I've heard so many good things about this book. However, the first 1/2 of the book is painfully slow. I couldn't relate to a damn thing that happened. I've never been in an arranged marriage, lived in poverty, or had a baby. The 2nd half of the book got a lot better. It's about a family and their ties to India where they are from. I really enjoyed the book towards the end of it and didn't want it to finish. I wouldn't recommend the movie unless you've read the book. I don't think you'd really understand everything that goes on. After reading the entire book, I can see why this is popular for high school book lists. I could totally relate to the main character (in the last part) Sometimes you think that if you just married someone who comes from your same cultural background that this would make everything right or easier or something like that. I won't spoil the ending, but it had and interesting end.
p.s. I wouldn't watch the movie without reading the book first, and it has some weird Bollywood jokes in it too that I don't think I really appreciated or understood. I feel like you need to be Indian to understand these references. Or maybe just more in touch with the Bengali culture to appreciate it more.
Right now I'm currently listening to a book which I swore I would NEVER do.
I've been walking every day after work listening to this book. It's about maids during the Civil rights movement in the 60s in Jackson, Mississippi. It's narrated by several different women and is AMAZING! I definitely recommend this and I haven't even finished it. I love hearing the Southern accents and talk about Southern cuisine. But it's just unbelievable what happened back then. How could people really separate 'blacks' and 'whites' like that? But then I think of how so many of my friends have full time 'help' who are Filipino maids who send all their money back home and put up with crazy living conditions. Is it that different? I mean, the maids have rights now, but how many rights do they really have? Do they have the right to go see their boyfriend whenever they wish? I just read an article about a maid who was sneaking out of her apt when her employer wouldn't let her see her boyfriend. And she ended up falling from the window and dying. What are the maids rights here? And even if they have rights, they don't really have the same rights as me because they have to live with their employer. It's been interesting to read while living in a place where EVERYONE has a full time live-in maid. My friends seem to be super nice to their helpers. The important thing is to remember that you are not better than anyone else, especially if you are better paid. And just be grateful for what you have. Don't ever take it for granted.
While I've been listening to that book, I've also been reading this one. It's a true story of a family who runs a zoo in Poland during the Holocaust. Every time I read a book on the Holocaust, I just can't believe that this happened. How did this happen? How did people support this? Unbelievable. Just like "Separate but equal", Apartheid, slavery, Jim Crow laws and the KKK. How did this ever happen?! Again, I'm so grateful to be educated and have such an easy life. I've never had to fight for my basic rights(except my right not to be sexual harassed in Egypt), but I've really never known what it means to struggle for basic freedoms. I'm so blessed.
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