This novel flutters and dashes between Chennai, Pondicherry, Venice, and North Carolina, with its heroine Grace comfortable exactly nowhere. Deciding on childlessness and abandoning her American husband, Grace leaves the US and moves into her late mother's cottage in the Tamil Nadu beach town to take custody of her older sister Lucia, who had been placed at a residential school for girls with Down’s Syndrome funded by Grace’s parents. Before Grace’s birth, her Italian father had forced his wife to institutionalize Lucia and to excise her from the family, keeping her very existence a secret from Grace. The sisters’ new lives together are made easier by lots of money, a servant, Mallika, and by an ever-growing pack of street dogs that they tame. But Grace is both enchanted by and impatient with her sister and frequently leaves Lucia with a resentful Mallika to hang out with some footloose friends and a lover in Chennai. Living alone in India is difficult and scary for a young woman, even with her wealth, and Grace's discomfort with herself, her country, and her relationships with men leave her constantly teetering, not being able to decide on or commit to anything. Even a momentous return trip to Italy and to her father resolves absolutely nothing. The pace of the novel varies on Grace's global positioning between the worlds and countries of her family, living and dead.

Quotes: "The more family reunions I went to, the more I realized it had been my parents' intention all along to create a life that had nothing to do with their own beginnings."

"As a child I used to think the sea had a wall. The idea that it could be limitless was unfathomable." ( )

SMALL DAYS AND NIGHTS by Tishani Doshi
I so wanted to like this book. And I did –parts of it anyway. Doshi in some places (mostly descriptive parts of the book) is lyrical and enchanting, but in other parts (mostly conversations and character development) she is stilted and unpolished. Did she need a good editor? I also found the general outline of the book to be confusing as it jumped back and forth in time.
That said the maturing of the relationship between the sisters grows and changes in lovely ways. Both sisters and Teacher developed as the book progressed. Mother, however, seemed static, even as Grace reveals more and more of her personality and their relationship. Lucia was my favorite part of the book and was sympathetically drawn. I found my smiling as she made her wants and needs known.
Overall, I give the book 3 out of 5 stars for the parts of wonderful writing and Lucia. It is not a book I would recommend wholeheartedly.
3 of 5 stars ( )