John's Reviews > Wave

I had to bail halfway through, just too much self-pity and details that honestly meant nothing, beyond a litany of objects her family had ever touched: "The pot I bought in Cambodia, that (my younger son) once peed in ..." etc. The story of The Wave itself was fine, but her constant references to her upper class Sri Lankan background gave me the impression that she never felt part of a larger tragedy, only as it affected her specifically. At the point where I realized I couldn't go on, it was suddenly four years later, and she was living in New York, presumably because London was still too "painful" a place with all those memories of her family. Rich Peoples' Burdens indeed ...