Remember, Mr Sharma - A.P. Firdaus - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: A.P. Firdaus

GENRE: Historical Literary Fiction.

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A look at how past trauma can affect present happiness – a lesson learnt by our twelve-year-old protagonist courtesy a bureaucratic vulture. Though this has a child protagonist, it’s definitely not for children. Covers some thought-provoking themes balanced with light moments.

Story Synopsis:

Delhi, 1997. Twelve-year-old Adi’s mom has gone missing. Again. Adi is left alone with a hot-tempered and frustrated father and an ailing grandmother. No one tells him where his mother has gone. On his quest to find answers, Adi bumps into a talking vulture, who claims to be a top official from the “Department of Historical Adjustment”. The vulture informs Adi that there is some problem in his family’s memory files, and this can be sorted out only if Adi is willing to travel through the memory files with the vulture. But to do so, he must first face his biggest fears.

The story comes to us in the limited third person perspective of Adi.

Bookish Yays:

🌹 Give me the name of one adult novel with a talking vulture! The minute I saw this reference in the blurb, I knew that I *had* to get my hands on this title. The vulture stays unnamed throughout the book, but makes sufficient use of his designation to boss over “Mr. Sharma”, whom we know as Adi. I enjoyed the vulture’s contrary portrayal. He insists on Adi’s speaking correct English while his own English is full of Indianisms. He also claims to be busy and yet he is always available whenever Adi seeks him. He claims that rules are important but he isn’t above bending the rules for his personal benefit. In other words, he was the quintessential governmental employee and a wonderful supporting character in this novel.

🌹 I loved the depiction of our past affecting our present. Though this is a common enough theme, the approach is unique. Nothing happens in our life in isolation, and the book offers a great insight of how everything is interconnected, and also how everything is salvageable, even if it doesn’t appear to be so.

🌹 Adi is a fascinating lead character in many ways. He is written exactly as per his age: mischievous, impetuous, and caring. Caught in that zone between adulthood and childhood, Adi gets the best and worst of both ends. His torn feelings come out well throughout the story.

🌹 Adi’s two best friends Omi and Noor ensure that we get to see the fun side of his tedious convent school. I enjoyed the trio and their atypical friendship.

🌹 The storyline is deceptively complicated. What begins as a simply journey into the past soon touches the darker and murkier side of Indian history. Thought these details are just touched upon in passing, they still pass a stark comment on the biased Indian mentality towards religion and gender. The author doesn’t hesitate in calling a spade a spade, and yet he doesn’t generalise his remarks. I liked his approach towards these tough topics as he calls out the political culprits who divide the nation in various ways for their selfish purposes.

🌹 There are plenty of humorous scenes in the book that serve well to counterbalance the more serious themes.

🌹 As the book is set in 1997, the 50th year of Indian independence, the setting gave me quite nostalgic vibes. From the culture to the dial-up internet to Chip magazine to the TV shows to the political events, 1997 came alive through the pages of this book.

Bookish Nays:

🌵 Because we see the adults in the story only through Adi’s eyes, their sketching isn’t as in-depth as should have been in a character-oriented novel. The representation of Adi’s school and the teachers also felt quite clichéd. As this was an adult novel and not middle-grade fiction, the teachers should have had more layered personalities rather than fitting into typical stereotypes.

🌵 When Adi explores the past with the help of the vulture, the immediate next scene almost always skips some time and goes at least a few days in the future. As such, we don’t get to see Adi’s immediate reaction on seeing the traumatic memory clip from his family’s past. I would have appreciate at least some lines on the immediate impact rather than seeing his feelings only through flashbacks.

🌵While the approach was unique, it automatically sprung up several questions in my mind, not all of which were answered in the plot.

🌵 I didn’t like the ending, though it was a happy one for our little hero. Why should a satisfactory solution involve going out of India? If the message of the book is to learn from the past, why should the resolution involve escaping that very past to find true self-development?

All in all, despite the slower pace and the somewhat-limited character depth, I liked this unusual debut work. Its characters lend it a novelty, and its theme allows it to be thought-provoking and impactful. Recommended to literary fiction lovers wanting to try an unusual Indian novel with themes as Indian as they are global.

Do note that despite the child protagonist, there are some cuss words and gory scenes in the novel. As such, this book is suitable only to an adult audience.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton, Sceptre, and NetGalley for the DRC of “Remember, Mr Sharma”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.