The Museum of Failures

 

The Museum of Failures by Thrity Umrigar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Probably 4.5 stars. One of the best studies of characterization I've read. No one is wholly good or bad and as we follow Remy's thoughts they flit from gratefulness to resentfulness in seconds; from love to anger; from awe to frustration, capturing how we can hold almost two diametrically feelings toward something or someone at the same time. It's a complicated storyline but also simple--a man goes to India to adopt a baby and discovers his mother is ill. He confronts a past that holds secrets he didn't know existed while trying to navigate his two identities as Indian and American. There are disappointments and happy surprises, revelations that shake his world, and make him reassess his beliefs and values. Ultimately hopeful and inspiring, its a reminder that there is always more to the story than we think.

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Contentment, the enemy of art.

But, son, faith is like an armor.  It's for your own protection.  this world can be an unforgiving place.  Faith helps a man from getting buffeted around.

By treating her son as less than human, they had diminished their own humanity.

But if you don't tell your parents, you're depriving them of something.  Don't you see?  You're depriving them of a chance to rise to the occasion.  To transcend their own limitations.

Because, ultimately, everybody's story was written in the scars.

This was how destiny was formed, Remy decided, not by what was written in the stars by some distant god, but by human choice and effort and courage. All he had to do was be brave.