The Boy with the Topknot
The Boy with the Topknot by @sathnamsanghera
Reviewed by Linda
📒📕📗📘
The love and honesty in Sanghera’s memoir is so palpable that it caused me to break down a few times.
I’ve read several coming of age memoirs by writers of South Asian heritage and had expected this one to be focussed on Sanghera's experiences in reconciling his life in London with the Sikh culture and traditional values held by his parents and family in Wolverhampton. Although these points make up a large portion of the book, the discovery of mental illness in the family is what makes this memoir the unique and groundbreaking piece of writing that it is.
Mental health is not discussed by or in many ethnic communities, let alone diagnosed. Period.
Having stumbled across some medication, it is only in Sanghera’s 20s that, he discovers that his Dad and eldest sister are being treated for Schizophrenia. As the author embarks on the journey to uncover more information about his family history, medical and chronological, the reader is engaged in a dramatic story that is written with such honesty and wit even when some of the circumstances are raw and difficult. Using his skills as a journalist (or FBI agent ha!), so much is uncovered: the turbulent start to his parents' marriage and even before that, his parent’s and grandparent’s lives back in the motherland.
This extraordinarily moving and rewarding read culminates with the most precious thing of all, Sathnam’s letter to his mother.
A must-read!
