House-cleaning

And once again, the pile is overwhelming - and over-toppling.

Read The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry a while ago, as I mentioned slightly closer to being at the time. What I apparently didn't say was that over all I really liked it. I don't know if the author did a good job of capturing the experiences and outlook of the main character, who I THOUGHT, until I just checked right now, had autism, but the publisher's website describes her as "painfully shy and sheltered." Now that I think about it, though, one of the issues in the book was whether or not she is. And, as I recall, ultimately the sort-of-resolution was that it didn't necessarily matter. Of course, the experiences and outlook of the character are also heavily influenced by her ability to summon ghosts by cooking...so, that's a thing. But the food & cooking parts were great - McHenry describes the whole experience of cooking and eating - the former particularly - so well, it's amazing. She hits all the senses: taste and smell, obviously, but the others too. Just in one meal, we have the crunch of garlic being smashed with the flat of a knife and the quiet snick of a knife hitting a cutting board through an onion, the grainy feel left after tearing canned tomatoes apart by hand, and glistening ribbons of batter. And now I need to go make a snack...

I also read at basically the same time Tania James' Atlas of Unknowns, which was fantastic. Intriguing and appealing characters, unique but relatable /believable plot, and really good writing. I had mixed feelings about how the time and tense was a little...loose...but it was an interesting approach even if I didn't always love it. I loved almost every bit of the book as a whole though. The description of a Christmas tree topper that is the "ready-made star that most resembles a flamboyant meteor" was, in context, funny and sweet (143). And one passage I especially liked was "All of this, even the dream, Alice relates while tearing off pieces of idli without a hint of discomfort. Linno feels smothered with someone else's secrets, an unpleasant experience, much in the same way that a stranger's body odor always smells far more repulsive than one's own. In Linno's home, and in the home of every other person she knows, families are stabilized by the preservation of secrets, the family honor maintained" (118).
James LOVES a good comparison - metaphors and similes abound. A feeling is described as "buzzing around her insides like a fly that would not escape a room, even after one opened all the windows and doors, as if it preferred frenzy over freedom" (200) and when a character "arrives home to find the apartment empty, the day suddenly seems not quite right, like a painting askew" (223). Basically, this is a really good story about two sisters in India, who are separated by life, and choices, and have to try to find one another again.