I’d been expecting a novel, so it took me a minute to engage properly - but I never, anyway, fully stunk in. It is a memoir and explores the anomalies of a ‘foreign (to me)’ styled life - not so much geographically, as the lack of caring family with irrelevant social interests - I kept thinking that while I was sorry for the narrator alright, I was never sure what was in it for me. Perhaps I am looking too much for escape. Or closer involvement … longueurs abounded for me. I can see the writing is adept if over-egged at times. It is so much, in this case, a matter of inclination or taste that I am reluctant to cast it off as a loss for all readers.

Thanks for making this avaliable on Net Galley! I really enjoyed this memoir it highlighted colorism, misogyny and the effects of colonialism. It took me on a journey to understand the dynamics between her and her family. Wanting love and acceptance from people who will never give it is a a difficult thing to potray in prose as it can be basic and not full of tropes. But Ira potrays this skillfully remining us we are not too far removed from what is happened to the women in the book. It is deeply emotional and raw, Ira takes it there everytime and challeneges us to disect how we interact and perpetuate patriachy.

This frank and fascinating memoir is an honest telling of an upbringing full of religious and familial division in post colonial India. Mathur's parents find themselves leading such a busy social life they feel it necessary to park their children with their maternal grandmother [ Burrimummi" ] and only visit them occasionally during their formative years. Burrimummi quickly decides to send the boy off to boarding school as he is difficult to control whilst smothers the girl with a peculiar mix of love, colourful stories and harsh discipline. This, allied to the on/off relationship with their parents, undoubtedly shapes the character that three children display in later life. Each comes to terms with their confusing upbringing differently and it is Mathur who seeks release in her writing. However it is only when she visits the Trinidadian poet, Derek Walcott, for a weekend when he reviews her manuscript that her eyes are really opened as to what she has to do to come to terms with herself, her life and her family.
Well written and absorbing Mathur's story only confirms how much family and upbringing shape one's life. In this case definitely nurture not nature.

*Thanks to Netgalley and Peepal Tree Press for the ARC*

Let me say first that I found writing itself enjoyable, and I always felt I was in the flow while I was actually reading. For me the problem is that upon reflection, this book doesn't hold up to what it promised.

It's not the stylistic choices that are the problem; memoir doesn't need to by linear, and memoir can be anchored to a single relationship (in this case the author to her grandmother, Burrimummy) while being about a number of other things. The issue is that this is a memoir of more description than observation. The author gives tons of detail about her life, and I found the vulnerability rewarding as a reader, and impressive as someone thinking about what the emotional cost of it must have been. But it is a lot of description without much reflection on what it all was. There isn't a narrative throughline or an insight that readers are supposed to follow or interrogate here - or if there is, it wasn't apparent to me. Unfortunately that makes it sound a lot like a catalogue of blended privilege and pain which is, if we're being honest, a reasonable description of a lot of people's lives (even if we aren't all related to royalty). The question in memoir is why this curated story of a life (and our stories are always curated, mediated) should be something that helps readers think/learn/feel/be differently. This book doesn't give us an answer to that.

Missing are the reflections on the things the author reflected on to get to the point where she could put this in publishable form. Her husband's family are descendants of indenture and she acknowledges shame that her grandmother looks down on them, but never examines her own complicity or talks about how she thinks of their social differences. When she engages class, it's to reflect on what others thought of it, not herself. She is a journalist in a period of high violence, especially gender-based violence in Trinidad, but she doesn't say anything about the abusive dynamics in her family except that they are inherited and continued. Colourism and racism deeply affected her life, but she is rarely or never the one commenting on it.

For me, this is a book that had so much potential to vault to the top of my list and then landed far short of expectations.

This book was all over the place. Supposed to be a memoir, but it flips back and forth and really gets caught up in the famous person she met. 10 days in and I was only 50% done with this book, and had no desire to keep going. It’s a DNF for me. Thank you Loudhailer Books and Netgalley for this ARC.

Love The Dark Days is a memoir and partly fictionalized autobiography by Ira Mathur. Released 1st Sept. 2022 by Peepal Tree Press, it's 232 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats.

This is a lyrically written and compellingly melancholy memoir chronicling generational trauma through the matrilineal line of the author's family. The product of a privileged multicultural Indian family, she and her siblings are split up and handed off alternately to servants, school, and grandmother at the convenience (and whims) of her distant mother.

The story itself is so sad that it makes for difficult reading in places. The story is also disjointed and occasionally told and fits and starts. It was the beautiful prose that caused me to make the effort to return and finish the read.

Four stars. Recommended for fans of dynastic sagas.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

A wonderfully evocative memoir of a young Indian girl of mixed Hindu-Muslim parentage growing up in post-colonial India with her grandmother and then moving with her family to Trinidad. A multigenerational and multi-layered exploration of family, identity, race and class, in which we follow Poppet’s journey into maturity and her development as a writer. Captivating from beginning to end.

Love the Dark Days is a commitment, both on the part of Mathur and her reader. I initially misunderstood this as a novel, which it clearly is not. It took a while for me to fall for Mathur’s writing, but once I did, down the rabbit hole I went — and that is what this memoir ultimately felt like: at times very dark and inescapable, Mathur’s social, cultural, and historical awarenesses are keen, as is her pain. Her story will resonate with anyone who’s committed to any amount of sifting through generational trauma or cared for an ailing loved one.

I found myself cultivating a sense of empathy and appreciation for Mathur’s work she’s doing through this book but also found myself asking, "Where are we going and why?" and "Is it right for me to take this on?" Having finished the book, those questions remain unanswered in my head. For those who find this topic intriguing, I strongly recommend A History of Burning (a novel).

*I received a copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review*
This was an interesting read. I found myself both fascinated and bored which was such an odd assortment.

Whilst reading this book it was clear the power of the relationship between the author and her grandmother, the way the chapters were written when describing anything involving her grandmother were detailed and enthralling, but when writing about other areas of her life, it was all bit rushed, with nowhere as much detail which was disappointing and let the book down. Having read this I am not sure what the point of this book was, which again was very disappointing

Sadly this is a DNF for me , I've been trying all day to get into it, and I just can't, the story feels like it's jumping all of the place from one thing to other which is making it hard to read and understand.

Although this autobiography was very evocative and atmospheric of the places in which the author lived and her sad childhood, and there was some lovely writing, I found this just too difficult to get into, unfortunately. I didn't like the use of the present tense, and the author jumped around in time, and between places too much. For example, one minute she'd be the lonely child Poppet and the next she would be interviewing Sir Derek Walcott. Reading it seemed to require a lot of time, and effort. Reading it in paperback would probably be easier than reading it on Kindle, I think.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Rich tapestry of the author’s family history of mixed and complicated background.
Set mainly in India, England and Trinidad it narrates the story of Poppet the dark-haired, less pretty child of a mixed Muslim-Hindu family whose ancestors come from the prestigious Mahrahja class. Poppet tries to define her place within the world, in her family, in her marriage and most importantly within herself.
The topics deal with colonialism, decolonization, displacement and alienation. It reads as if the manyfold problems India was and is facing since the end of the British empire are present within one family and therefore making life and survival very difficult. The role of women in this family is not a happy one as they pass on the trauma and unhappiness to each generation.
It is an emotionally challenging book as the unfair treatment of this child by her mother and her grandmother is unsettling. The language is rich with colourful imagery, nevertheless, it is easy to read. I can only strongly recommend this book.

Memoir and family history

This is Ira’s memoir and the story of her family. Having been born in India, to family that once had been rich and powerful, her immediate family now appeared disjointed and dysfunctional. Ira’s story tells of her growing up in Bangalore in the 1970s, and the atmosphere and beauty of India. She later continues her education in England and Canada, also living in London and Trinidad.

It tells of the magnificence (but not necessarily happy) of the past lives of her wealthy relatives, and the difficulties of growing up in a disjointed family who no longer had the wealth they had been born to, and who seem to have fallen out with each other to varying degrees. There were glimpses into both good and very difficult times of Ira’s life, but I would have liked more depth of exploration of the events related. This may be because there was so much information included within this one book, that by necessity the telling had to be brief.

Interrupting the story, throughout the book, are accounts of a weekend the author spent with Sir Derek Walcott in St Lucia. For me this distracted from the flow of Ira’s story.

Overall I found the book swung from totally wonderful, to my being confused as to who was who, and where this part of the story fitted in – perhaps reading a paper book, rather than via a Kindle, would have been easier for me to refer back to check dates etc. There were certainly plenty of dark days, and overall the story left me feeling rather sad for most of the characters contained within. There are wonderful photos of the main characters at the back of the book.

A memoir and family history that is packed full of glimpses into the lives of (more than) 3 generations of women in Ira’s family, and left me with a multitude of impressions but little certainty.

A well-written memoir with a flare that held me captivated by its pages. It had the style of a historical romance novel, and I have to say, it worked well.
This historically captivated reel played by the author gave insights into her aristocratic upbringing. A glance into the past, into how things had traversed into many unpredictable and predictable circumstances. Although the lines between hatred and love crossed many times, the author still embraced love. I thought the F-bombs were a bit too much, I’m not a fan, but besides that, it was a great read.

Love the Dark Days by Ira Mathur is an absolutely beautiful memoir. This book took my breath away multiple times. A must for every library!

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A beautifully written and intense memoir. Full of raw emotion, absorbing and courageous. A wonderful book and .a must read.

Thank you for granting me access to this galley. It's unlike anything I've ever read before but it was refreshingly pleasant.