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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is a gripping, page-turning, and short book that follows an Indian family navigates class, race, ability, police injustice, and the lives of immigrants. If that seems like a lot for a less than 300 page story to confront, it's because it is. I think some of the topics the story tries to cover are done really well. I appreciated the parents' internal conflicts about their lives as immigrants to America from India and what they think their kids are going through as first generation American students and how that understanding shifted so quickly over the two weeks that this book takes place in. Conversations about class dynamics were also well written about: the family that this book follows has just moved in to a super-rich suburb in Orange County where they are one of the few non-white families. The pros and cons of chasing whatever the "American Dream" is was another topic that I think the book writes rather beautifully about.
However, this book is 242 pages and writes about so many difficult topics it's impossible to write about all of them fully and comprehensively about. The conversations about police brutality, with the police officers themselves, were just kind of corny in my opinion. The dialogue around topics revolving around racism were also just completely off guard. I haven't read fiction that does realistic dialogue about contentious, race-related topics where a character doesn't just out of the blue say something completely out of pocket. This book is no different, and at times it takes away from the book itself. Some of these important topics also just don't have very much closure to them.
The story itself is really good and had me hooked, but the book tried to tackle so many societal issues and doesn't close all of them well enough for it to warrant five stars.
However, this book is 242 pages and writes about so many difficult topics it's impossible to write about all of them fully and comprehensively about. The conversations about police brutality, with the police officers themselves, were just kind of corny in my opinion. The dialogue around topics revolving around racism were also just completely off guard. I haven't read fiction that does realistic dialogue about contentious, race-related topics where a character doesn't just out of the blue say something completely out of pocket. This book is no different, and at times it takes away from the book itself. Some of these important topics also just don't have very much closure to them.
The story itself is really good and had me hooked, but the book tried to tackle so many societal issues and doesn't close all of them well enough for it to warrant five stars.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Idiot cop thinks 12 year old autistic Indian boy is a terrorist. Overall, I think this story had some great themes and messages, and I really appreciated the eldest daughter's perspectives but I was bored
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Thank you @netgalley and @penguinrandomca for sending me this book for review. Opinions are my own.
“A Great Country explores themes of immigration, generational conflict, social class and privilege as it reconsiders the myth of the model minority and questions the price of the American dream.”
I’ve loved all of Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s previous novels and A Great Country was no exception. In her novels, Gowda writes about the immigrant experience of Indian-American families. A Good Country, while staying true to this theme, is also focused on the American Dream and explores “the ties and fractures of a close-knit Indian-American family in the aftermath of a violent encounter with the police.”
Gowda’s editor calls this an “arresting, provocative, and timely books…a story about race and privilege, immigration and generational trauma. But most of all, at its core, is a story about family and the meaning of belonging.”
After the Shah family gets a call that their twelve-year-old son, Ajay, was arrested, their world turns upside down. We get the point of view of each of Ajay’s family members – parents and two sisters – in the days and weeks following Ajay’s arrest. We also get the backstory of the family’s immigration to the United States, and the stories of several other families and secondary characters. I loved getting to know what brought all these people to where they are now, their different points of view, and how they react to the situation at hand.
The author explores all the various ways one awful incident, one confusing accusation, can have ripple effects, including on family relationships, school, work, friends, privacy, security, lawyer fees, and more.
This is a powerful novel about the differences in the way various groups of people are treated by others and each other, the role of the police, the benefits and costs of achieving the American dream, and what it means to be a minority in America.
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated