Ode to Broken Things by Dipika Mukherjee

Ode to Broken Things Reviews

• 
  Baljit

  Intriguing. Bold for a Malaysian book, as the writer spells out the political and racial sentiments without much self censorship. She captures the feel of the city and countryside without romanticizing, a common flaw for many of diaspora.
• 
  S. Suresh

  The back cover of Ode to Broken Things has the following description [with my critical comments in parentheses]:
  
  Ode to Broken Things is a fast-paced literary thriller [it’s not; this is a drama, pure & simple; at best, a complicated drama] that pits the forces of tradition against globalization [hardly], faith against conservatism [to an extent], and diversity against discrimination [agree] to paint the portrait of a modern nation wavering at the brink of terror [that I don’t have any comment on the last thought tells how weak my knowledge and understanding is of Malaysian politics].
  
  Ode to Broken Things was a fascinating read with its brilliant juxtaposition of race, religion, and cultural differences woven inside the lives of three promiscuous immigrant families in Malaya over three generations.
  
• 
  World Literature Today

  This book was featured in the Nota Benes section of the January 2017 issue of World Literature Today Magazine.
  
  
  https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...
• 
  Rikki

  what a pointless book.
• 
  Hena

  So I was worried I wouldn't finish this in time before my book club meeting in a week, but then I started the book on Saturday night and stayed up Sunday night to finish. Definitely kept me intrigued and wanting to know what happened next. Mukherjee managed to combine just the right amounts of family secrets, ethnic tensions, rising extremism, and politics to keep me interested but without it being too much to squeeze into one novel. A good read!
• 
  Thomas Hale

  This disappointed me! After the first few chapters promised a deep and tangled web of interpersonal drama, political horrors and dark secrets waiting to be uncovered, the book lost all steam and continued to chug along joylessly for what felt much longer than its 220 pages. I will say that Mukherjee paints a vivid portrait of Malaysian life and culture, emphasising tradition, religion, superstition, gender politics and deep socio-political division. It made me go and look up the region's history and politics and cuisine, and I feel richer for it. However, the book itself left me unsatisfied and frustrated. By the time of the climax and its aftermath, I had lost all enthusiasm for the narrative.
• 
  Matt

  a thoroughly engaging, vivid but unromanticised story focussed on the Indian minority community of Malaysia. but for some weird reason it has a kinda/sorta science-fictional story about explosive biomaterials tacked on, which never quite worked and is left mostly unresolved. i think i would have got more out of it if it had focussed more on Agni's story, and had maybe provided a little more historical and cultural context.
• 
  Joyce Yarrow

  Thunder Demons is everything a thriller should be, and more.
  
  It is difficult to weave political, personal and multi-cultural themes into a storyline so that each thread is equally convincing and contributes to forming a satisfying whole. Dipika Mukherjee has done exactly that. Her characters are well drawn and complex, enabling the reader to understand the ‘why’ behind even the most extreme of actions. The political and social issues are not merely a backdrop – they are as alive and real as the passionate people who populate this book.
  
  Along the way to the suspenseful and shocking end of this dark, unique, and powerful thriller, I found myself effortlessly absorbing the complex colonial history as well as the deep cultural divides that define Malaysia today.