Bitter Melon by Liv Little
Liv Little's sophomore novel is a tender, empathetic exploration of a father-daughter relationship
Bitter Melon is narrated through alternate chapters by estranged father and daughter, Delroy and Jalissa: the former a Jamaican-born London bus driver who whiles away his time playing dominos between shifts, the latter teaches at the University of Leeds hoping for a permanent post. Both receive life-changing news which results in a trip back to Delroy’s country of birth. During this journey they are initially hesitant and suspicious around each other, their shared past hard to put behind them, but become closer as familial secrets are revealed and they discover they have more in common than they realised.
It is in no small part a treatise on morality and mortality, and how the two are inextricably linked. Delroy in particular is on a mission to understand more about the past to take his mind off the present. His personal version of Proust’s madeleine cake is the ‘bitter melon’ of the novel’s title, one taste enough to fire memories of a misspent and often troubled youth.
Bitter Melon is an exceptionally empathetic novel, exploring family, identity, parenthood, and grief, as well as the terror of growing old and doing so alone. It is brutally but beautifully honest about the love and regret that parents inevitably feel, and the life-changing realisation when roles become reversed and the once cared for become the carers. Intensely emotional and vividly sensual – the sights, sounds, and tastes of Jamaica are tangible – Liv Little has written a heart-breaking yet ultimately uplifting novel which will have you reflecting on you and yours.
