The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai is a tour de force of a saga. It is 670 pages - a dense heavy book that takes you to NYC, Delhi and Goa India, and Mexico. cover blurb - it is a sweeping tale of two young people navigating the many forces that shape their lives: country, class, race, history, and the complicated bonds that link one generation to the next. A love story, a family saga, and a rich novel of ideas, it was worthy of being shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize.
Grandparents in India try to matchmake Sonia (in Vermont) and Sunny (in NYC). The clumsy meddling only launches a grand adventure as we watch each of them diverge and converge in their lives. The chapters switch tales, countries, and time periods. The various boyfriends, girl friends, parents, and grandparents, along with servants, and friends are richly drawn and add quite the backdrop to Sonia and Sunny's story.
The writing is impeccable.
p. 244 Travel stories made a person competitive, even about the places he had already seen, let alone the ones he hadn't. "Greece? Dour lot. No fun in them since B.C. The only time they become jolly is when they get drunk and throw the plates about. There's nothing to see but a heap of stone." It was little blips like this that made me laugh out loud.
p. 253 Sonia returned to India from America "because it's lonely." She said, "It's the premise of being American. You are an individual, therefore you are alone. Therefore you must be able to do everything by yourself. Rent a car at an airport, drive yourself cross country to a job in a place you've never heard of, defeat your enemies, trap a rat, make money to pay bills to look after yourself even when you are dying - " ( IMO - Observations like this are brilliant. )
p. 294 And when was it that Sunny had learned the US was only about one thing? In the morning when he turned on public radio it began: race, race, race.........the conversation came down in a hammer blow - Race!
p. 660 The universe tries everything it can to prevent love. If one thing doesn't work to keep two people apart, then it tries another. Darkness follows darkness, across geographies, across centuries. It has its own life, unspooling.
It has been awhile since I've read a novel like The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. This is a WOW! It's not easy, but it's compelling, impressive, intriguing, and so rich in language and story telling.
Standing ovation.
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