Loved the first half. The second half meandered too much. The book should have been a hundred pages longer or a hundred pages shorter. Really should be 3 1/2 stars, probably. ( )

Loved the first half. The second half meandered too much. The book should have been a hundred pages longer or a hundred pages shorter. Really should be 3 1/2 stars, probably. ( )

Tishani Doshi re-invents her parents' story in a novel spanning four generations. It is set in Madras of 1960s, and Madras it remains throughout the novel.

Tishani takes a page out of her parents' heritage - a Welsh mother and Gujrati Jain father whose family has always lived in Madras. Babo, the Gujju Jain son goes to study in England (that cliche racism never figures, btw) and meets Sian - a office girl. They fall in love and despite disapproval of their families they marry. Sian leaves and England and comes to live with Babo in India. It is hard until she falls into daily pattern of life and has 2 daughters Mayuri and Bean. The second and third part of the book traces the trajectory of the lives of daughters, especially the imaginative, forlorn and love-sick Bean. Bean is perhaps most closest to her creator.

At the helm of the family remains Babo's grandmother Ba who lives alone in Gujrat and has been created as a wise, ethereal and intuitive character. Someone to whom everyone in family reaches out in trouble.

Writing is a sort of dreamy crawl, I read several other books alongside. Words weave an intriguing story, sometime are sonorous as writer often loves to use words in repetition as ba-ba-boom, ba-ba-boom, or ka-chink, ka-chink, sha bing sha bang to effective use. ;) Classic lierary device to track timeline in a novel is to connect it with a political/social event. Trishala's cancer coincides with Indira Gandhi's assassination, Bean's pregnancy with earthquake in Bhuj and so on.

There is identity-crisis (one foot in India, one foot out of Welsh), there is compromise, love and sex - all in this 4-generation family saga. Looking for author, I found her TEDx Palermo talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SxRvo5eQ3s - about luxury of slowness - this book too was written in 5 years. Other two books by Tishani are poetry collections. But, here is one interview of hers worth reading in Guardian:http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/may/23/tishani-doshi-author-pleasure-seekers-interview

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This is story which spans 3 generations and 3 decades. Babo , the oldest child of Mr. Patel and Trishala is sent to London where he falls in love with a Welsh girl, Sian. When the parents know about it Babo is called back under false pretenses. Bud Babo is desperate to marry Sian and so with the help of his grandmother who stays alone in A village called Ganganagar in Gujarat, they get married. They plan to immigrate to London in a few years but decide to make their life in India itself. They have two daughters and a happy life. As the daughters grow older they move away, Mayuri the eldest marries and Bean the youngest moves to London where she has an affair with a married man and gets pregnant. The last part of the book happens around the earthquake which happened in Bhuj on 26th January 2001.

The author is a poet and this is her first novel. The novel is autobiographical. The author is Bean which is very apparent and the situations which revolve around her have a very familiar and genuine touch. That touch is somewhat lost when the author is writing about other characters. There are some touching moments and some not so. ( )