Family Life

Ajay moves with his parents and older brother from India to the land of opportunities US. The accident in which the talented older brother becomes brain damaged changes current and future life of the family. Hardship and lost dreams. OK.

In wonderfully unadorned prose (so refreshing after all the self-consciously "lyrical" writing I've read recently), first person narrator Ajay relates this moving "immigrant coming of age" story.

Normal life comes to an abrupt halt for Ajay's family when older brother Birju sustains a serious brain

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injury. Ajay and parents, recent immigrants from India, cope as best they can with both a new country and the uncharted territory of Birju's profound disabilities. The results are not always successful. The ending is a bit rushed, but other than that, this is a well-written, unsentimental story of love, loss, and family bonds.

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I loved this one because I could identify with it for several reasons. The place in which the novel is set is a familiar one, so that evoked nostalgia. Then there is a little bit about the immigrant condition in a foreign land. And caring for the sick and the infirm, and the protagonist's

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discomfort with happiness. For to be happy is to arrive and be satisfied, and who in their right mind wants that, eh?

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Family life is the painful story of the Mishra family told from the point of view of Ajay, the younger of two brothers. This novel follows an immigrant Indian family's tragedy and aftermath. Older brother Birju is accepted into the prestigious Bronx School of Science, but this good fortune soon

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turns to catastrophe as Birju has an accident at the local swimming pool and is rendered brain damaged, blind, and unable to walk or talk. The remainder of the novel focuses on the family's grief and how it damages the relationships between the remaining family members. The honest but coldly detached voice that Ajay uses to narrate this unbearably difficult account of his family life allows us to simultaneously view the disintegration of his family's intimate relationships from a distance but also to deeply feel his pain.

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good but not great brother of main character is brain injured and this was difficult for me to read about.
Well written

Ajay is eight years old, he is in India with his mother and older brother, waiting for his father, who had gone to America a year before, to send them tickets to join him. The tickets arrive and they leave, becoming immigrants in a land very unfamiliar to them.

At first things are strange and this

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semi autobiographical novel does a great job describing everything Ajay sees and does. When automatic doors open, he feels very important, elevators are a source of wonder, but there are adjustments as well. Than misfortune strikes the family, and things will never be the same again.

Told is simple prose, our narrator Ajay, must deal with complex problems. With humor and compassion the author leads us through the land mine that becomes Ajay's and his family's new lives. Ajay must find a way to thrive in this new life and mostly he must do it alone.

Ajay is a wonder, I quite fell in love with him. The way he sees, the way he acts are all so realistic. One cannot help pulling for him, wanting things to turn out well for him. Also real are the stresses on the family, the falling apart before the putting back together. Sharma has done a wonderful job with this novel.

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The Mishras can envision nothing better than America from their hovel in India. Somehow, the family makes its way to America, but the real America turns out to be very different from their dreams. And there is no turning back; instead the family must find a way to make a good face for the struggles

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and tragedies that America brings.

It’s a beautifully told story, with characters so real that I am pretty sure I’ve met them.

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Sharma produced a fascinating and incredibly detailed look at what happens to a family in a culture that is not its own---a true learning experience for the reader both from a medical point of view concerning the treatment and changes over time in Ajay's brain-damaged brother, Birju, and from the

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Indian culture within a residential neighborhood in the United States.

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Joining his emotionally-distant father, eight-year-old Ajay, his brilliant older brother Birju, and his self-effacing mother leave their life in India (as envied by their nosy neighbors) only to become anonymous immigrants in their unfamiliar New York surroundings. As the family adapts to hot

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running water, elevators, and the other daily surprises of American culture, tragedy strikes and throws the family into a position of martyrdom that tears the family apart before they can adjust to their new life. After Birju is accepted into the esteemed Bronx High School of Science, he survives a drowning incident leaving him a vegetable. As the family copes with caring for Birju and the myriad of problems that ensue, Ajay discovers that the low expectations he (and his parents) had for himself have now escalated as he becomes the “first-born”. Any reader who has an interest or familiarity with acclimating to new situations will appreciate the humor, pain, and struggles that Ajay expresses through his first-person narrative. Written for adults- young adults will quickly identify with Ajay’s sometimes immature, but authentic reactions to the expectations of his parents, his brother’s illness, and the trials and tribulations of an average American teenager’s life.

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I read this book in one day. The writing was so powerful and poignant in the story of Ajay, who was born in Delhi, India, but grew up in America, that I was drawn into his life as he struggled to make a place for himself. A father who was a drunk, an older brother who required round the clock care

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for the rest of his life after a near drowning, a mother who took care of his invalid brother and an American culture that was so different that what his Indian heritage expected of him caused a lot of sadness as well as humor, particularly as he searched for girlfriends in high school. I was just as impressed with this book as I was with Sharma’s An Obedient Father.

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Recommended by David Sedaris at Powells book talk.

This intense and engrossing family drama chronicles the early years of Ajay Mishra, whose family moves from New Delhi to the United States in the late 1970s. Ajay's father emigrates first, fulfilling a lifelong dream. He gets a job as a government clerk, rents an apartment in Queens, and, a year

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after leaving India, sends plane tickets for his wife and two sons, Ajay and Birju. For Ajay, the shock of finding himself living in America never really goes away, even when he grows up. He is constantly being reminded that Indians are different from Americans and that the differences are real and have an impact on the kind of life one is permitted to live. Still, he assimilates as well as can be expected, though more slowly than Birju, watching with a combination of envy and admiration as his older brother accumulates academic successes while his own accomplishments remain ordinary. Still, Ajay can't help but share in the family's pride when Birju is accepted into the prestigious Bronx High School of Science. Then disaster strikes. Birju is injured in a swimming accident. The rest of the story shows us a family in ongoing emotional crisis, alternately at war with and comforting each other on a daily basis. Unable to accept what has happened, Ajay's mother succumbs to the claims of healers who say they can fix her son. Resigned to disappointment and defeat, his father withdraws into a bottle. Ajay continues his efforts to become American and is often mortified by his parents', and his own, Indian-ness. Akhil Sharma's depiction of the conflicting cultural and emotional tensions in Ajay's life is unflinching and poignant, occasionally leavened by absurdist humour. Family Life, despite the tragedy at its core, is an emotionally reticent novel. Even the most heart-rending scenes are narrated in Ajay's coolly distant and unsentimental voice. Paradoxically, it is a voice that generates great suspense and leaves the reader deeply moved.

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A beautiful and hard book. A rare example for me where knowing why/how he wrote it expanded my understanding and appreciation. The chapter on him using Hemingway to write is fascinating. The complexities of his relationships with his parents and brother are rich and brutal. His creation of self is

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fascinating. I came to this book having read an excerpt years ago in the New Yorker; it stuck with me. The book will stick with me even more.

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Akhil Sharma won the Folio Prize 2014 for this book. This is a sad story of a family who had migrated to the United States of America. Within the first two years the eldest son of the family meets with an accident and is rendered brain damaged. The story is of a family who falls apart after this

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accident.

The premise of the novel is excellent but Akhil Sharma does not do it justice. Certain incidents end midway and there is no character development. This book would have been a real tear jerker in the hands of a competent writer. A 2.5/5 star.

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There are some wonderful moments in Akhil Sharma's Family Life, largely in how the protagonist, Ajay, sees the world. He often has a view that is juvenile, yet insightful. These glimpses of Ajay's perspective give this novel its strength, but it hinges far too much on these occasions. The story and

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characters all seem to revolve around these moments in Ajay's life, and while that may be the point, it does not lend to the most enjoyable read. The novel lacked a singularity that could keep me interested. The person meant to unify the novel is unable to be much of a character, due to circumstances. Family Life is full of good glimpses, the potential for excellent short stories, but as a novel—which was the intention here—it did not gel.

There is an interview with the author in the Advance Reader's copy I read. I hope this will be included with the final product, because I do feel it gives some insight into the writer and his possible rationale in regards to crafting this novel. This is a very personal story; in fact, it very closely mirrors the author's own. I understand the author's desire to write a novel and not a memoir, but for whatever reason it seemed to me the author was distanced from the subject. He was close to Ajay—very close—but everything else seemed irrelevant to the story. Sharma could replace these characters and circumstances with others and I don't think I would notice a difference.

If you like stories about Indians or families, you may like this novel. I think the author's talented, but personally I couldn't connect with this one. The narrator was memorable, however, and that may be enough to lead me back to this author again.

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Funny and sad growing-up story of a boy who has moved from India to NJ with his family.