Reviews

A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

lcoutts95's review

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Not in love with writing style

litblues's review

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dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.25

This book was a great read. I hadn’t thought of how India’s Caste system could affect those in the Western World’s workplace.  Class, privilege, and the “model minority” post immigration are at the core of this book. 

mcrookston's review

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3.0

3.5 ⭐️

baerbe1's review against another edition

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emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

lediamond4's review

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emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I loved this book so much.  The characters were all rich and detailed.  They each had their own POV and experiences that lead to different mindsets, but the author did such a thorough job of detailing them that it was simple to understand where each of them were coming from and understand why they did the thing they did.  At the heart for all of them was the love and importance of family that that's what unites them in spite of the fact that they're all coming from a different place.  I loved their love for one another.

I also think that Gowda wrote a heartbreaking and realistic truth in regards to "the American Dream".  This was an incredibly relevant and honest look at our country right now and I think it's one of the most important books we can be reading at this time.

I am a little split on how I felt about the ending. It was fairly optimistic and fairly realistic but I also think it was a little abrupt.

aishahuf's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes

4.25

melrodriguez2's review against another edition

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challenging reflective medium-paced

4.25

caitlin_jc's review

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informative sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I think the content of this book is important - a young Indian boy suffers police brutality when his actions are misunderstood. However, the delivery is lacking. There are too many characters, and as such we don't get to really dig deeply into any of them. We could have used a bit more "show, don't tell" - so many of the themes are explicitly laid out in thoughts or dialogue rather than deduced by the actions of the characters. I would recommend this as a book for someone trying for the first time to understand the immigrant experience in North America - but with the understanding that there is so much nuance left out.
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kitbunnie225's review

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2.0

I did not enjoy this book and struggled to complete it. Even though the story was promising and had so many perspectives that could have been explored, every character was one dimensional and every incident was too on the nose for me. The characters were completely unlikable; there was not a single character that you could sympathise with, not even the boy to whom the incident happened. Dialogues read as if they were a script that had to be memorised and retold. The mother in this book finally fell into the same category as all Indian mothers do, blaming herself for her deficiencies in parenting and defaulting to the role of the person who had to keep everything together. The author leaned heavily into stereotypes to work out the complexity in the fabric of American society, introducing new complexities from the Indian landscape into the mix, and thus defeated her whole purpose in writing this book.

rachelsuzanne's review

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3.0

I’m very conflicted by this book. It certainly would be a great book to provoke discussion because it’s a hot topic from a different, less discussed perspective. It’s short so it’s a fairly easy read. There aren’t any easy answers. I think I would have enjoyed this more if it focused on one perspective as opposed to many. It tries to be too many things. 2.5 stars