Saumya Dave

Nandini moved from India to the United States with her second husband; now, both their children are grown, and as soon as their daughter Simran is married, Nandini considers putting herself first for once, after spending a lifetime catering to the demands of her family and her husband's family. But Simran's engagement to Kunal goes off the rails as she, too, pushes back against others' expectations of how she should live her life. Simran visits her maternal grandmother Mimi in India, where she learns about her mother's past, and helps Mimi teach girls for whom education is so crucial.

Quotes

Because when it was happening with the right person, it was surprising and thrilling but also peaceful and stabilizing. It gave her a sense of freedom and belonging. It was all of the right contradictions at once. (Simran, 11)

"It is...to make something that educates a lot of people and then gives solace to those who went through it." (Neil to Simran about her book of essays, 27)

Nandini treated her past the way she treated the Atlantic Ocean. She visited often, even dipped her feet in at times, but always refused to be submerged. (33)

Classic immigrant mentality: take pride in putting up with difficulty. (59)

...a daughter is yours for so many years, and then suddenly, she's gone, belonging to another family, and there's nothing that ever seems right about it. (76)

'If you want to imagine what a woman's brain is life, imagine a browser with three thousand tabs open.' (Nandini quoting to Greg, 90)

...he's blissfully unaware of the corrosive damage that could come from people talking, how it can ruin everything you worked for, everything you thought you could become. (92)

"I won't let you threaten her future with my past." (Nandini to Charu, 98)

[Simran wonders] if there's a part of yourself you simply have to give up before joining someone else. (129)

Mothers lie. For her whole life, Nandini thought pushing Simran to do well, work hard, and have high expectations would guide her in the right direction. Instead, she was preparing her to be exhausted, overwhelmed, and confused. (136)

But she realizes that a lot of her life has been about ignoring rage and hoping it disappears, then learning it never does. (140)

"You see, most people eventually make peace with their lives, but that doesn't mean that things turned out the way they wanted." (199)

"You see, we all had to become scandals before we became ourselves." (327)… (lisätietoja)

I'm DNFing this. It's not a bad story, I'm just not enjoying it.
Simran is finally engaged to be married to her fiancee' Kunal after seven years of going out with him behind her parents backs. But when she meets one of her journalist heroes, she starts questioning her decision to become a psychologist & her future with Kunal. Meanwhile, her mother, Nandini, has been offered her dream job & is starting to realise she has almost lost her sense of self trying to make life better for her children.
As I said, this isn't a bad story. I'm just having a hard time getting invested in the characters & the story. Part of it is because I haven't experienced a lot of the issues Indian women have to deal with on a casual basis like crushing pressure from your inlaws, racism, casual or otherwise or arranged marriages. On the whole I did find it a bit depressing & since it had pretty much got worse by the half way mark, yeah.... nah. I'll stick with Chitra Divakuruni thanks :O)… (lisätietoja)