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wjreadsbooks 's review for:
A Great Country
by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
3.5 stars
I wanted to like A Great Country more than I actually did, because I felt like the message of the book is important - about systemic racism and how a "model minority" can find itself on the wrong side of the justice system, despite knowing that they have played by all of America's rules. However, I felt like Shilpi Somaya Gowda could have pushed the book's boundaries further as the book ends off on a somewhat anti-climatic note.
The Shahs had immigrated to America as newlyweds, Priya to escape her family while Ashok had grand ambitions of making it big in the land of promise, where caste does not matter as much as it does in India. Since then, the Shah's lives have improved and they have seemingly achieved success with Ashok's business taking off. And they can conveniently ignore the politics of race:
Meanwhile, the Shah children have gone up in America and have not known the same hardships that their parents have. Deepa, Maya and Ajay have quite different personalities but all of them have their own ways of navigating America and enjoying the fruits of their parents' success, at least until the night where Ajay gets arrested and their stable family unit suddenly gets threatened.
As compared to the children, I definitely felt like Priya and Ashok's perspectives were better fleshed out we see how they build their family from ground-up: in terms of their hopes and dreams when they left India and came to America; the sacrifices that they had made to get to where they are today; and their fears about what will happen to Ajay, given the obstacles that lay ahead for him in the justice system. As compared to their parents, the children felt more like cardboard characters as Deepa is the social justice warrior; Maya is the middle child who goes unnoticed no matter her misbehavior and Ajay is the science-genuis, whose parents did not get him the help that he needed as a child.
It definitely feels like the author had a strong message that she was trying to deliver about the immigrant experience; about building one's community while far away from home; about how assimilation and standing out can feel like the opposite directions that pulling at immigrants; about familial love and dysfunction. However, like I've mentioned earlier, I don't think that the author pushed the book's boundaries far enough, it could've been a meatier novel.
I wanted to like A Great Country more than I actually did, because I felt like the message of the book is important - about systemic racism and how a "model minority" can find itself on the wrong side of the justice system, despite knowing that they have played by all of America's rules. However, I felt like Shilpi Somaya Gowda could have pushed the book's boundaries further as the book ends off on a somewhat anti-climatic note.
Spoiler
The prosecution decides to drop their case against Ajay, the youngest Shah, who had been arrested for flying a drone near the airport and then running away from the police. This is probably the best-case scenario for the Shahs, but it felt a little unrealistic and like the themes could have been more deeply explored if the author really went for it.The Shahs had immigrated to America as newlyweds, Priya to escape her family while Ashok had grand ambitions of making it big in the land of promise, where caste does not matter as much as it does in India. Since then, the Shah's lives have improved and they have seemingly achieved success with Ashok's business taking off. And they can conveniently ignore the politics of race:
"Thank our president," Vikram said. "Nothing is inconceivable anymore. The best thing is to just try to blend in, be invisible. Personally, I don't like this term, people of color. I don't want to be categorized with Blacks and Mexicans. I don't even want to give white people the idea of targeting us."
"No one's going to target us," Ashok said. "We build their technology, we run their companies. They can't get rid of us. The internet would break." He laughed, trying to lighten the conversation.
"What about the Blacks?" Vikram said. "They're the best entertainers and athletes, and they're still targeted."
"That's different," Ashok said. "There's history there."
"It's different -" Ricky took a sip of his scotch - "until it's not."
Meanwhile, the Shah children have gone up in America and have not known the same hardships that their parents have. Deepa, Maya and Ajay have quite different personalities but all of them have their own ways of navigating America and enjoying the fruits of their parents' success, at least until the night where Ajay gets arrested and their stable family unit suddenly gets threatened.
As compared to the children, I definitely felt like Priya and Ashok's perspectives were better fleshed out we see how they build their family from ground-up: in terms of their hopes and dreams when they left India and came to America; the sacrifices that they had made to get to where they are today; and their fears about what will happen to Ajay, given the obstacles that lay ahead for him in the justice system. As compared to their parents, the children felt more like cardboard characters as Deepa is the social justice warrior; Maya is the middle child who goes unnoticed no matter her misbehavior and Ajay is the science-genuis, whose parents did not get him the help that he needed as a child.
It definitely feels like the author had a strong message that she was trying to deliver about the immigrant experience; about building one's community while far away from home; about how assimilation and standing out can feel like the opposite directions that pulling at immigrants; about familial love and dysfunction. However, like I've mentioned earlier, I don't think that the author pushed the book's boundaries far enough, it could've been a meatier novel.