Burnt Sugar is a novel of contemporary middle class India, told by a disaffected wife, burdened by her relationship with her demented mother. The narrator, Antara, has a bad attitude about most things. The first line is “I would be lying if I said my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure.” She has a pleasant life but Antara is herself miserable most of the time. The book gives an unsentimental view of modern life in India. Early in the morning, “The sky is dark, but the industrial complex fifteen kilometers away gives us pink light as a prelude to the sun.” Antara’s acerbic observations are often funny. The sentences are short and there’s lots of dialog. So it is a very readable novel. 

That said, there is not much of a plot. There is some recollection of the past, which provides some explanation for Antara’s anger towards her mother. She has conversations with her husband about whether her mother should come to live with them or not, and they visit some doctors. There are some family gatherings, with some clashes of personality. Sometimes Antara spends a day working on art. Sometimes she goes shopping. She contemplates with some horror the prospect of becoming a mother herself. She discusses her husband with Dilip without much affection. She is quite often rude or blunt to other people. Pretty soon, the novel is over. So it is more about a state of mind and a state of society than it is about a story. 

Much of the pleasure of Burnt Sugar comes from the irreverence of the narrator and her providing a different perspective, quite a change from tales of post-colonial life or struggles with religion. There is religion here, with a guru Antara’s mother visits, but Antara has no real interest in him. Indeed, she views just about every part of her life with some disdain. She wants to walk out on it all, but she doesn’t have anywhere else she wants to go, and has nothing much else to do. 

Christian Perring is editor of Metapsychology Online Reviews.

Categories: Fiction