A review by saralynnburnett
Miss New India by Bharati Mukherjee

4.0

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would - yes, the characters have no emotional depth, BUT the plot moves along so quickly that I couldn't put it down. It is the (fictional) story of a young Indian woman who leaves her backwater town to escape an arranged marriage and ends up in Bangalore trying to get a job at a call center. As one of the Americans on the other end of the phone line I found this part to be the most interesting in the book. The training these people receive: practicing various American accents (by watching Sex and the City and the Sopranos), memorizing time zone and state codes, keeping up to date with American sporting events, how do deflect games that American callers play called 'root out the Indian' - was fascinating! I also really appreciated the novelty of the setting. I've read books about India before, but they were all set during the British rule and this one was set in the present day. I believe the author to be completely correct in saying that 'India is on fire' - and we'd all do well to pay more attention to it.