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Half Life
On the morning that changes everything, Aruna Ahmed Jones walks out of her ground-floor Victorian apartment in London wearing only jeans and a t-shirt, carrying nothing more substantial than a handbag, and keeps on walking. Leaving behind the handsome Dr. Patrick Jones, her husband of less than a year, Aruna heads to Heathrow, where she boards a plane bound for Singapore a...more
Hardcover, 272 pages
Published
April 27th 2010
by St. Martin's Press
(first published 2010)
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Mar 27, 2010
Shanna
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people who enjoy reading about messed up, complicated relationships!
This story changes settings and characters very often, yet I was never once confused over time, place, or character. Just as the story’s context changes rapidly, so too did my emotions. I felt like I was on an emotional roller coaster reading this book (in a good way)! I felt the characters’ joy and pain right along with them. I sympathized with Aruna even though I was also frustrated with her at times (at the same time, I would feel guilty for feeling angry at her because she suffers from a men...more
I like how the book is sinuous; the transitions between the characters' points-of-view are smooth. Within those sections, however, the writing can get very choppy and inconsistent. Furthermore, although I feel like I understand the characters of Hari Hassan, Jazz, and even Zaida, I do not understand Rooney's motivations at all, and, by extension, any part of any other character's life that overlaps hers. She just seems to do things just to do them and there is no explanation as to why she behave...more
The novel is narrated by multiple characters who are all deeply connected to each other. It takes place in modern London, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur. I picked it up yesterday, stayed up late to read more, and finished it yesterday. Here are some quotes I particularly liked:
"...How many tragedies do ordinary people with ordinary cares hide in the deepest recesses of memory, or imprinted across their hearts? It feels as though she could take whole cities, London, Singapore, KL, and shake them ups...more
"...How many tragedies do ordinary people with ordinary cares hide in the deepest recesses of memory, or imprinted across their hearts? It feels as though she could take whole cities, London, Singapore, KL, and shake them ups...more
The book begins with Aruna walking out of her flat in London, and getting on a plane to Singapore to go home. At first, I liked her. I liked the idea of having the courage to get up and leave a situation you don't like. However, as the story developed, I liked her less, and I began to have misgivings about the story altogether. She wasn't acting out of courage or leaving a bad situation, and that was frustrating.
Aruna is a young woman with bipolar disorder whose parents are dead. She is self-med...more
Aruna is a young woman with bipolar disorder whose parents are dead. She is self-med...more
"It's time to stop fighting and go home." After reading these words by a Bengali poet, Aruna Ahmed Jones decides to leave her husband Patrick and life in London to return to Singapore and her best friend Jazz.
I don't want to give away too much of the plot - there are so many little surprising reveals throughout the book and it would ruin it to say much more. I was totally engrossed in this book from start to finish. Just when I thought I had a character or where the plot was going figured out,...more
I don't want to give away too much of the plot - there are so many little surprising reveals throughout the book and it would ruin it to say much more. I was totally engrossed in this book from start to finish. Just when I thought I had a character or where the plot was going figured out,...more
I thought this book was very interesting and I enjoyed how the story unfolded, piece by piece, until the reader could complete the puzzle.
The story is about Aruna, a 32-year-old woman from Singapore, who ran away to London, away from her ex-boyfriend Jazz and the memory of her father. Aruna has managed to establish a life - home, career, and husband - in London, yet the book begins with her walking away from it all back to Singapore and the many still unanswered questions.
The story unravels fro...more
The story is about Aruna, a 32-year-old woman from Singapore, who ran away to London, away from her ex-boyfriend Jazz and the memory of her father. Aruna has managed to establish a life - home, career, and husband - in London, yet the book begins with her walking away from it all back to Singapore and the many still unanswered questions.
The story unravels fro...more
Aruna is an anti-hero; bipolar, drug-addled, with a penchant for disappearing from the lives of the men who love her, she is nonetheless the woman you root for. Fleeing a complicated history with her childhood soulmate, Jazz, Aruna uproots from Singapore and marries a London doctor, quickly and without warning. But he cannot keep her, for while reading an innocuous passage from a childhood book, she realizes she must resolve the tension between her and Jazz if she is ever to move forward.
Return...more
Return...more
My first thought on pulling this book out of its mailer was how I wished my mother-in-law were still alive to read this book and talk to me about it...probably she would have read it first as her interest in women's studies and southeast asia would have made it an obvious choice.
I liked it well enough that I would read more books by this author.
The plot is nicely complicated and nicely not entirely resolved.
The dilemma of cultures combining is presented in a thoughtful manner.
The main character,...more
I liked it well enough that I would read more books by this author.
The plot is nicely complicated and nicely not entirely resolved.
The dilemma of cultures combining is presented in a thoughtful manner.
The main character,...more
I sat down with this book yesterday, intending to read just a few pages, and found myself unable to put it down. Though at first I was uncertain about Roooney and Jazz, as the novel progressed I grew to understand them and their unique and troubling situation. I thought the author's handling of the sensitive subject matter was masterful, and appreciated that she let the truth build slowly, revealing itself only gradually (both to the reader and to the main characters).
The prose flowed freely, an...more
The prose flowed freely, an...more
One little lie to perpetrate on small cover-up. All for the sake of what is “best.” Half Life looks at the consequences of this event years later, like the butterfly causing a hurricane, the repercussions wreck havoc in the lives of the three protagonists. Each chapter alternates between our three leads, Aruna the married woman, Jazz the former boyfriend, and Hassan, Jazz’s father.
All three are stuck, both physically and mentally, in the past. They are unable to experience life at its fullest e...more
All three are stuck, both physically and mentally, in the past. They are unable to experience life at its fullest e...more
Hmmm...OK< I couldn't stop reading, and I even cried at the end a little (for the wrong reasons, I am sure), but when I started thinking about it, I got mad. I didn't like the main female character at all...I know she was messed up because of things in her life, but she was a bitch, plain and simple. I liked the men in the story, and I felt bad for them. Basically the woman loves them, and then she leaves them. They should be glad she's gone, but they are not. And the end...not what I wanted...more
Mar 25, 2010
Candice
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Candice by:
I won it on GoodReads First Reads!
Shelves:
first-reads
I am so happy that I won this through Goodreads First Reads! I thought it was an excellent book. It started off a bit slowly, but once it gained momentum I couldn't put it down. Set mostly in Singapore, but also in London, it is the story of four main characters: Aruna, an emotionally fragile young woman who has abruptly left her home and lover, Jazz in Singapore and then just as abruptly left her husband in London to return to Singapore and put her past to rest; her friend and lover, Jazz, who...more
I picked this book on a whim at the library because it sounded interesting. I wasn't disappointed. The author hooked me right away with Aruna literally walking out of her marriage and escaping back home to Singapore in search of answers to unresolved questions. The story unfolds in present time and flashbacks to the past but it wasn't hard to follow. Great character development, some twists and turns, and like real life, not everything was resolved in a neat fashion but resolved enough to finish...more
Feb 10, 2013
Cindy
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
gelezen-in-2011,
recensie-boeken
Aruna heeft een groot deel van haar leven doorgebracht samen met haar geliefde Jazz. Als in die relatie echter een paar onveranderlijke zaken naar voren komen, vlucht Aruna naar Engeland en gaat daar een nieuw leven en een nieuwe relatie aan. Ze trouwt met Patrick, een man vol onvoorwaardelijke liefde die ze eigenlijk niet kan beantwoorden. Ze durft zich niet open te stellen en haar geheimen bloot te geven. Net zoals ze van het ene moment op het andere naar Engeland is gekomen, besluit ze op dez...more
I bought this book because of its blurb; I mean, who hasn't thought at one point or another about just standing up and taking the next plane to anywhere else? However, the book does not reflect that kind of mood at all. While the story line itself is really interesting and well written - I especially enjoyed the interesting way in which the author described the emotions of the characters - I had two main issues with this book:
First, the minor problem was the setting of the book: Especially durin...more
First, the minor problem was the setting of the book: Especially durin...more
I was prepared not to like this book simply because of the cover. As an Indian-American, I get irritated at the Indian lit books that have similar covers of a beautifully traditionally dressed Indian woman putting on jewelry or whatever. Also, the back cover says that it has "shades of Slumdog Millionare and The Namesake." Whatever. Marketing of non mainstream books is ridiculous. This has nothing to do with Slumdog or The Namesake.
At any rate, once I got past my cranky prejudices, I read this...more
At any rate, once I got past my cranky prejudices, I read this...more
'It's time to stop fighting and go home'.
I listened to the Audible version of this book, read, rather excessively slowly, by Tania Rodrigues. I think in this instance I'd have preferred to have read the book as I seemed to lose the thread from time to time and it's hard to check back with an audio version. This was especially the case as the relationship between Aruna and Jazz was unravelled.
Aruna has been living in London, married to a doctor but still fighting addictions to drugs, alcohol and...more
I listened to the Audible version of this book, read, rather excessively slowly, by Tania Rodrigues. I think in this instance I'd have preferred to have read the book as I seemed to lose the thread from time to time and it's hard to check back with an audio version. This was especially the case as the relationship between Aruna and Jazz was unravelled.
Aruna has been living in London, married to a doctor but still fighting addictions to drugs, alcohol and...more
This is one of those books that I enjoyed, but I'm not really sure exactly why. There was nothing spectacular or earth shattering about it. The writing style was well done and flowed easily, although I often had trouble with the story as it frequently changed narrative perspective. And I was disappointed with the mystery of the big secret in the book. Everything was leading up to the big reveal but then it felt very anticlimatic as to how the situation occurred in the first place. But the author...more
"...running away really is the easy part; it is coming home that is hard"
NOTE: I received this book as part of the Amazon Vine Program
Aruna Ahmed Jones just picks up and leaves her London apartment, her job, her material possessions, and her husband. Because it is time to face what she ran away from: the man she loved, Jazz Ahsan, and the secret of her past.
I Liked:
I read mostly science fiction, fantasy and mystery. But I couldn't help but be intrigued by the premise of this book (especially aft...more
NOTE: I received this book as part of the Amazon Vine Program
Aruna Ahmed Jones just picks up and leaves her London apartment, her job, her material possessions, and her husband. Because it is time to face what she ran away from: the man she loved, Jazz Ahsan, and the secret of her past.
I Liked:
I read mostly science fiction, fantasy and mystery. But I couldn't help but be intrigued by the premise of this book (especially aft...more
Half Life tells, in alternating chapters, the stories of Aruna, Jazz, and Hassan. Aruna has been living in England with her new husband. Jazz has climbed the ladder of literary success and is one of Singapore’s most famous pop authors. And the great poet Hassan is wasting away in a hospital bed. When Aruna walks out of her London life and returns to Singapore, the lives of these three collide after years apart.
Though the book covers only a few days of action, a plethora of well done flashbacks f...more
Though the book covers only a few days of action, a plethora of well done flashbacks f...more
I received this book as a first-reads giveaway. This book took me forever to read! With that said, let's first talk about formatting of the book. This book is 260 pages. However, the margins were ridiculously large on all sides and the font was larger than necessary. I almost felt like I was reading an over-sized print book at times. That was an initial turn-off.
The chapters are broken up by the names of the three main characters with a subtitle of the location. I didn't feel that the location...more
The chapters are broken up by the names of the three main characters with a subtitle of the location. I didn't feel that the location...more
I received an Advance Readers' Edition of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program. Because of the manner in which the book was described on the giveaways page and the cover art, I assumed that this book was likely going to be light, frothy chick-lit. That would have been fine, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this book touched on much darker subjects than I anticipated.
It is the story of Aruna, who leaves her new husband behind in London to return to Singapore and atte...more
It is the story of Aruna, who leaves her new husband behind in London to return to Singapore and atte...more
I decided to give this a 3 because it did have a moderately compelling storyline. I was not overly intrigued until I was over halfway thought it. I liked the fact that the author used a lot of flashback to keep the suspense going. What I did not like was all the present tense verbs that were indiscriminately used at odd times. I doubt I would read much else by this author. I did not like how abruptly it ended. I do not expect that all loose ends are to be tied up at the end, but I believe there...more
The story in this book was lovely. I almost felt like I knew the main character. Aruna(Rooney childhood name) had very little affection while growing up she was mostly raised by nanny, her childhood friend Jazz's mother. Her dad traveled quite a bit and was never home and her mother died during child birth. Suffice to say she was a very lonely child and as an adult made a lot of bad choices. This story is very well written and the author paints a clear picture of Aruna's journey.
Although I could not identify with the main character, Aruna, I quickly became interested in her attempt to find her place in the world, either in Singapore or in London. Farooki's inclusion of a poet as a minor, but very important character gives the novel a depth and richness it might otherwise lack. The universal need for connection to others underpins the plot development, and the love of the poet father for his son is one of the best parts. I recommend this one.
Half Life is appropriately titled...I will say that much.
Farooki's representation of the complexities of love and relationships plays itself out throughout the novel with simple conversation and movement.
At times I screamed at the characters; other times I actually shed a tear.
I traveled with Jazz and Roonie physically, mentally, and emotionally as they both sought love and closure. Sometimes, the relationship we long for has already existed.
Farooki's representation of the complexities of love and relationships plays itself out throughout the novel with simple conversation and movement.
At times I screamed at the characters; other times I actually shed a tear.
I traveled with Jazz and Roonie physically, mentally, and emotionally as they both sought love and closure. Sometimes, the relationship we long for has already existed.
Beautifully written, Half Life begins with Aruna Ahmed Jones walking out on her new husband and boarding a flight to Singapore where she left Jazz--her best friend and (failed) lover. Suffering from bipolar disorder and a sense that she is caught between two worlds and might belong in neither, this is a touching, evocative book about self-discovery -- how easy it is to leave and how hard it can be to stay.
I can not recommend this book as it used the F word a little too frequently (honestly, I get sick of that, but Scott says it is normal everywhere but here), but it was very interesting. I kept wanting to be done with it, then the language would clear out and it would get interesting. The take on bipolar disorder was different and eye-opening, as was the meat behind the story (which I just can not give away in case anyone out there decides to read it).
It was an easy read despite three different settings and frequent flashbacks. I read this book at the time I was contemplating about bipolar disorder, love and sexuality. Book pretty much covered all three - though it was far from my state of mind - it made an impression on me as to how people deal with love and sexuality. It was an interesting insight into some of the most passionate/wilful people I identify with.
A novel about a very self-absorbed woman. Sometimes I feel I don't care who fathered who when one particular person is so obsessed in finding out. This is one such occasion. And to hit us on the head with "oh by the way so and so is the father..." didn't quite make it for me. People can be and are flawed, which is what makes a good story. Rooney is an extremely superficial and extremely rude person (though the author possibly did not intend for her heroine to be that way) The book cover is the b...more
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Roopa was brought up in London and graduated from New College in Oxford in 1995. She worked in advertising and it 2004 quit to write full time. She now lives in south east London and south west France with her husband and two sons. Bitter Sweets is her first novel and in 2007 it was nominated for the Orange Award for New Writer.
Her second novel, Corner Shop was released in October 2008 and her t...more
More about Roopa Farooki...
Her second novel, Corner Shop was released in October 2008 and her t...more
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