Book Review- Lessons in Forgetting by Anita Nair (2010)

 Lessons in Forgetting was a book with a strong central story and characters. However, it seems to want to do everything it can to want to sabotage any set-up it has as it keeps jumping between central themes and plot arcs in an attempt to try to fit way too much in. Spoilers ahead.

 There are 2 intertwining stories of Meera and Jak. Meera is a middle-aged socialite wife whose husband disappears one day during a party for no apparent reason. Jak is a cyclone expert who is trying to uncover what happened to his daughter during a holiday she was on which left her crippled. After a chance meeting at a party, Jak hire Meera as his research assistant.

 Naturally, there professional relationship eventually turns into a friendship and then a romantic involvement as the novel progresses. We also discover why Meera's husband left and what happened during Jak's daughter's holiday. It is in trying to tell these simultaneous stories that the book starts to unravel a little bit.

 The two stories are not evenly paced. The mystery with Meera's husband is intriguing at the beginning of the novel. However, as more is slowly revealed we find out that Meera has been an unreliable narrator as she lives in her own cocooned life. In contrast, the story of Jak's daughter becomes intriguing towards the end as the pieces slowly start to fit together. While this sounds like it should fit together, it leads to the novel feeling disjointed as one story is constantly interrupted by the other, often with a far less interesting section. Add to this that each separate story had its own semi-random time jumps and cast of characters and plot threads, it generally leads to a very disjointed experience in reading.

 Despite this, the author did keep the stories interesting enough. It also, for the most part, avoided having to cheaply raise the stakes. The stories are driven by the characters (mostly) and each of there decisions feels believable rather than a plot convenience. The story of a father looking for answers and a wife cast adrift are easy to emphasize with and this keeps the story together, despite the disjointed nature of the novel.

 3 out of 5 forgotten-flavored waffles.