My love of all things Indian extends to written works as well. While in Pune you could usually find me at Crosswords on JM Road, they definitely made some money from me! OK...now for taking on
Itching to Write's TAG challenge of reviewing books authored by Indians....
1. The Namesake by none other than Jhumpa Lahiri: A stellar tale of belonging to two worlds at once but not fitting neatly into either. A profound examination of the family dynamic regardless of cultural background. A search for identity navigating between how you see yourself and how others see you. I've read it about 20 times and still discover new things about it. No, I haven't seen the movie. I'm afraid it will ruin it for me.
2. Rainy Days in Madras by Samina Ali: A story about breaking out of what is expected of you. How compliance is not necessarily the best thing and the realization that no matter how you hard you try to shape people you cannot force them to be what they are not. Family is examined in a more nebulous fashion-people do not have to have the same blood coursing through their veins to be considered family.
3. For Matrimonial Purposes by Kavita Daswani: A rolicking tale of the quest of a not so desirable girl to get married past her prime. Written with humor and sensitivity it was a page turner that I devoured in two days time. Told with brutal honesty you want to cheer in the end with Anju finally finds her prince on her own.
4. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri: This was her first book which I read second lol. A collection of short stories which are completely plausible in the converging and sometimes colliding worlds of the East and West. The stories are brief but pack an incredible punch. Some I can relate to, I won't tell you which!
5. The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri: Vishnu is the odd-job man at a Mumbai apartment building. While he lay dying he reflects on his life-what could have been, what should have been, and how it really was. He reflects too about the pettiness of near neighbors in an apartment building. Great insight on everyday life.
6. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy: Yes, it won the Booker Prize and was highly acclaimed. I didn't care for it too much...it was tedious to get through and there wasn't a whole lot that grabbed me and pulled me in. Essentially it's about a set of twins of which one tragically drowns as a child and the other is devastated to the point of becoming mute and the quirky cast of family members surrounding them.
7. Queen of Dreams by Chitra Banerjee: Set in San Francisco it is a tale of a mother and daughter who are often at odds. The mother is a dream teller who ran away from the dream teller sect to marry a forbidden boy and who lands in America with her husband. The daughter is ABCD who harbors jealousy for her mother's gift because it keeps them from being close. The only comes to understand who and what her mother is when she dies in a quasi suicidal car accident. Rakhi grows close to her father as he interprets the writings of her mother's dreams. Rakhi also struggles being a single mom after marrying and divorcing another ABCD with a rebellious streak. She finds that her daughter has the gift in the wake of 9/11.
8. The Hero's Walk by Anita Rau Badami: Beloved Maya wins a scholarship to a prestigious Canadian university but gets engaged to a local boy before she goes. She writes home to her uninspiring father to tell him to break the engagement because she married a white Canadian. He disowns her but his wife still talks to her as she moves forward with life in Canada and has a child herself. Unexpectedly, Maya and her husband die in a car accident and Maya's father goes to Canada to collect the girl to bring her home. A twisted tale of the daily occurrences while living with an extended family ensues.
9. Desirable Daughters by Bharati Mukherjee: Tara is a high caste Delhi Brahmin married to the seemingly perfect man who is a successful technology entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. She finds life stifling and leave with her son who turns out to be gay and artistically inclined and a huge disappointment to his father. Tara lives with reckless abandon taking up lovers left and right without regard to what others think. Through her son she unwittingly uncovers a deeply hidden family secret that surfaces after decades and everyone still denies. Many twists and turns hook you line and sinker!
10-11. The Twentieth Wife & Feast of Roses by Indu Sundaresan: A historical fiction recounting the rise of Nur Jahan in the Mughal Empire. Meticulously researched Sundaresan weaves a masterful tale of how women were an integral part of the strength of the Mughal Empire. This book sets the stage for her second installment Feast of Roses which chronicles Nur Jahan's continued rise of power and the eventual overthrow of her husband by his son who ironically is married to her niece Arjumand which she arranged. Arjumand is better known as Mumtaz Mahal for whom the Taj Mahal was built to enshrine.
Next up....Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Cheers!
