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A review by kyliereads1
One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
5.0
I liked the premise of this book a lot; nine people, trapped in a building after an earthquake hits the city, decide to pass the time and try to distract themselves from their worrisome situation by sharing each of their stories about "one amazing thing" that has happened to them. I thought immediately of The Canterbury Tales when I read the summary of this book - which I think was the author's intent, since the "young college student" Uma both enjoys Chaucer's work and has a copy of it with her when the earthquake hits.
As mentioned in some other reviews I've read the stories actually told by each character do come across as a bit forgettable and ordinary. I think that's part of the point though. People have a lot going on, all the time, and while you can occasionally guess at it or think you see a pattern, the feelings and experiences people hold dear vary so widely, as do the things people consider amazing. (I took it as a personal note: people want, need, and deserve to be heard, even if what they are saying isn't necessarily exciting or life altering.) I think it's a more realistic take, giving characters stories that are unremarkable on the surface, but clearly the person in question finds something about it important.
I also enjoyed the ambiguity of the ending. These characters were thrown into very uncertain circumstances; I think leaving their fate uncertain was a good choice. I can see why some people would not like it. I can't even say I loved it per se: I became attached to the characters and wanted very much for them to be saved, but I think it was a solid literary decision not to specify one way or another. I, at least, tend to bounce back and forth between wanting something realistic and something idealistic and I thought Chitra found a very nice balance between those two characteristics in this novel.
A criticism may be that frequently the similes used in the book seemed a bit forced to me. There's a way to write them so that they flow naturally with the rest of the text, but there was more than one time when I felt a bit jarred from the scene in the book because of the way the simile was phrased.
Overall, I liked this book quite a bit, and I'd probably read it again. I found it in my local library's ebook collection, read the synopsis, and decided to give it a shot. I'm very glad I did so. :)
As mentioned in some other reviews I've read the stories actually told by each character do come across as a bit forgettable and ordinary. I think that's part of the point though. People have a lot going on, all the time, and while you can occasionally guess at it or think you see a pattern, the feelings and experiences people hold dear vary so widely, as do the things people consider amazing. (I took it as a personal note: people want, need, and deserve to be heard, even if what they are saying isn't necessarily exciting or life altering.) I think it's a more realistic take, giving characters stories that are unremarkable on the surface, but clearly the person in question finds something about it important.
I also enjoyed the ambiguity of the ending. These characters were thrown into very uncertain circumstances; I think leaving their fate uncertain was a good choice. I can see why some people would not like it. I can't even say I loved it per se: I became attached to the characters and wanted very much for them to be saved, but I think it was a solid literary decision not to specify one way or another. I, at least, tend to bounce back and forth between wanting something realistic and something idealistic and I thought Chitra found a very nice balance between those two characteristics in this novel.
A criticism may be that frequently the similes used in the book seemed a bit forced to me. There's a way to write them so that they flow naturally with the rest of the text, but there was more than one time when I felt a bit jarred from the scene in the book because of the way the simile was phrased.
Overall, I liked this book quite a bit, and I'd probably read it again. I found it in my local library's ebook collection, read the synopsis, and decided to give it a shot. I'm very glad I did so. :)