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mamaorgana80's review against another edition
4.0
A reader-writer’s book full of wandering thoughts and purposeful loose ends. Lovely.
isering's review against another edition
4.0
This book made me laugh a lot. Little sharp laughs, from well-put observations. It's not an engrossing Long-Form narrative but rather a collection of witty journal entries, but I enjoyed it.
sebrandon's review against another edition
2.0
Added a star for interesting leftist political history but overall would not recommend. The author/narrator treats sexual violence as a plot mechanism for the women in his life without adding any characterization beyond the ‘manic pixie dream girl’ trope.
sashagrons's review against another edition
3.0
Definitely hit a point halfway through where I thought to myself, "When will this book be over?" Long plot tangents with deeply obscure references...a main character without much substance to remember him by...I was disappointed and wanted to feel more attachment to this book than I did.
ct2034's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-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? Yes
5.0
I loved the book. It is hard to say what it is, but it is definitely not what you expect. I picked it up about a year before I started reading it. And when I started, I did not remember why I picked it up. So I went and read a couple of reviews. Most of them are pretty bad. I think the fault of those reviewers was to expect something from the book.
A desperate attempt to roughly summarize this book and why it is not what you expect:
* India (in the sense of being split from Pakistan)
* Politics (in the sense of requiring more than complaining)
* Love (in the sense of grief)
* Immigration (in the sense of leaving what you thought you are)
A desperate attempt to roughly summarize this book and why it is not what you expect:
* India (in the sense of being split from Pakistan)
* Politics (in the sense of requiring more than complaining)
* Love (in the sense of grief)
* Immigration (in the sense of leaving what you thought you are)
an_everyday_penguin's review
3.0
I was originally going to say a solid 3 star rating, but something happened in the end that made me really dislike the book and I feel like it's more of a 2.5 now for me. Goodreads won't let you do half star ratings, so I'm just going to round up and include this because I feel like it's important.
The biggest thing about this book is that the narrator does not stop talking about sex. Everything in his life seems to focus on it and he can't think of anything if it's not related to sex. He's a graduate student and mentions his work a couple times, but definitely by the second half of the book, he mentioned it as a way to compare his work to whatever woman he was sleeping with and what she was doing. There was just a lot of sex; not like graphic descriptions of sex but like thinking about sex and allusions to sex and it felt kind of over the top. I think that was intentional, but I spent a good portion of the book wondering if the narrator could talk about anything else.
His relationships with his girlfriends were interesting, mostly because I thought they were interesting. I liked reading about them discovering what I could about them a lot more than the narrator seemed to. I mean, I'm sure he did and those conversations were shortened to 'we spent the night talking before having sex' or whatever. But I liked reading about them and since he has multiple girlfriends in this book, it was interesting to compare all of them (not in like a negative way, just see how they were written differently).
The thing that made me really dislike the ending:.
Overall, I'm not entirely sure what to think about this book. It was okay, I guess, is all I can say. I didn't hate it, but I'm not going to rave about it and I definitely don't consider it to be one of the best books I've read for a class. It's not the best, but it's not the worst. It's just solidly in the middle, I guess.
The biggest thing about this book is that the narrator does not stop talking about sex. Everything in his life seems to focus on it and he can't think of anything if it's not related to sex. He's a graduate student and mentions his work a couple times, but definitely by the second half of the book, he mentioned it as a way to compare his work to whatever woman he was sleeping with and what she was doing. There was just a lot of sex; not like graphic descriptions of sex but like thinking about sex and allusions to sex and it felt kind of over the top. I think that was intentional, but I spent a good portion of the book wondering if the narrator could talk about anything else.
His relationships with his girlfriends were interesting, mostly because I thought they were interesting. I liked reading about them discovering what I could about them a lot more than the narrator seemed to. I mean, I'm sure he did and those conversations were shortened to 'we spent the night talking before having sex' or whatever. But I liked reading about them and since he has multiple girlfriends in this book, it was interesting to compare all of them (not in like a negative way, just see how they were written differently).
The thing that made me really dislike the ending:
Spoiler
one of the narrator's 'friends' committed suicide and it felt like it was for shock value. I say 'friend' because the narrator found out about his friend's suicide, made some tea for the girlfriend who found the body, thought about him once a paragraph later, and then just moved on. The narrator seemed completely unaffected by the death, and you would think if they were really friends the narrator would've grieved a bit more? And the way it was just randomly introduced and then forgotten about makes it seem like it was there for shock value. Literally on the next page he's talking about a breakup and he seems sadder there. I just feel like the suicide could've been handled better, or taken out of the story and nothing would have changedOverall, I'm not entirely sure what to think about this book. It was okay, I guess, is all I can say. I didn't hate it, but I'm not going to rave about it and I definitely don't consider it to be one of the best books I've read for a class. It's not the best, but it's not the worst. It's just solidly in the middle, I guess.
kbuchanan's review against another edition
3.0
This book was not quite what I expected, but it was an interesting reflection on the transitory nature of experiences in a new country and culture. Focusing on one Indian man's life and loves as a graduate student in the U.S., this book is a slow unfolding of processing where we come from, where we are going, and what makes life meaningful along the way. It was at times a bit too meandering for me, and I sometimes got the feeling that I was viewing the narrator through several sets of filters. The story also views the narrator's experience through the lens of several women that he has loved, and I felt like these characters at times verged on becoming simply vessels for the protagonist to use to process some stage of feeling or other. Occasionally very interesting, but often slow.
vnalamalapu's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
agarje1's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 Stars
I definitely enjoyed this book more as it went along. The author explores a lot of interesting issues (such as communism, colonialism, and poverty) and themes (like migration, isolation, and relationships) while recounting the thoughts and personal life of a grad student in 1990s New York. This book really read more like a meditation on these themes and issues than a straightforward novel. Unlike most of the novels I read, this one didn't rely on its writing style, a plot, or its characters to propel it forward. Instead, connections were drawn through world events and the various texts, global events, and cultural contexts that the narrator encountered as an immigrant, but also as a young boy in India.
I haven't read much "autofiction," but one thing I find is that these types of novels do not feel quite as cohesive to me. Perhaps it is because they imitate real life much more than other novels. While this book read like an interesting thought exercise, it didn't really fulfill what I look for when I choose to read novels in particular.
I definitely enjoyed this book more as it went along. The author explores a lot of interesting issues (such as communism, colonialism, and poverty) and themes (like migration, isolation, and relationships) while recounting the thoughts and personal life of a grad student in 1990s New York. This book really read more like a meditation on these themes and issues than a straightforward novel. Unlike most of the novels I read, this one didn't rely on its writing style, a plot, or its characters to propel it forward. Instead, connections were drawn through world events and the various texts, global events, and cultural contexts that the narrator encountered as an immigrant, but also as a young boy in India.
I haven't read much "autofiction," but one thing I find is that these types of novels do not feel quite as cohesive to me. Perhaps it is because they imitate real life much more than other novels. While this book read like an interesting thought exercise, it didn't really fulfill what I look for when I choose to read novels in particular.