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Title: The City Son
Author: Samrat Upadhyay
Narrator: Priya Ayyar
Format: Unabridged
Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
Language: English
Release date: 06-17-14
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
Acclaimed and award-winning author Samrat Upadhyay - the firs tNepali-born fiction writer writing in English to be published in the West - has crafted a spare, understated work examining a taboo subject: a scorned wife's obsession with her husband's illegitimate son.
When Didi discovers that her husband, the Masterji, has been hiding his beautiful lover and their young son, Tarun, in a nearby city, she takes the Masterji back into her grasp and expels his second family. Tarun's mother, heartsick and devastated, slowly begins to lose her mind, and Tarun turns to Didi for the mothering he longs for. But as Tarun gets older, Didi's domination of the boy turns from the emotional to the physical, and the damages she inflicts spiral outward, threatening to destroy Tarun's one chance at true happiness.
Potent, disturbing, and gorgeously stark in its execution, The City Son is a novel not soon forgotten.
Members Reviews:
and it is good to think that it will end well for Tarun
I am still thinking about "Didi," who is she, and what happens to her. More importantly, why does she do that to Tarun? On one side, she is a victim of the Masterji's treatment of her, but she quickly becomes a victimizer with a vengeance. And why does Apsara not do anything about her? Is she that weak!! I admire Rukma's moves, and it is good to think that it will end well for Tarun. I have read a similar novel, "The Sense of an Ending" by Julian Barnes, and both are enjoyable read. Finally, I am planning to go back and read a short story, "Maile Najanmayako Choro" ("The Son, I Did not Give Birth To") by Parijaat, and see if there are some commonalities. But, of all the works by Upadhyay, this one was my favorite. Give it a try..you will not regret it.
Good book!
Really well written easy read despite the disturbing subject matter. Characters are well drawn and I basically just enjoyed this book which is simply written but packs a devastating message
"He thinks of himself as a holder of secrets."
The City Son is a hard-hitting book, one that punches the reader right between the eyes, and then does it again. Its content matter is horrific but the writer knows what he is talking about as he describes a young boy groomed to be sexually abused.
Didi and her two sons live in the country. Her husband, The Masterji, is a learned teacher who lives in the city and often doesn't come home for a year at a time. As the book opens, someone comes to Didi and tells her that her husband has another wife and child in the city. The child is described as 'beautiful'. Didi picks up and heads to the city and walks in on her husband and his second wife, Apsara, and Aspara's son Tarun. Didi quickly takes over all the household duties like cooking, cleaning, and even the raising of Tarun whom she calls her own.
Didi's arrival and her manner of being make Aspara so distraught that, with time, she loses her mind and becomes too mentally ill to care for Tarun. Tarun is in Didi's care and she quickly begins to treat him more like a lover than a child. He is only about ten years old, or even younger, when the book starts, but Didi begins sexual play with him right away. The sexuality of their relationship continues up till Tarun's twenties and even after he is married.
