BOOK REVIEW OF "UNFINISHED" BY MRS. SADIQA PEERBHOY

THE SPIRIT OF A SURVIVOR

I read this slimbook-UNFINISHED- in one night and went to sleep in the early hour of the morning feeling small for cribbing about the small issues of my own life.  For here is a woman who has sought catharsis in writing about a life that has wronged her from childhood.  UNFINISHED by Kay is a  first person account of a life that was given to her loaded with emotional upheavals and physical trauma, searing enough to cripple the best of us.

Kay’s no-holds-barred, brutally honest account of a life gone awry moves the reader to  soul, sympathy, then to tears and finally to an uplifting  admiration  for the writer. More done-unto than doer, Kay does not wallow in self pity but tells it like it was.  No maudlin emotion here...just the brisk narration of a survivor who has battled impossible odds and emerged a stronger better person.

What the book lacks in literary skills and craft is made up for in the raw language it serves up straight from the heart.  Cathartic in its effect, UNFINISHED  tells the story of a girl from a broken home and the victim of rape that would have devastated a lesser person and did (The other girl who had a similar fate, a friend, committed suicide). That Kay not only survived but put the pieces of her imploded life together to emerge balanced, cheerful and happy , a successful professional in the US,  a mother, and someone who leaves a trail of cheer behind, is a testimony to the indomitable spirit of  the Indian women.

UNFINISHED is more than anything else the story of faith and hope and forgiveness.  The writer outright refuses to don the robes of a victim and emerges a heroine of the first order.

- SADIQA PEERBHOY