'A Mirror Made of Rain' book review: Cocktail of memories

The narrative, which frequently flits between the past and the present, often reads like the protagonist’s diary, echoing her thoughts and emotions.
For representational purposes
For representational purposes

Twenty-three-year-old Noomi Wadia lives in the small town of Kamalpur, where everyone seems to know everyone. At the very outset, the reader enters Noomi’s layered world, and encounters her quirky family members, friends and acquaintances. Her manic depressive mother, Asha, suffers from alcoholism, which is why Noomi was mostly brought up by her father and grandparents.

A lot of the action in the tale finds a setting in high society parties, big fat weddings and other fancy soirees. The story navigates through Noomi’s stormy teenage years, marked largely by a few self-destructive relationships. Just when it seems that all of Noomi’s ex-boyfriends have moved on—getting engaged or married—while she remains pathologically single, she too finds the love of her life. Though not completely convinced about marriage and all the complex customs that come with it, she finally gives in to a traditional Punjabi wedding.

The dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship makes up a crucial element in the story. All of Noomi’s childhood memories are coloured by visions of her mother’s constant drinking, tantrums and breakdowns. “A mother is the first mirror in which we see ourselves. But what if the mirror you look into is broken? You might see yourself always in pieces, no use to anyone, and take that as the truth,” she reflects.

As she grows older, it is no surprise that Noomi finds herself taking to alcohol like her mother did, ironically identifying with her addiction—secretly drinking in order to help surge her confidence levels during anxious moments. “What feels familiar is always comforting, in its own terrible way,” she reasons.

After her marriage, Noomi continues to battle with panic attacks and depression. She hates the fact that there are always different rules for men and women when it comes to pretty much everything in life. Between all the humour, the prose also has her making stark observations about marital life, especially viewed from a woman’s perspective.

New York-based author Naheed Phiroze Patel, who received her MFA in fiction from Columbia University’s School of the Arts, began writing this coming-of-age novel as a way to come to terms with the untimely death of her father. In a sense, it is also a touching tribute by the author to her father.

Filled with the nostalgia of family stories and history, reading the book is like watching a family drama that is sometimes a little too dramatic. The narrative, which frequently flits between the past and the present, often reads like the protagonist’s diary, echoing her thoughts and emotions. While dealing with a heavy subject, moreover, it manages to make for some pleasurable reading, peppered as it is with many light moments.

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