javajunco

A collection of interconnected stories about the tenants of an apartment block. The first story features a couple who have some maintenance issues in their apartment that result in physical discomfort and logistical inconvenience, and then the story winds out into a public humiliation, a frustrated attempt to celebrate a religious occasion, and a murder. Most of the events are never returned to in the remainder of the book, and although I thought this was the weakest story in the collection, it may also have been the most thought provoking. The remaining stories are faster and (at least for me) more engaging.

I was previously unfamiliar with the Parsi community, and some of the vocabulary was a stumbling block for me (I would have been grateful for a glossary). As I was looking up info on the internet, I stumbled upon the fact that Freddie Mercury was Parsi, and grew up partly in the neighborhood of Firozsha Baag (but a little earlier than the time frame). Completely irrelevant to the book, but there you go....

Overall, I really enjoyed it and will be reading at least one of his novels in the future.