Indian Author Akhil Sharma's Semi-Autobiographical Novel FAMILY LIFE

FAMILY LIFE is as an endearing coming of age story of a young immigrant boy from India.  It is also  a heart wrenching tale of family tragedy.  Akhil Sharma (b. India 1971) immigrated to the US with his family at 8.  The author writes mainly in the voice of Ajay, the younger brother of the Mishra family who move from Delhi to the US in the late 1970's.  This story mirrors Sharma's life.  Sharma embraces earnest plights concerning immigration/assimilation, family tragedy/dysfunction and loneliness & alienation.  Ajay's candor & innocence provide the reader a lightheartedness with which to bear the family's overwhelming hardships.  I developed a fondness for Ajay.  Originally, Ajay believes his family fortunate for the opportunity to live in an affluent, modern country.  But, his expectations for an elevated lifestyle are drastically diminished. His epiphany of his permanency in America, severing his origins is both tender & melancholy. "The realization disturbed me.  I saw that one day I would be nothing like who I was."  Sharma's eloquent writing is filled with emotional truths that resonate throughout this stirring novel.  All hopes & attentions were placed on Ajay's older brother Bijru, to succeed.  Disaster strikes.  Bijru becomes brain dead from a near drowning. From now on he requires full care. The envy Ajay had felt towards Bijru was natural as his grief. "I sobbed relentlessly and was amazed at how much I loved my brother.  I had not known he mattered so much to me."  The family is faced with finding happiness amidst the most unbearable situation. Ajay has feelings of guilt, "No part of me could deny how much luckier I was than my brother."  His parents struggles are insufferable.  The father turns to drink and the couple quarrel relentlessly. "My parents fought so much that the walls would vibrate."  FAMILY LIFE earned the Pen/Hemmingway & Whiting Award.  Ajay discovers  Hemmingway's novels as an escape & source of inspiration.  To battle loneliness, he tosses love notes into girls' hair.  I wholeheartedly recommend this touchingly somber literary work.