The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
It’s true that in an age of overworking, overworrying, and overscrolling, our collective shoulders sit about two inches too close to our ears. The good news is that the antidote is this book: the Booker Prize–winning author of The Inheritance of Loss returns nearly twenty years later with a new masterpiece, shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year.
Sonia and Sunny’s grandparents are old friends in India. Their families remain there, while Sonia and Sunny live in the United States. Sonia is finishing her final year of college in Vermont, with dreams of writing fiction. Sunny is a reporter for the Associated Press, living in Fort Greene with his girlfriend, Ulla, who is from Kansas.
Sonia falls into a relationship with Ilan de Toorjen Foss, a newly famous artist and one of the most brilliantly drawn narcissists I have ever encountered on the page. He installs her as a gallerina in Manhattan, outfits her at Bergdorf Goodman, names her his muse, and then begins treating her as something less than human. Lonely, lost, and in trouble, she asks her family to arrange a marriage. Her family, once cheated by Sunny’s, floats the idea of an arranged marriage over the proverbial fence as a way to settle the score.
Sunny leans philosophical, realizing he doesn’t truly know his native India, having been sheltered in the upper class his whole life. Enamored with the America of Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut, he is trying to square his current experience of being an immigrant in the U.S. with his very privileged childhood and status in India. Managing Babita, his overbearing mother, is another full-time job—though she came around in the last few chapters and won me over.
For brevity’s sake, I will only say that the ending is delicious, and I’m in mourning that it’s over after finishing it last night. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is a novel about all of life: love, parents, racism, class, jealousy, friendship, art in many forms, and, of course, loneliness. I’m in awe of Desai. Clear your calendar… this is a book to surrender to.
