Sleeping on Jupiter

This short, beautifully written, sometimes heartbreaking novel kept calling me back, and I'm in awe of the author's ability to create create living breathing characters and evoke Indian settings and culture such that I almost feel like I've visited the subcontinent myself. I'm not surprised that the book was long listed for the Booker Prize.

As the book opens as Nomi, a documentary filmmaker who experienced a series of personal tragedies as a child, and three older women, all longtime friends, are sharing a train car while traveling to Jarmuli, a temple filled town by the sea. Intense and vivid, the story takes us into Nomi's past and follows the lives of several other characters who Nomi and the three friends encounter.

Though Sleeping show more on Jupiter is short enough that it could be read quickly I didn't want to rush through it. The story is too rich. I'd read one section, then put the book down for a while to give myself time to absorb it. show less

This book primarily follows Nomi, a young documentary filmmaker who returns to the (fictional) Indian temple town of Jarmuli to confront childhood trauma. Her narrative intersects with several other characters: three older women on a spiritual holiday, a temple guide harboring his own secrets, and a photographer tormented by his recent divorce.

Through these different perspectives, Roy examines societal issues such as violence, abuse, religious exploitation, and the vulnerabilities of women and children. It raises uncomfortable questions about complicity, memory, and trauma. As much as I appreciated the intent, I felt my interest fading due to the fragmented structure. Readers should be aware in advance that it contains many scenes of show more difficult and disturbing content. show less

Combines in perfect measure the elements of classic storytelling: an opening act of horror seen through a child's eyes, a burning sense of rage and wrong done with a desire for resolution, a comedy trio of characters with hidden depths and heart, a mysterious vanishing from a train, unrequited love between paupers on a beach, a chaï seller with a secret identity and hidden forbidden temples deep in the jungle. Yet the setting and context is utterly contemporary - modern south India, the touristy pilgrimage trail and the personalities rich and poor congregated about it. Traditional gender role and sexuality are subverted effortlessly and without apparent agenda, as unexpected elements of this story.

There are some unforgettably rich show more characters here whose life play vividly in the imagination thanks to the clarity of the writing and vision. The tantalising romance between the beach waiter and the temple tour guide delivered through the latter's wild flights of hope, anticipation and tongue-tied utterances of love as he goes through his daily drudge dreaming of a different life. The three old ladies on the train encounter mishap and memory lapses, grousing and criticising hilariously. And the heroine finds her resolution and fights her demon, even if manifest in a new form of misogynistic drunken letch as opposed to the original paedophile mystic, before retreating to her new life in a perfect crisp, beautiful lakeside forest thousands of miles away. Resolution is incomplete and unassured, not neatly tied up, although without being downbeat or depressing.

A perfectly measured, deftly woven combination of all the elements and characters of great fiction. show less

Beautiful! Three stories going on and all are interconnected. This takes place in a seaside town on the Bay of Bengal. Three matrons, a young man and a young woman are all looking for something they won't find. This will confirm your disappointment in humans, but confirm your conviction that this author has a voice that needs to be heard.

I am not sure quite what to make of this story set in a temple resort on the east coast of India, but it was certainly intriguing.

Nomi is a girl orphaned by war, then brought up in an abusive ashram, who has escaped and eventually been adopted by a British woman. She returns to the resort as a young woman working as a researcher for a film, but really to investigate her own background. Her partner on this trip is Suraj, a spoiled middle aged rich boy who is still haunted by a recent divorce. Then there are the three old women (Gouri, Latika and Vidya) who have come to the town on a holiday. Finally there is Badal, who works as a temple guide who has an unrequited crush on a boy who works for a beach tea seller.

The plot is quite show more complicated, and the paths of these characters cross in all sorts of unexpected ways (with rather too many coincidences for my liking), and the ending is unresolved and rather enigmatic. There are plenty of fine descriptive passages, and Roy can certainly write. show less

This is one of those beautifully written books that I'm going to totally forget about six months from now. The writing is lovely, I'm all about books set in India, everything about it is just fine, but nothing really stood out as special to me.

This is one of those beautifully written books that I'm going to totally forget about six months from now. The writing is lovely, I'm all about books set in India, everything about it is just fine, but nothing really stood out as special to me.