I admired but didn’t particularly like this book. I’ve talked before about how I don’t really get on with books about motherhood, and sometimes the reverse is true too, I don’t always love books about daughterhood, especially when it’s the book’s main focus. (Something like Transcendent Kingdom is the exception, where the mother/daughter relationship is one thread among many.)

I was finding something salvageable in the first half of Burnt Sugar, but the second half just lost me. While I tend to enjoy 'unlikable' protagonists, Antara was often too much for me--I found her to be deliberately belligerent toward the reader in a way that I didn't think was particularly interesting or well-executed. I think this book does have a lot going for it in terms of its chilly depiction of a strained mother/daughter relationship, but Antara herself staunchly refused to do any of the heavy lifting to earn my investment. I just didn't find her believable or her actions comprehensible; this book is written in the first person and still I struggled to discern some of Antara's motivations (this isn't helped by the book's awkward structure, flitting between the past and the present in a way that was occasionally challenging to follow and which I didn't think ultimately did it any favors).

Avni Doshi's prose also failed to impress me, but, like most of my criticisms here, I feel that might just be a matter of personal taste. I do see why this book has been so critically well-received, it just really wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Abrams for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.

Ooh that was rough. It reminded me of Girls Burn Brighter, good but takes a lot to get through emotionally for a reader.

This story details a chaotic mother-daughter relationships that has had several ups and downs. There are some good twists and meaningful interactions.

I fully understand why this book has received the recognition that it has – it is on the long list for both the Booker Prize 2020 and Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021. On top of this wonderful recognition, the main reason why I was so excited to read this one was the fact it is written by an Indian-American author, and we don’t very often get literary novels with stories I can relate to on a cultural level.

Narrated from the perspective of both child and adult Antara and set in Pune, India, this novel follows the story of our narrator and her mother, Tara. As the story unfolds, we learn of the strained relationship between mother and daughter and the ways this impacts our narrator’s life. We eventually gain more perspectives on the narrator’s thoughts on relationships, family, childhood and motherhood, leaving the reader with a lot to think about.

This novel so beautifully and bluntly characterizes a mother-daughter relationship, as well as memory, medicine, and motherhood (just to name a few). I have seen many mixed reviews of this one, and can understand that this novel might not be everyone’s cup of tea – with that, I enjoyed it.

One thing I really appreciated about this novel was the representation of an Indian child with divorced parents – this is a topic that is usually quite taboo in Indian culture and extremely relatable for me. My favorite line about this was, “I asked Nani what divorce was. She was inarticulate when it came to such matters, but tried to explain. ‘When a husband and wife are not husband and wife any more,’ I said, ‘does that mean that a father is no longer a father?’ Nani held my gaze for a long time before allowing her lips to curve into a smile. ‘No,’ she said. ‘No, it does not.’”

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Abrams Books, and The Overlook Press for the gifted e-book in exchange for an honest review!

I started this book 3 separate times thinking maybe it was just a timing issue for why it was problematic but when I hit the 35% point I finally threw in the towel. The time jumps, story trajectory, and strangely detailed descriptions were all obstacles. I cringed reading the ashram introduction scenes but it was the vague mention of being fingered by her friend and then fantasizing about sleeping with her father that made me say "no more."

This book is intense, sad, and very strange. It really is a contemplation on motherhood, and it doesn't hold back on the messed up things that the protagonist, Antara, went through at the hands of her mother. As the story progresses, there are hints, e.g. when we were homeless, when we lived at the ashram, etc.
It's very sad to think about all the ways that Antara had been traumatized, neglected, and abused. It seriously affects her adult life and relationships.
Even though the book was really sad and intense, it was very readable and I finished it quickly. It was often uncomfortable.

This was a tough one! Burnt Sugar is about a very dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship. Toxic mother alert!

The story is primary told from the perspective of the daughter, Antara. In 19080's India, her mother Tara, left her marriage and dragged her young daughter along to an ashram to be closer to a guru that she's become infatuated with. As a young child, Antara bore witness to the strange happenings at the ashram. Tara was a neglectful mother who physically and emotionally inured her daughter. They lived on the street for awhile, where Antara came down with scabies. Antara grew up with more than her share of damage. Flash forward a few decades, Antara is an artist living in the States and is married to an Indian-American man. Her mother is suffering from dementia and Antara and her husband return to India to help care for her. There are numerous flashbacks to the 80's and 90's as Antara revisits her childhood and young adult years.

Antara's voice is cold and aloof. She relays her years of emotional pain and her mixed feelings for her mother in a way that didn't warm me up to her. Yes, she was clearly a victim of a lot of childhood trauma but she kept us, the reader at a distance. We can see her internal struggle of how to best take care of a mother who never really took good care of her. Antara's voice in the book is unsentimental in its analysis of this troubled mother/daughter relationship.

this is an intricate book about a daughters complicated relationship with her mother. but more so how that initial relationship has impacted every other moment and relation in the daughters life. it is not for the faint hearted in it's descriptions of old age, abuse, bodily functions and the dark thoughts that cross all our minds. it was an honest (brutally so) portrait of a girls thoughts.

I must admit that I finished this book primarily because it was short. While the writing style and premise intrigued me at the beginning, as the story wound on the main character just got more and more annoying to me. I feel like the author was trying to embody the ~distant artist~ vibe, which can work in some iterations, but here I found it so odd. She is an artist and clearly thinks abt her practice and emotions in some sense, yet the narrative was so flat—there is no emotional depth here. The main character refuses to address any trauma that she has faced, and while that kind of leads into the bizarre ending, I don't think it was worthwhile. It just made the story feel very shallow.

Besides that, I found the narrative structure to just be a bit lacking and jumpy—quickly going from flashback to present and back again. It was hard for me to form a coherent picture of her present day. I also thought this would be more about her mother's memory loss but instead it devolves into a picture of the main character's trauma—yet doesn't bother to really examine that much in context with her mother's memory loss.

The ending really turned the book on its head, though. I think on one hand, it added a real level of interest when contemplating the story as a whole. But even so, I still feel like it didn't add much to the story to make me like it more. While I understand what Doshi was trying to do with this book, I just feel like it fell flat for me. There was something missing—I think I just wanted more depth and acknowledgement of trauma and memory.

Antara and her mother have always had a difficult relationship and now her mother, in her fifties, has dementia. As she struggles to find a solution to her mother's care, the novel goes back in time to her unconventional upbringing in an ashram where her mother leaves her to be cared for by an American woman when she becomes the guru's newest paramour. Her adolescence and young adulthood are likewise marked by abuse and insecurity. Neither Antara nor her mother are able to relate to each other with love or respect and their other relationships are marked by conflict and manipulation.

An author takes a risk in choosing to write about an unsympathetic character. It's a balancing act to make the narrator unpleasant and to still have the reader invested in what happens to the narrator. And whether you think that Doshi succeeds in this will determine how you react to this novel. Doshi provides Antara with a childhood that should make the reader root for her and to understand why she is unable to form bonds with anyone, but then she multiplies the many ways Anatara's inability to form attachments harms the people around her.

This isn't an easy novel to read, nor is it intended to be.

Antara is an artist living in India with her husband. She’s never had a good relationship with her mother, Tara, but now her mother’s health may be failing and Antara as the only child feels like she needs to step in and help.

We learn that when Tara was a young wife, she fled from her staid life and marriage and joined an ashram with young Antara in tow. At the ashram, Tara becomes the mistress of the guru and Antara is left to the care of other women for the most part. When Tara finally leaves the ashram her life continues on a rocky path.

Needless to say, Tara has never confronted her mother about the past and how can she do that now when her mother’s suffering from dementia. She wants to help but at every turn her mother still manages to remind her of past hurts. Moments like when Antara brings her mother home and all Tara can do is disparage Antara’s artistic work. Tara can still manage to be cruel and no matter how old, Antara is, it still hurts.

What is interesting is that neither character is sympathetic but I don’t want to spoil why I had concerns about Antara, you’ll have to read for yourself. I think mother-daughter relationships in novels can be extremely fascinating to explore the themes of forgiveness, compassion, love, etc. but this novel left me feeling like there was no closure for either character. Like it was too late which is ultimately a very depressing thought. I had very high hopes for this nominated Booker Prize novel but overall it was not a winner for me.

What an outstanding book. Brutal in its reality, it shows the beauty and the ugliness in relationships. This book is mainly about the dynamics of the daughter and mother, with a iittle of husband/wife drama thrown in.

This is about a mother aging out and in the beginnings of Altzheimers. What makes this story different yet probably a familiar one to many readers is that the daughter doesn't like her mom. But of course the burden of caring for her mom falls on her.

Her mother was negligent throughout their lives putting her needs before her daughter. The main trauma comes from living in a commune with the daughter being separated from her mom. Even after the commune, her mother puts men first.

This book is unapologetic in its reality and this is what makes it a thing of beauty.

I'm anxiously waiting for more books from Avnie Doshi.

A mother and daughter relationship with ups and downs. Well written and the characters are memorable. There is an unexpected secret that evolves from the daughter's art work. Very descriptive and thought provoking.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

3.5 Stars.

This is a complicated book. This book looks at the relationship between a mother and daughter. One where the roles begin to shift. The narrator Antara is watching her mother slowly slip away and start to forget things. She is now faced with taking care of her and struggling with their past. Her mother did not seem to care for Antara while growing up. Throughout the book you are taken back to Antara's childhood as she grapples with her relationship with her mother. This book has left me unsettled. The writing was hard to follow in parts and was disturbing. I do believe the author intended to create these feelings as you are reading to really establish how complicated it would be to step in and care for your mother and also to watch a parent slip away.

I don't think this would be a book for everyone and could definitely be a difficult read if you had a tough relationship with a parent or have experienced dementia with someone you know.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy

An amazing book with little sentimentality about trauma, mothers, daughters, and memory. Possibly one of my new favorite books ever.⁣
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In a nutshell:⁣
Burnt Sugar is a glimpse into the inner thoughts of Antara, an artist reckoning with the trauma inflicted upon her by her mother. Meanwhile, her mother (Tara) is beginning to show signs of dementia. Antara is also struggling with a deep ambivalence towards the prospect of her own possible foray into motherhood.⁣
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Avna Doshi is one hell of an author. It’s no surprise this was nominated for a Booker Prize. It’s not a pleasant story, but it’s a whopper of a piece of writing. I’ve seen this book described all over the place as a book about mothers and daughters. That’s partially true, but I think it’s also a very accurate depiction of the cycle of trauma and its effects across generations. None of the characters are particularly likeable, and all of them have elements of both abusers and victims. ⁣
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Antara eventually does find herself as a new mother with postpartum depression. She clips her baby’s fingernails, keeps the clippings bundled in a handkerchief, and thinks:⁣
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“This is madness. I feel it – I inch towards it daily. But it’s a necessary madness, without which the species might never propagate.”⁣
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I feel that description of motherhood to my core. It reminds me of my mom, who kept a desiccated piece of my umbilical cord. I thought it was disgusting, and told her so. I still think it’s gross, but now that I’ve got a kid of my own, I can certainly understand it a little better.

I could barely get through this book. I don't want to blame the current global pandemic for this entirely, but right now times are tough and a little bleak. This book is VERY bleak. So I think that reading this would be hard on people who are already feeling the mental pinch of this seemingly neverending pandemic. It's a dark book that is also pretty disturbing. One character dreams of incest in a way that is far too graphic for me to stomach. I had to put this down several times and come back to it. I honestly only finished so I could write this review. But most of what I read is not something I want to put in this review, lest I have to remember it. I just want to forget this book. Sorry, it is well written and all, but the story is just feels like an abusive burden.

The premise of a stormy mother/daughter relationship (to put it mildly) was intriguing, but I just couldn't get into this one. I am surprised that it was nominated for the Booker Prize of 2020. I don't know if it was the writing or something else, but I couldn't finish this one.

“Burnt Sugar” is the debut novel by Avni Doshi, which was first published in India and then shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2020. It was also named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2020.

It’s about the complicated—and often tumultuous—relationship between a rebellious and narcissistic mother and her overbearing, resentful daughter. Because of this tension, it’s not a joyful read. And it might make you recall our own relationship with your mum.

Like many mothers and daughters, Antara and Tara have a love-hate relationship. They dislike each other, yet they cannot be without each other. I can relate! In my experience, it seems like most women are better friends with their mums when there’s a good bit of distance separating them. Maybe it’s because we’re more like our mothers than we wish to admit? It’s often the things that annoy us that are mirrored in our own behavior.

“Burnt Sugar” is also about betrayal, shifting memories and memory loss. It’s about the daughter who must care for her increasingly forgetful mother—even though she was never really nurtured in the same way. Yet they are both a bit ambivalent toward one another. “I would be lying if I said my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure,” said daughter Antara of her mother, Tara.

This literary fiction is well done but it’s not a book you sail through. It’s better when savored a bit here and there.

Shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, this is a firework of a novel. Antara, who lives in India, has long had a fraught relationship with her mother who is unsupportive of her daughter’s career choice as an artist. But now that Antara’s mother’s memory is potentially suffering from Alzheimer’s, Antara feelings complicate. She feels as though she needs to take care of her and yet, her mother’s casual cruelties worsen, causing Antara to flashbacks as a child growing up on an Ashram, during a time when her mother was a different person altogether, freer, wilder. This is not a straightforward narrative; it weaves back and forth in time. Fragments of memories pop up and then we are jolted into a different time and place in the story. But if you are the type of reader for whom a less straight forward structure and form is not so obtrusive, then what you will be left with is this powerful novel about memory, mother daughter relationships and loss. I found this novel to be smart, wonderfully written, surprising, funny and heartbreaking. Thank you to The Overlook Press and Netgalley for the advanced review copy.

This novel appeared on the shortlist for the 2020 Booker Prize for Fiction so I was anxious to read it and requested a digital galley before its North American release date of January 26. Unfortunately, it was a disappointment.

The narrator is Antara, a woman in her mid-thirties living in Pune, India. Her mother Tara seems to be in the early stages of dementia and Antara is left caring for a mother who didn’t take care of her daughter. In sections set in the 1980s, we see Tara moving into an ashram to be the mistress of a guru; to do so she abandons her marriage and becomes estranged from her parents. She takes Antara with her but neglects her: “she would disappear every day, dripping with milk, leaving me unfed.” For a time, the two live on the streets. Though married and financially secure, Antara knows that her childhood continues to affect her life: “my mother leaving my father, and my father letting us both go, has coloured my view of all relationships.”

Tara is an interesting, though unlikeable, character. As a young woman, Tara is a free spirit obsessed with self-actualization, with pursuing her own dreams. She lacks inhibition and lives her life free of guilt; she refuses the demands of motherhood and makes no apologies for her behaviour. Though one might admire her desire for personal growth and happiness, there is no doubt that she is selfish. Antara describes her mother as emotionally immature: “emotionally, she has never progressed past being a teenager. She is still at the mercy of hormones. She still thinks in terms of freedom and passion. And love.” When angry or hurt, she lashes out at Antara, slapping her and calling her “’a fat little bitch.’” Tara tends to compare herself to her daughter: she would compare their bodies and comment that “her breasts were bigger than mine, but my waist was smaller. She would comment on how my positive attributes were a symptom of age, declaring with certainty that my ugliness would surpass hers when I reached my forties. . . . she was pleased to tell me these things, to know that I would suffer as she had . . . did she ever see me as a child . . . [or] Did she always see me as a competitor, or, rather, an enemy?”

Antara tends to receive sympathy from the reader as she details her childhood of abuse and neglect. But then it becomes clear that Antara is not flawless. Her behaviour towards her mother can be interpreted as self-preservation or as revenge. She suffers from post-partum depression and her thoughts are distressing: “I am tired of this baby. She demands too much, always hungering for more. . . . I’ve never been a stickler for manners, but this baby doesn’t stand on ceremony. She’s a rude little bitch if I ever met one.”

There is also some suggestion that Antara is not a reliable narrator. Her memories of the past cannot be verified by Tara who is losing her memory but Antara’s grandmother questions the accuracy of some of her granddaughter’s memories. Tara may be suffering from memory loss caused by dementia but perhaps Antara’s memory is selective. One character says, “’We are all unreliable. The past seems to have a vigour that the present does not.’” It is interesting that Antara several times refers to madness (“This is madness. I feel it – I inch towards it daily”) and at least two other people refer to her madness: “’Hoarding this garbage will make you madder than you are’” and “’You should worry about your own madness instead of mine.’”

This book can be commended for its depiction of the complicated emotions a caregiver can experience when trying to care for a person with whom she has had a difficult relationship. However, it didn’t captivate me, and I found myself wanting to skim just to reach the end of the book. The discussions of Antara’s art go on and on. Some events, like the trip to Goa, seem irrelevant. Perhaps I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind but trying to decipher the significance of some of the digressions just didn’t appeal.

The winner of the 2020 Booker Prize, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, also deals with a complex parent-child relationship. Its examination is so realistic, empathetic, and powerful that the book left me in awe. The depiction of the parent-child relationship in Burnt Sugar is less successful so I’m not surprised that it didn’t win the prestigious award.

Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.