family Matters focuses on the travails of a single family as they try to cope with caring for a degenerating father, though as is typical for a Mistry novel, things are never quite that simple. Nariman Vakeel, 79, who suffers from the accelerating onset of Parkinson's disease, trips one night and breaks his ankle. His step-children, Coomy and Jal, at first try to care for him as they have for many years, but eventually ship him over to his blood-daughter's much smaller and more cramped home. Roxana and her two sons take him in gladly, but the monetary pressure brought on by his addition to the household begins to take its toll on her husband Yezad and eventually the entire family. Meanwhile, Coomy and Jal have varying degress of guilt over their actions and come into some conflict with each other. Underlying all of this is a family history involving Nariman, his first love, and his eventual wife (mother of all three children) that has caused much pain and anger among the children and especially between Coomy and Nariman, most of which is told through flashbacks interspersed throughout the novel via Nariman's recollections. Overlapping the family story is the story of Bombay itself, its seemingly eternally pervasive corruption, the dangers of its radicalism, and the depth and width of its people's characters.
The strengths of the novel lie in its characters and its voice. The family members from oldest to youngest are fully fleshed out in wonderful precise detail and a fullness of humanity that is a pleasure to read. The same is true of of several side characters as well, especially Yezad's two companions--his friend the letter writer and his boss at the sporting goods store. Except for near the end (more on that later), you buy completely into the idea that these are living, breathing people. They are drawn in all complexity, with all the normal shadings of real people--weaknesses and strengths warring with one another on a daily or even hourly basis.
The narrative voice is also a pleasure. Mistry gives us a range of character voices--the bombastic and poetic boss, the more resignedly poetic letter writer, the pragmatic and frustrated Yezad, the sometimes wandering Nariman. They are not single-note characters, however. Yezad too has his poetic moments, his emotional moments, while Nariman can move from sharply cantankerous to warmly, fuzzily recollective. Mistry is equally adept at male and female, young and old. And the narration itself has a softly poetic feel to it, never drawing attention to itself but still inviting the reader in, giving the book an intimate, cozy feel to it.
Pacing is sometimes a problem. I thought the book lagged in a few places and probably could have been shortened somewhat, especially some of Nariman's flashbacks. My biggest problem is with the ending of the novel. Without giving away details, some of it seemed a bit perfunctory and especially regarding one character somewhat unbelievable, more of a plot contrivance than a natural outgrowth of events. That plus some of the pacing issues knocked it down a notch for me and made it not quite as strong as his earlier novel, A Fine Balance, which is one of the best books I've read in the past year.
Those problems aside, Family Matters is a moving, intimate look at family, both immediate and extended. There are some simply beautiful moments in this book, along with some quietly hearthbreaking ones, ones a reader will savor while reading and which will stay with him or her afterward. It might be set in a place foreign to most of us, but at its heart, it will feel just like to home to many. Well-recommended with a stronger recommendation to read A Fine Balance before or after (depending on if you'd rather be somewhat disappointed or surprised)
Rating:
Summary: "Family comes first"
Review: Set in the politically-corrupt Bombay, India during the 1990's FAMILY MATTERS centers on familial love and obligation of a multigenerational Parsi family. After 79-year-old Nariman Vakeel, suffering from Parkinson's Disease, falls and breaks his ankle his grown children are left to care for him, often reluctantly. His step children Coomy and Jal find the job too much to handle so they transfer the responsibilities to their youngest sister, Roxanne and her family. During the months of Nariman's recovery his family is challenged both physically and financially as they come to terms with the deterioration of their father. Meanwhile, Nariman relives his prohibited love affair with Lucy which has left his family altered forever. Similar to his previous novels, Mistry creates three-dimensional characters in unforgettable situations. However, his depth of plot revealed in A FINE BALANCE is absent in FAMILY MATTERS. Regardless, I found the theme of siblings caring for elders displayed in this book relevant across national boundaries. FAMILY MATTERS is an honest portrayal of how one family is affected by the illness of an elder and how much each party is affected.
Rating: 
Summary: Warm, tender and humane - one of Rohinton's finest
Review: This book will touch you in many ways and cannot be forgotten. Warm, tender, humane, at times funny - something only Rohinton Mistry can offer in a book. The characters in this novel are all well sketched. The struggles of a middle class Parsi family in Bombay taking care of an aged parent applies to all those who have an older family member to take care. Rohinton makes you sympathize with all the characters in their daily struggles in Bombay, India. Rohinton is able to skilfully portray through the eyes of Roxanna's children the beauty of grandchildren while taking care of their grandparent. Thank you Rohinton - a masterpiece indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Road to nowhere
Review: This is an awesome book,written with great flair and passion.It paints a beautiful picture of bombay and it gave me many insightful viewpoints.However,as much as I liked the book,the ending was very disappointing.What was Rohinton trying to tell us?That the events that had happened triggered Yezda to become an obsessive prayer?That it's all family matters?I think it makes no sense.I finished the book with many unanswered questions.A great plot,but a very disappointing ending.
Rating: 
Summary: Depressing
Review: This is the most depressing book I've read in a while. When their grandfather is foisted on them by the utterly unbelieveable Aunt Coomy and Uncle Jal, Roxanne and the children try to make the best of it, while Yezad only makes life more difficult for everyone. Leaving Roxanne to care for the "chief", Yezad spends his time selfishly resenting every moment she's not dedicating to his comfort. I got awfully tired of his self-pity and selfishnes. I would have enjoyed learning more about Nariman and less about Yezad, as Nariman was the more interesting, sympathetic character. The children are delightful and appear much more mature than their father. I also agree with another reviewer--there were some ridiculous situations. Why would Coomy and Jal ruin their flat to justify keeping their father away? They didn't appear to need any reason anyway; no one was doing anything about it. I became bored and depressed way before the end of the novel...when, by the way, it got even more depressing! Poor Nariman! After all he's gone through, to have to put up with a son-in-law who has become as bigoted as his own parents. And so goes the circle--ending up just where the book began.
Rating:
Summary: A Wise Tale of Family Life
Review: This novel takes place in Bombay in the mid-90s. While it's story makes many interesting specific statements about the politics and social climate of Parsi life in this time period, it holds timeless meanings for any family that exists anywhere in the world. This immensely readable novel tells the story of Nariman Vakeel in his last years and his relations with his two stepchildren Jal and Coomy, his daughter Roxana and her family. Nariman, debilitated by Parkinson's, has come to a point in his life where he can no longer take care of himself and so must rely on the attention of his children. Throughout the novel, we discover the details of Nariman's tragic past while we simultaneously experience the fascinating and harrowing trials his children undergo. As the family struggles to decide whose responsibility it is to care for the aging man, Roxana and her husband Yezad labor to make ends meet while raising two enduring boys. Yezad, whose dreams of an idyllic life in Canada are thwarted, works in a sporting goods shop and finds the amount of comfort he receives returning each day to a loving family decrease. Through several trials of transgression, the family learn that chance alone can calculate when their fortunes will arise. Peace is a certain uncertainty. The only times that are certain are fleeting moments of contentment wrought from loving gestures. This is a beautiful and heartfelt novel. Mistry is thoroughly familiar with the tedious existence wrought from working in an uncreative job in order to keep the family going. (He worked in a bank for many years before beginning his writing career.) This is evident in Yezad's daily struggles. However, each character is sharply drawn making them seem instantly familiar as if they have long been a part of our own family. Therefore, the connections become extremely personal and during tender moments you may find yourself moved to tears like I was in one scene. The book also makes powerful statements about living in postcolonial India where the shadow of English culture still weighs over life. Yezad witnesses his son falling under the same amorous spell he submitted to as a child reading heroic novels about an England that only exists as an idea of England. Family life according to Rohinton Mistry is not a happy matter, but it is enlightening, complex, rewarding and surprisingly rich.
Rating:
Summary: Can relate to this one so much
Review: Very well written in simple language. Having read Fine Balance I was searching for resemblances, can't find any. Even though set in the midst of a political turmoil, I think the novel is more about the people. This I think is not a story about the Hindu Muslim riots or about the Shivsainiks. This is about average people who are trying to make a living and their ambitions. The characters are aIl someone I can relate to. I was agonizing and depressed as I read through this.
Rating:
Summary: Family Obligations Tug at Us First
Review: Within Bombay's Towers of Silence, the Parsis expose their dead to hungry vultures-a practice as environmentally friendly as it is macabre. Ethnic Persians who had migrated to India, the Parsis have traditionally led Bombay's commercial class. And though they have become an endangered species due to stagnating birth rates and miscegenation, their Zoroastrianism has largely removed them from the constant squabbling of Bombay's Hindus and Muslims, which a decade ago erupted into carnage and fire. Behind the riots was the Shiv Sena, a Hindu supremacist band of thugs, whose agenda includes abolishing Valentine's Day, razing mosques and, according to writer Rohinton Mistry, "subjecting innocent letters and postcards to incineration if the address reads Bombay instead of Mumbai." Such is the cultural and political backdrop of this exciting new novel by Mistry. Any novel set in Bombay must be as vast as the city. Mistry's knowledge of its customs, locales and languages is encyclopedic, his cast of characters panoramic, and his portrayal of Indian attitudes spot on. Indians perceive the use of toilet paper as unhygienic; they often converse in trite proverbs, and their attitude toward the West is decidedly conflicted. So is their attitude toward India, a great country and a "hopeless" one. Indians writing in English are producing some of today's most inspiring and original fiction, and I strongly recommend this one.
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