Synopsis: 18-year-old Grace is on her own, having left her native Trinidad for a new life in the US, but nannying for a wealthy family might not be the source of rescue she needs it to be. Review: Minding Ben‘s strength is in its depiction of the after-work lives of the Carribean women who take care of so many babies and toddlers in New York City. It’s weakness comes by hewing too closely to the Nanny Diaries dynamic of adorable kid with evil parents. I…
Synopsis: A collection of short stories set mostly among Indian immigrants in the US. Review: Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake was one of my favorite reads of last year, so I decided I needed to check out her much-buzzed about collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies. It will surprise no one who has read these tales that I found them both simple and spectacular. I am not usually a fan of short stories, though now that I am short on time for reading I’m finding…
Synopsis: An Indian-American immigrant named after a Russian writer struggles to find his place in the world. Review: I know the month is only 2 days young, but The Namesake might be my favorite read of October. Sprawling and intimate, Gogol Ganguli’s story riveted me in a way that I wish Zadie Smith’s White Teeth had. Though perhaps that’s just that I’m an American and not British. I found Gogol’s world and struggles to be accessible, and I connected with him even though he’s very…
White Teeth: A Novel by Zadie Smith Synopsis: 3 families–one Bengal, one white English/Jamaican, and the third white English–twist and turn throughout one another’s lives over the decades in and around a multicultural neighborhood in London. Review: Smith has a stellar knack for portraiture, with all of her characters being wholly unique, and capturing subtle aspects of character psychology in novel ways. My favorite has to be the long-suffering Alsana, mother to two twins as different as night and day. After her much-older husband Samad…