Hello friend. The Museum of Failures by Thrity Umrigar is a beautiful and authentic depiction of a first generation immigrant family drama in the contemporary world where the single child moves abroad. It helped me face some of my fears and consider them alongside a character who is experiencing them. Take a look at what it is about:
The Museum of Failures
By Thrity Umrigar | Goodreads
An immersive story about family secrets and the power of forgiveness from the bestselling author of Reese’s Book Club pick Honor
When Remy Wadia left India for the United States, he carried his resentment of his cold and inscrutable mother with him and has kept his distance from her. Years later, he returns to Bombay, planning to adopt a baby from a young pregnant girl—and to see his elderly mother again before it is too late. She is in the hospital, has stopped talking, and seems to have given up on life.
Struck with guilt for not realizing just how ill she had become, Remy devotes himself to helping her recover and return home. But one day in her apartment he comes upon an old photograph that demands explanation. As shocking family secrets surface, Remy finds himself reevaluating his entire childhood and his relationship to his parents, just as he is on the cusp of becoming a parent himself. Can Remy learn to forgive others for their human frailties, or is he too wedded to his sorrow and anger over his parents’ long-ago decisions?
Surprising, devastating, and ultimately a story of redemption and healing still possible between a mother and son, The Museum of Failures is a tour de force from one of our most elegant storytellers about the mixed bag of love and regret. It is also, above all, a much-needed reminder that forgiveness comes from empathy for others.
Content notes include emotional abuse, child abuse, sickness, mental health, death, ableism.
The Museum of Failures – The Review
The Museum of Failures probably walks through every young immigrant’s nightmare. The one where a parent is sick and they have returned to uncertainty about what happens next. They don’t know how long this uncertainty and suffering will last, when they will be able to return to their adopted home… It’s the fear that is slowly becoming resignation that now that this has happened, life will never be the same again. This will likely turn out an opportunity to reflect deep within and find the strength they didn’t know they had. For Remy, there is a reckoning along the way, a secret so well buried that in some ways it was right there in front of his eyes. Once he understands, his childhood gets a new lens and he is never the same again. He forgets his suffering, the very discomfort he has been feeling, and turns instead to care and love his mother.
I could not put down The Museum of Failures. After his father’s death three years ago, Remy left his mother’s care to his cousins. He had built a life in America with his wife, and since his relationship with his mother was never very good to begin with, he did not check in on her often. He returns to India in the hopes of adopting a child. His best friend’s 19 year old niece is accidentally pregnant and willing to give up her baby because of societal taboos. But she is a child and is easily swayed, changing her mind many times. Meantime, Remy has to stay longer when he learns that his mother has been in the hospital for some time now. No one has informed him. His arrival is a complete surprise. Remy takes on the responsibility of the son which he has been neglecting and starts to reconnect with his mother. I related to many of Remy’s experiences and challenges. His internal dialogue about India and immigration are echoes of what I have thought.
Remy is in his late thirties/early forties in his book. He feels like he knows best. His actions can be judged as unthoughtful and uncaring. However, deep within, all he wants is to be loved. Years of abuse and ignorance from his mother have made him wary of her fickle treatment of him. He does not want to be hurt.
The Museum of Failures delicately touches on many themes of growing up. It portrays a parents favouritism and another’s grief, it explores the pressures of always portraying a certain image to society and a mother’s unfathomable love for a child, while being tied down by her kismat. There are conversations about religion and faith, the solace of prayer and the comfort of lifelong friends. At its core, this is a story of the love that parents have for their children. It is also about Indian culture and upbringing and the dichotomy of an existence immigrants live at times. I enjoyed the language integrated into the story. Though I don’t know Bombay’s local ways of speaking, it felt authentic to my idea of the region.
Sometimes, to see and accept our reality, we want to share it with everyone. It can mean revealing very vulnerable parts of ourselves and other people. It’s a bit selfish and self-righteous but it also comes from a place of shock and love. Remy’s actions speak to the ways in which we handle grief, the hardships of reality and our imperfections and strengths.
Throughout, The Museum of Failures was quite emotional and guttural. It progressed at a good pace. To holistically bring the story full circle, the last chapters felt a little extra but still meaningful. While the different plots worked well together, I think they did make for a longer story with lots of emotional situations.
The Museum of Failures is available tomorrow. Add it to your shelf on Goodreads if you want to give it a read, especially if you have enjoyed books by Thrity Umrigar before, such as Honor.
About Thrity Umrigar
A journalist for seventeen years, Thrity Umrigar has written for the Washington Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and other national newspapers, and contributes regularly to the Boston Globe’s book pages. Thrity is the winner of the Cleveland Arts Prize, a Lambda Literary award and the Seth Rosenberg prize. She teaches creative writing and literature at Case Western Reserve University. The author of The Space Between Us, Bombay Time, and the memoir First Darling of the Morning: Selected Memories of an Indian Childhood, she was a winner of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard University. She has a Ph.D. in English and lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
Many thanks to the publisher for a complimentary advanced review copy of this novel for an honest review.
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