Thrity Umrigar

The Museum of Failures provokes the reader to examine relationships among family and friends and to investigate past ideas. The main character, Remy Wadia returns to India to adopt a baby, but finds that his mother needs his assistance. The quick trip to India from Ohio accelerates into a lengthy journey that uncovers a terrible secret in Remy’s family. Along this path of discovery, Remy learns his mother’s strength and love. So many lost and hidden memories for Remy, his father’s “golden boy”. This raises the question, do we live for our parents or our own hopes? So many people enter Remy’s path to discovery: Jango, Monaz, and Dina. Each character prompts Remy on his road of redemption with his father Cyrus and his mother Shirin. For someone not knowledgeable in Indian cuisine and language, a guide would have been desirable.… (més)

Thrity Umrigar is one of my favorite contemporary writers. As a general rule, I'm not interested in "domestic" fiction: tales of strained families or unsteady relationships. Umrigar is the exception to this rule. Her characters are interesting, she imbues them with rich inner lives, and they come from multiple cultures and perspectives.

In the case of The Museum of Failures, our central character, Remy, is a Parsi Indian who moved to the U.S. and stayed there. He's married to an anglo woman, a pediatrician. The couple is at a crossroads. After multiple failed attempts at fertility treatments, they've arranged to adopt the baby of a young girl in India, a niece of one of Remy's childhood friends.

Remy arrives in India, intending to take care of the legal paperwork required for the adoption, but runs unto unexpected difficulties. First, the girl who will be the birth mother has decided she doesn't want to give the baby up for adoption. Second, he finds his elderly mother, who has always been volatile and unkind, is hospitalized with pneumonia. The distant relatives who were supposed to be caring for her, have been largely ignoring her because her volatility makes her difficult to deal with. So, Remy is left without a much-wanted baby and and with long stretches of time spent with a mother he was happy to be living half a world away from.

In a way, readers can predict parts of the plot. Perhaps Remy will be able to bring home the baby after all. Perhaps he and his mother will come to a truce of sorts that will release the burden of his many unhappy childhood memories of her. Perhaps. What does happen is similar, but also utterly different, surprising both Remy and the reader.

If you appreciate fiction that closely examines familial relationships and/or the experiences of immigrants returning to a home that is not a home, you'll find this novel a deeply satisfying read. I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.… (més)