• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Guides
  • Publishing
  • Writing & Editing
  • Marketing
  • Contact
  • About
  • Free Novel Writing Course
  • Advertise
Writing Tips Oasis

Writing Tips Oasis

Review – Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto

By Novelicious

This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.

Reviewed by Jennifer Joyce

Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry PintoImelda and Augustine – or Em and the Big Hoom – are the parents of the book’s narrator. Em has been suffering with bipolar since her children were very young and the book tells of the struggles the family have endured during her illness. The narrator is a young man who is looking back on his childhood, recounting the lives of his parents. It tells the story of Imelda and Augustine and how they met, describing the happy times before Imelda’s mental illness took over and started to control both of their lives, as well as the highs and lows of living with a mother with bipolar.

Em and the Big Hoom takes an honest, upfront look at what it can be like dealing with mental illness, from the viewpoint of the sufferer and those around them, on a daily basis. There are struggles and times of calm and bits in between and Em and the Big Hoom tells the story with warmth and humour, but you can feel the frustration at times. Em is such a big character in the book, she can be crude at times and blunt to the point of hurting her family during the manic periods of her illness and I felt for all involved. The book is set between the 1960s and 1980s when mental illness wasn’t understood as well as it is now, so I admired Em’s family, who had to put up with a lot and did so with little fuss. I thought Augustine – or the Big Hoom – was particularly strong throughout and obviously loved his wife very much.

The following banner is an affiliate one. That means Writing Tips Oasis receive a small % of the sale if you purchase The Novel Factory, but at no extra cost to you:

At just over 200 pages, Em and the Big Hoom is quite a quick read, but I did feel that it went on a bit of a ramble at times, slipping off on a tangent momentarily before returning to the matter at hand. I did find this a bit off-putting at times but on the whole I thought the book was a well-researched, touching read.

7/10

MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

Filed Under: 7/10, Alternative Thursday, Jennifer Joyce, Reviews

Primary Sidebar

  • English

Copyright © 2023 · Writing Tips Oasis ® -- Terms and Conditions -- Privacy Policy