I had originally picked this up to finish off my Expanding Horizons Challenge list because the review by CdnReader made me curious, but then Sarah gave me Interpreter of Maladies and I read that one instead. Still, it was sitting on my dresser, not due yet, and so I picked it up. I thought it was interesting, but like CdnReader, I wasn’t overly impressed by it.
Devi — a late-20s Indian woman — decides to commit suicide. Her life is terrible, especially in comparison to her father’s and her older sister’s, and there’s nothing left to live for. But, her mother saves her, and as a result, Devi moves in with her parents, stops talking and begins cooking. It also causes a chain reaction, causing everyone in her family to reevaluate whether or not their life is worth living.
I liked that there was a lot about decisions and comparisons. Everything everyone does in this book has some sort of consequence, whether it was a recent decision, or something more in the past. I liked that; I liked that people had to deal with the consequences of their own lives. I thought the observations that Amulya Malladi made about sisters and family and comparisons and parenting were good ones. I even liked Devi as a character, though the rest of her family took a bit of getting used to. The prose felt a bit clinical at times, but that’s possibly due to the switching of the narratives; you get portions of the story from different points of view, and it didn’t really work as well as I hoped it would.
But, I think one of my biggest disappointments was the lack of food. Yeah, it was there, hanging out in the background with Devi’s experimental fusion Indian cooking, but it wasn’t as delicious or as sensory as I hoped it would be. I wanted to get a feel for the Indian food, and I felt that I was missing something because I didn’t know what half the dishes were. I wanted this book to make me desire to eat Indian food, but it fell flat. I was even disappointed by “mouthwatering recipes”. They were mostly just lists of ingredients and ways to throw them together, not the how of it all. Which I found disappointing.
So, in the end, it’s a decent novel — kind of soap-operaish, but with interesting people — but nothing to jump and shout about.
The Book Nut 
In other words, this one isn’t kimchee or fried rice. 🙂
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I loved the cover on this one, and was lured by the idea of food inclusions, but I ultimately gave it up. And it sounded like it had so much promise.
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Thanks for the laugh, Julie. 🙂 And I agree, Andi. Probably should have given it up, but I got sucked into the soap opera. Wasn’t terribly worth it, though.
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The cover is so intriguing. I’m glad you warned me away from this one. I’ve got one Malladi book on the shelf and I’m not sure why I bought it. There it sits. Everyone warned me that the ending is horrifying, but I found it cheap and, you know . . . stupid weakness, I grabbed it because they all liked it in spite of the horrible ending. But, I hate tragic conclusions and I should probably trade it. Am I babbling? Love your reviews. I just added Into the Wild to my wish list, so thanks for that, also. 🙂
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I like the concept, but one definitely shouldn’t make food a major part of a title & plot if one isn’t going to do it justice in the writing.
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I read one of her other books, and it was so-so, but I liked it enough to add this one to my challenge list. Unfortunately, my library doesn’t have it, and I haven’t planned very far in advance, so it is the only category I haven’t finished for the Expanding Horizons challenge. 😦btw, when I emailed you with my snail mail address, it bounced back to me. My email address is alisiab at mail2world dot com. I’m excited that I won a copy of Bride and Prejudice!
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