Burnt Sugar, by Avni Doshi

Our Esplanade book club has read many novels and some non-fiction that wrestled with challenging parent-child issues. The setting of Burnt Sugar seemed promising. Pune, in the state of Maharasta India, “The Oxford of India,”is surrounded by beautiful hills protected by strict conservation laws. My mother in- law’s family lived in Pune, and I have visited there many times with my husband Ashok Rao. Pune is also home to the ashram of a controversial (now deceased) guru, Rajneesh (a.k.a. Osho). The guru and the ashram (lightly disguised) play a central role in the book. 

A rebellious girl becomes an abusive and neglectful mother. Her now-grown child channels her pain into works of obsessive conceptual art. On the opening page we learn mother is now suffering memory loss and daughter has stepped uncomfortably into the role of caretaker. The book’s first sentence hits the reader hard: “I would be lying if I said my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure.” 

We didn’t foresee how strongly we would react to both mother and daughter as repulsive, dysfunctional characters! Our discussion concluded that this novel has no hero and brings no closure. We agreed on some key scenes in the book that we found deeply repulsive, yet different readers described other moments in the novel that they individually found deeply unsettling.

Doshi’s narrative moves back and forth in time, forcing us to confront puzzles such as the personal and social interpretation of memory and intertwining of social norms, identity, knowledge, love, and revenge. Perhaps Doshi intended for us to experience these questions in ways that mimic what mother and daughter experienced? Each character sank deeper and deeper into a mental fog. They bring each other immense pain yet cannot sever their troubled connection. 

As our Zoom discussion wound down, we agreed that as a debut novel, Burnt Sugar is extraordinary writing. Yet Reader, beware: This hard read brings no tasty treat in the end!

Janis Gogan