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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
Holy Cow starts out fairly strongly as Macdonald starts exploring the various aspects of India and Indian culture, and it's a fun escapist adventure to follow along as she rides railroads, attends weddings, explores Delhi, and takes vacations in the mountains.
Unfortunately, around halfway through the book it pivots into a fairly boring collection of disparate experiences while the author attempts to find some semblance of religion. Read it for the first half, and once you start feeling like you're losing interest put it down: it won't get much better.
Unfortunately, around halfway through the book it pivots into a fairly boring collection of disparate experiences while the author attempts to find some semblance of religion. Read it for the first half, and once you start feeling like you're losing interest put it down: it won't get much better.
Very interesting book about a woman who moves to India with her husband-to-be. She is interested in the different spiritual paths that Indians take, and travels around to shrines, festivals, weddings, monasteries, retreats, etc., and describes her experiences very graphically. I knew a bit about Hindus and Muslims in India, but there are many, many other groups that are huge and historically important in India. So if you're interested in vultures and Parsi funeral practices, meditation and Buddhism, Sikhs and the importance of hair and swords, or the Dalai Lama, female gurus, etc., check this out. It's a fun read.
COLONIALIST DRIVEL from a privileged, lacking of empathy white woman. Can I give a book 0/5???
What is it about India? Sensually beautiful, yet also filthy and vile. Brilliant and lost. Deeply serious and ridiculously silly. I'm fascinated by it.
I liked Holy Cow a lot. Macdonald is smart and clever and the stories she tells almost read like fiction. Recommended.
I liked Holy Cow a lot. Macdonald is smart and clever and the stories she tells almost read like fiction. Recommended.
Damned good. I really felt as though I understood a great deal more about modern India.
When i picked this book up and read the blurb, 5 weeks into a visit to India, I had to read it! It was so comforting to read a book that wasn't describing the idyllic India travel agents sell or he India we see on the news but the India which I was living in.
As I continued to read a became fascinated by the things and placed MacDonald experienced during her two years in India. Some of them were the same as what I saw. I traveled to many of the places mentioned in the book. I enjoyed reading another perspective as well as seeing how places had changed. The events of the book happened almost 15 years ago and so it was really interesting to be able to see how things had changer as well as what had stayed the same.
It navigated India through religion. When you read it, and having spent a long time in the country, it makes total sense. Religion is so deeply rooted in the country and there are so many religions represented in this book it paints an elaborate picture.
I found this book hugely enjoyable, interesting and even moving. It kept me company on my travels and I'm sure in time will remind me of my own time spent in that crazy yet amazing country.
As I continued to read a became fascinated by the things and placed MacDonald experienced during her two years in India. Some of them were the same as what I saw. I traveled to many of the places mentioned in the book. I enjoyed reading another perspective as well as seeing how places had changed. The events of the book happened almost 15 years ago and so it was really interesting to be able to see how things had changer as well as what had stayed the same.
It navigated India through religion. When you read it, and having spent a long time in the country, it makes total sense. Religion is so deeply rooted in the country and there are so many religions represented in this book it paints an elaborate picture.
I found this book hugely enjoyable, interesting and even moving. It kept me company on my travels and I'm sure in time will remind me of my own time spent in that crazy yet amazing country.
2.5 stars. I totally get why many people find this irritating or offensive. I also get why some people liked it (but I don’t get why it was an “international bestseller”). She starts out so condescending and annoying that I understand that some would stop reading—but it does get much better as she acclimated to India and starts to explore with an open mind. I hate how she kind of at the end reduces the experience to how she learned one lesson from each religion and India “made” her and she was reborn (such a cliche). It’s strength was her descriptions of a lot of detail about the experience of life in India as an expat and also descriptions of the different religions.