This is an experience of knowing a family from close quarters. I won’t say this is a story of an ordinary family. Until next time, keep reading and add melodrama to your life.Set in old Bombay in the late 20 th Century, Em and the big Hoom is Jerry Pinto’s grand debut in the literary world.
Plus it is so easy to read! Maybe if the resolution in so many other books that strive to be clever were like the one in Em and the Big Hoom, the world would be a much better place to live in and read.Īll in all, Em and the Big Hoom is a book about mental illness, dealing with it, dealing with mental illness of a loved one, and most importantly, love. But with a story such as this, this timeline mix-up is rewarding, because then, I understood the character arcs better. With the timelines being blurred in so many places, I had to concentrate hard in order to stay connected. Then I’d read something about Em’s marriage and how she cried about it and how someone asked her, “Bachpan ke liye ro rahi ho?” And I’d purse my lips trying very hard not to cry.Įm and the Big Hoom vacillates between the past and the present. What is it about this book? I’d ask myself. There were times when I started chuckling and seconds later, I would stare off into space, feeling incredibly guilty for laughing while Em suffered. The humor is placed in the most unexpected of places. And when the sufferer is one’s own mother, you are, many-a-times, at a loss as to how to handle it all. There’s nothing more heartbreaking than living with a loved one and watching them suffer. I want to go on and on about how well this book brings forward the angst while staying in the area of dark humor, but I simply cannot. It breaks your heart every inch of the way and makes you want to cry softly – because screaming is for people like the Em. It is frank and filled with dark humor – a humor that doesn’t offend you but makes you wonder why you never thought of those truths before. What completely propels Em and the Big Hoom from the area of wannabe eccentric novel to a thing of beauty is its writing. I still feel that the reason it is used isn’t as compelling as it feels it is, but who am I to judge? But the title is not what makes this book. I couldn’t understand the word ‘Hoom’ and it’s pretty early in the story that the reasoning is given. How he deals with his mother and her illness, how the household goes on in different times that dance according to the diktats of her depression, and his relationship with the people in his family forms the story. Told from the perspective of the son, Em and the Big Hoom delves into his mind and brings out thoughts that he even hated admitting to himself. Not Em, not her husband Augustine (called The Big Hoom), and definitely not her children.
Em and the Big Hoom is the story of two kids whose mother, Imelda, or simply Em suffers from a mental illness that forgives no one.
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