An excellent story about an immigrant wife who attempts suicide and befriends her psychiatrist who has issues of her own. Most of the story flip flops between the two women, Lakshmi's chapters in her broken English, Maggie's in a third person narrative. Lots of good stuff in here about marriage, fidelity, love, personal choices and mistakes. It's a relatively easy read but still gripping and packed with emotions (for the characters and the reader). Recommended! this was a fast read. i would consider this to be "chick lit." i think the writing could have been better, but i was still interested in the story & what happened to the characters. based on the first chapter, i thought i would like the book a lot more - i felt so much sympathy for Lakshmi when Bobby left for CA and how sad she was. i wasn't a big fan of maggie from the beginning. she just comes off like an entitled bitch. the author tried to paint a picture of her as being from a working class neighborhood and how her dad semi-molested her but it did not really do enough to redeem her in my eyes. esp not after she cheated on sudhir with peter. i don't think this was a very believable book. i don't see this rapid transformation happening for a woman who was so depressed she almost took her own life. i'm glad in the story that her husband became more loving and respectful toward her and she found independence in her catering & cleaning business but i just don't really see those things coming about so rapidly in real life. esp not for someone who was in the type of abusive relationship lakshmi was in.i think this could be a good book club book, but let me just say that i am happy i got this at the library & didn't pay for it.
A story about connection, humility, forgiveness, imperfection. It resonated deeply with me.
—Laura
I liked Lakshmi's voice in this character study, but Maggie was a bit confounding to me...
—scotty
I really enjoyed this book crossing class, language, ethnicity, culture, food, etc.
—surrealistix
Wow. I loved this book and story. Well written and takes me away from my own life.
—Bill
wonderful; every sentence a treasure of reflection. highly recommended.
—Kbferguson
