Customer Reviews

Half Life

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In London, Bengali expatriate Dr. Aruna Ahmed Jones married British Dr. Patrick Jones on the rebound from her failed romance with long time friend Ejaz "Jazz" Ahsan. In fact she fled Singapore's Little India to escape her past that included her father's death, drug addiction, miscarriages and a psychological determination that she is bi-polar. Now less than a year with kind handsome Patrick, she reads Jazz's father Bengali writer Hari Hassam's note to a friend during the 1971 East and West Pakistan war: "It's time to stop fighting, and go home." Aruna agrees that it is time for her to stop fighting her ghosts and go home to confront them.

While she returns to Singapore, her inspiration lies dying in Kuala Lumpur General Hospital in Malaysia. Aruna knows she must confront Jazz and their past if she is to move forward with him or with Patrick who she expects will not welcome her back.

This terrific character study contains two discerning subplots as readers follow Aruna's efforts to cleanse her mind from her self-imposed demons that force her into a Half Life and Haris' death count vigil. Both are well written and nicely converge as the audience obtains insight into the Bengali culture living in Southeast Asia and London through this pair and others. Roopa Farooki provides a strong drama as Aruna learns that though Thomas Wolff is right that "you can't go home", Hari is also correct as sometimes you have no choice but to go home.

Harriet Klausner

this was a gift for my Daughter but she loved it and is reading all the books this author has written...

I got this book since I enjoyed the author's previous novel. This one was very disappointing. The story jumps all over the place and never develops any meaningful depth. With the plot being so superficial, it makes it very difficult for the reader to connect with the story. The characters were not believeable. Rooney is a very troubled person and makes some bizarre choices. She doesn't have enough gumption to decline a cup of coffee in a neighborhood shop but she is able to simple drop everything and run off to another country at the spur of the moment and cut off all communication with the people she is close to--she does this twice actually. She runs from Jazz in one country, meets and quickly marries Patrick in another country, and promptly runs from Patrick--and both men simply accept this. I recommend passing on this one! Half Life is half-baked.

The main character of Half Life is very flawed and aware of her flaws, but that's what makes her lovable. She represents the problems that each of us have and the uncertainty that each of us experiences. She wants to know more about who she is and who she should be. The book leaves a few points up in the air, but that's what makes it life-like and easy to relate to.

I received this book as a pre-sale book, so my issues with formatting may have been changed before the actual print, but I doubt it. This book took me forever to read! With that said, let's first talk about formatting of the book. This book is 260 pages. However, the margins were ridiculously large on all sides and the font was larger than necessary. I almost felt like I was reading an over-sized print book at times. That was an initial turn-off.

The chapters are broken up by the names of the three main characters with a subtitle of the location. I didn't feel that the location was necessary and I honestly didn't read them because I'm not familiar with those parts of the world. I did like that the chapters were the characters' names though, because the perspective changed with each chapter and the reader was not left guessing whose perspective was being read.

Within each chapter there were 2-3 breaks. It took me the better part of the book to realize that the pattern seemed to go as such; first section: present time, second section: past, third section: present. This was very confusing.

Also, the information on the back of the book says, "With shades of Slumdog Millionaire..." which is a movie I enjoyed. However, I saw no shades of that movie/plot within this book; other than the characters were from a similar part of the world.

The cover of the book also does not give any idea to the story of the book. If anything, the cover is deceiving as to what the book might be about.

With all that said, the story was rather, meh. I did not feel all that connected to the characters and did not find the plot in general to be that intriguing. I made it through, did not like the ending, and was glad to be finished. The only reason I gave it two stars was that there were sections of the book where I found the writing to be very well written. I'm no writer, but felt that I saw glimpses into the writer's potential.

"...running away really is the easy part; it is coming home that is hard"
Aruna Ahmed Jones just picks up and leaves her London apartment, her job, her material possessions, and her husband. Because it is time to face what she ran away from: the man she loved, Jazz Ahsan, and the secret of her past.

I Liked:
I read mostly science fiction, fantasy and mystery. But I couldn't help but be intrigued by the premise of this book (especially after watching the fantastic Slumdog Millionaire). And this isn't one of those books that promises the world and leaves us with pebbles and salt. Roopa Farooki delivers.
The cast is small, but each character plays a unique, varied role. We focus on three primary characters: Aruna, Jazz, and a former poet, Hari Hassan. All three are unique, rich, and well-developed. Aruna is our primary protagonist, the woman who leaves her life in London (and her husband, Patrick) to return to Singapore and the life she ran away from. It is easy to sympathize with her plight, to feel her emotions (which she relays with stunning clarity and unashamed candor), and to journey with her on this emotional roller coaster ride. Jazz is our secondary protagonist, the former lover of Aruna. I enjoyed learning how he lived his life in Aruna's absence, how caring he was to her, how he wastes his time in a loveless relationship to a shallow woman. Lastly is Hari Hassan. I was dumbstruck at how different he was, yet he was interesting and complicated as well. It was a unique move of Farooki to make him hospitalized (at least, I've not read many books with this development), so I was impressed and torn at his helplessness, at his lack of privacy, and at his slowly deteriorating condition.
The minor characters--Anwar, June, Patrick--likewise make their mark in this book, be it small or large. Anwar was a delightful character, fun but more than just that. June is completely self-centered. Her life is herself and she won't let anyone else move to the forefront. Her character gives us definite insights into Jazz and why he would choose a woman so different from Aruna. Lastly is the caring British doctor, husband of Aruna, Patrick. This guy is winsome, loving, caring. We feel Aruna's anguish as he reaches out for her, but her bruised heart just can't take his kindness.
The plot is full of twists and turns, but I promise, I will make this review spoiler-free. But I will say that Farooki stunned me. Who knew that a woman's journey to re-find herself could be so interesting, could be written in such a way that it has thrilled me more than many of the so-called "thrillers" I have read? Sure, I guessed a few surprises, but in some ways, they left me more interested to see how they connected than to make me bored.
Farooki uses third person present to relay the story in "present" time and third person past to relay the story in "past" time. Normally, this would completely flop. I've read so many books that have used this awkwardly, with little knowledge or talent. But Farooki really knew what she was doing when she wrote this and used those tenses so it comes off absolutely perfectly. I like knowing when I am in a flashback, and the tense change (along with section breaks) really helps me.
The setting is gorgeous, almost surreal, well described yet never, never breaking the pace or slowing the story. This is so hard for authors to do, but Farooki does it like a pro.

I Didn't Like:
Gosh, this is going to be really hard and very nitpicky.
The story starts out a bit slower than I would have liked. A little faster perhaps would work better.
If there is anything "wrong" with this book, it is how confusing it is at times. I can't help but get confused over the countries (was Jazz from Bangladesh, Singapore, Pakastan...?).

Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
F-bombs fly with frequency. Expect to come across some d*** and h***s too.
Aruna has quite the sex life, as does Jazz and even Hari. It is not really all the explicit, though.
Several side characters die, one when her house is set on fire.

Overall:
In the beginning, I thought it was another hum-drum "drama" piece. But Farooki proved me wrong. This is a thoughtful book, about returning to your home, making peace with your life, and finding redemption. Highly recommended.

Brought to you by:
*C.S. Light*

Half Life follows Rooney, a thirty something Pakistani woman who was raised in Singapore but now lives in London. Rooney is in a marriage where she purposefully keeps herself emotionally unavailable, and self medicates with alcohol and drugs. Slowly, the author uncovers that Rooney's strange behavior is tied to her past in Singapore, where she was in love with Jazz, a man who turned out to be a lot closer than she thought. As Rooney unravels her past, she must come to terms with who she really is.

Half Life was a hard book to get into, it did not grab me right away. But once Rooney leaves London and arrives in Singapore to settle up with her past, the book had me. The author does a wonderful job of slowly unfolding Rooney's history, with both flashbacks to her childhood, her earlier, happier life with Jazz, and her troubled marriage in London. The characters in Half Life are much deeper than the shallow people they seem upon first impression, and in the end their interactions really made me think about how hard it is to recover when your life is shattered. If you're a fan of literary fiction, this is a good book to check out.

I sat down with this book yesterday, intending to read just a few pages, and found myself unable to put it down. Though at first I was uncertain about Roooney and Jazz, as the novel progressed I grew to understand them and their unique and troubling situation. I thought the author's handling of the sensitive subject matter was masterful, and appreciated that she let the truth build slowly, revealing itself only gradually (both to the reader and to the main characters).

The prose flowed freely, and did an excellent job of capturing the essence of the shifting locales. Both Rooney and Jazz grew emotionally throughout the novel, and I found the ending quite satisfying and realistic. This book was not what I expected, but quickly became more than I could have hoped. Highly recommended!

I've been a fan of Roopa Farooki since her debut novel, Bitter Sweets, and thought that she may have peaked with her last one, The Way Things Look To Me, which was a Times Top 50 Paperback last year, and recently longlisted for this year's Orange Prize. But Roopa Farooki continues to delight and surprise, as Half Life, her fourth novel, is her best yet, and is a simply stunning piece of fiction and a delight to review. It's probably her most literary work, but reads like a page-turning thriller - there is nothing spare in this novel, and in an intensely gripping love story, Farooki covers deep issues of war, psychological breakdown, terminal illness, addiction but also lifelong friendship, true love and the search for home. She's been compared to Arundhati Roy and Jhumpa Lahiri, and in this novel, you can see the comparison. A novel that demands to be read.

"It's time to stop fighting and go home." After reading these words by a Bengali poet, Aruna Ahmed Jones decides to leave her husband Patrick and life in London to return to Singapore and her best friend Jazz.

I don't want to give away too much of the plot - there are so many little surprising reveals throughout the book and it would ruin it to say much more. I was totally engrossed in this book from start to finish. Just when I thought I had a character or where the plot was going figured out, another layer unexpected layer was revealed. The author managed to do this in a very authentic way. The book goes back and forth from flashbacks to present day but is never confusing.

This is Roopa Farooki's newest book and the first I've read by her. I'm looking forward to reading some of her earlier work now.

(Thank you to the publisher and the FirstReads programs at GoodReads for providing me a copy of this book.)