Book – The Boy with the Topknot by Sathnam Sanghera
These memoirs detail growing up and not knowing that both Sathnam’s dad and older sister have a mental illness. My main learning point was discovered before I read the book, at one of the reading events. It had never occurred to me that we don’t hear about Indian people who have mental issues because we do tend to keep our lives private. For the same reason we don’t see many Indian memoirs but this Indian book fan has written one that is due out next year.As I imagined, having heard the author talk, there were certain areas of Sathnam’s childhood I resonated with but a surprising amount I didn’t. There’s a great paragraph about learning that bread doesn’t always come sliced, there are radio stations that don’t play music (I still haven’t grown up enough to listen to them yet) and that there are adults who let their children enjoy wine with their evening meal.I don’t remember my parents being obsessed with getting us all married off as much as the authors, who is good few years younger than me but some of the events of his childhood actually makes him appear older. Perhaps I was protected from all of that, being the youngest.I loved my upbringing – it made me what I am so perhaps I don’t find it that odd that I behaved differently in front of my parents as I did my friends as the author notes. Too me that is normal; there is a level of respect for those older than me in my Indian culture and therefore a line I refuse to cost because of it. I certainly wouldn’t use bad language in front of my parents, I wouldn’t even use it when with my older siblings!I would also never say a bad word about my home town Bedford as Sathanm does with Wolverhampton. In addition, he admits to going all London and jokingly mocks everything outside the city, perhaps a tad too much. Maybe as because Bedford is just a short 35 minute train ride to London and I was there so much as a child - we have family there – it wasn’t – and isn’t – such a magical place to me. Regardless, I’m a Bedfordian even if I did leave town at 19.I love the section about miss-spelt names. The authors name was recorded with a spelling error as parents/uncles didn’t always know how to spell things in the English language. (I changed the spelling of my surname by deed poll as it was registered incorrectly and I’ve seen it being spelt three ways)Dates are often recorded incorrectly too; We’re pretty sure our mum’s birth date is wrong but we still go with 5th November every year.The last third was the most enjoyable and it is mostly funny, insightful and engaging.7½/10Inspiration factor 9/10