A review by vivaldi
Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian

3.5

I have seen rave critical reviews about this book and for most part, Sanjena Sathian's Gold Diggers absolutely didn't disapppoint! With beautiful magic realism prose that shines bright like liquid gold, this is a refreshing coming of age novel that digs deep into the notion of sense of cultural identity. Straddling storytellings between two continents and two generations, Sathian seamlessly integrated the messaging about identity with the cultural symbolisms of gold in this clever novel.

"But when the enchanted gold hits the perfect brew of lemonade, everything changes. There comes the ached-for plonk of something thick and heavy into liquid. "

The prose of Gold Diggers is definitely its strongest asset. By blending Indian folklore and alchemy into the coming of age contemporary storyline, Sathian did a wonderful job keeping me engaged in the book. I really liked how these magical elements in the story enhanced the character headspace! For example the sense of purpose that Neil felt and how the scent corresponds to someone's personality traits & their aspirations. This is beautifully done within the first half of the book.

"We don't just want generally auspicious or lucky gold, which we'd surely get from a store. We want something someone has invested with very specific ambitions. For the future."

One of the central motifs in Gold Diggers revolves around gold - both literally and symbolically. Through superb storytelling and Neil's insert story about the gold digger & gold rush, Sathian conveys the ambitions of immigrants and their American Dreams.

"We were both conceptual orphans. Perhaps that is the condition of any second generation. In the space between us and the rest of adulthood lay a great expanse of the unknown."

Being children of immigrants, both Neil and Anita had to confront a crucial dilemma about their cultural identity: about their Indian heritage and what it takes to integrate into the American society. The tension between identifying with both cultures is one of the most prominent themes throughout this coming of age novel. And I think this was done really well in the first half of the book.

On the flipside, I do think there are noticeable drawbacks in the novel. Personally, the second half is considerably weaker. I felt that the latter half is less coherent and there are important things which are not fully resolved / explained. For example, Neil's spiraling in the latter years felt unjustified, due to the jump in the timeline between the 2 sections (I would prefer that there's at least an interlude or some form of smoother transition to bridge the 2 distinct sections). Similarly, I didn't vibe with the writing in the second half of the book as much. While the first half prose shines like gold, I felt like the golden surface is scratched off in the weaker half (instead there are more mentions of alcohol and drugs which I'm not a fan of).

Another downside of the novel is that while the symbolism of gold is explored well in the bigger picture storytelling, I don't feel like this premise about immigrant ambitions and cultural identity is completely fulfilled in Neil's narrative. I felt that the drugs & alcohol mentions kind of distracted the plots / Neils character arc in the second half of the novel - so I felt that there are a lot of unanswered questions on Neil's worldview (one of the crucial things that were unresolved in the novel).

Despite my concerns with regards to the second half of the novel, I nevertheless enjoyed Gold Diggers and how it conveys immigrant ambitions through symbolic meanings of gold. Will certainly recommend this book if you are looking for a diverse coming of age novel that incorporates clever social commentariesy and find beautiful prose a page-turner material: this book has a big gold mine of it!

N.B. This book contains following content warnings: alcohol, drugs, vomiting, loss of loved ones, and death

(3.5 stars out of 5)