The Hindi-Bindi Club
by Monica Pradhan
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| sounds like the Joy Luck Club | 2 | 5 | 12/28/2007 06:12PM |
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 447)
Read in January, 2008
Maybe I'm just too much of an Amy Tan fan because this book was just too much of a copy of Joy Luck Club for me to really enjoy. It seems strange to me that the author chose the exact same format as Amy Tan (alternating chapters of the mothers, who are Indian immigrants, and their American-raised daughters), and even titled the book so similarly! That said, the writing is nowhere as good. The voices of the three daughters sounded exactly the same; I had to keep reminding myself which d...more
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Read in May, 2007
I don't really recommend this book. I read it for a women's book club that started recently in my neighborhood. The plot was a great idea, but it's not very well executed. It's a quick, literal read and yet I had trouble keeping the main characters straight in my mind because, in my opinion, none of them was well-developed enough or had a distinct enough voice to make them believable as a whole person/character. They all seemed to embody different aspects of the author, and all of them spoke wit...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone
This is a book about love, marriage, family, food, and relationships.
Monica Pradhan did a great job of explaining the subtle layers of Indian culture for me.
In The Hindi-Bindi Club, three young (I'm 40; they're younger than me) Indian-American women learn through their relationships with their moms that living up to the expectations of their families can allow room for keeping their own individuality as well.
I also learned many things. Like:
If I choose to cook more, I can try th...more
Monica Pradhan did a great job of explaining the subtle layers of Indian culture for me.
In The Hindi-Bindi Club, three young (I'm 40; they're younger than me) Indian-American women learn through their relationships with their moms that living up to the expectations of their families can allow room for keeping their own individuality as well.
I also learned many things. Like:
If I choose to cook more, I can try th...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
mothers and daughters, Chic Lit lovers, Romance readers, Multicultural Lit readers.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in August, 2008
recommended to E.d. by:
saw it on worldcatrecommends it for: lovers of Indian/NRI chick lit
I give it 2 1/2 stars. I really enjoyed parts of this book but it bogged down by the end. I picked it up hoping that it would be a chick-lit book. In other words enjoyable but not literature. I really enjoyed the mother daughter conversations and the revelations between the mother daughter pairs. I especially liked the meditations on love and marriage. The descriptions of the mothers' pasts in India really came alive. Unfortunately, the author believes in telling her reader instead of showing he...more
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
chick lit fans, anyone interested in Indian culture
This book was not necessarily brilliant, but it was competent as novels go, and the subject matter was very interesting and educational. I feel like I learned A LOT about Indian culture--about customs, family relations, and food, mostly, but also a smattering about movies, music, dance, clothes, etc. the book is split into the younger (modern American) generation, who are daughters of the second group, the older immigrant generation of mothers. I've heard the book compared to the Joy Luck Club,...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
Indian American women with low expectations
I was disappointed in this book. Being an Indian American, I expected more. It was written in the form of the Joy Luck Club, with each character narrating a chapter, but without nearly the power and oomph of the JLC. The characters were not well differentiated. There were some interesting plot points, but each of these could have been an entire novel, not jammed into one book. Also, there was too much cultural explanation that interefered with the flow of the narrative. Conversely, don't expect ...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
Anyone intrested in India, the NRI experience, women's fiction, immigration, cultural studies
I really enjoyed this book. Lots of cultural insight into the immigrant and NRI experience from and interesting story. I enjoyed the recipes being included in the book. Think sort of "Joy Luck" club, Indian style, but a bit better. Here's an exerpt I liked, from pg 324: "Kolkata is a city of juxtaposed contradictions. Splendor and squalor. Fragrance and stench. Intellect and ignorance. Humanity and apathy. Culture and uncouthness. Arrogance and humility. Cutting-edge technology...more
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Read in May, 2008
One of the things I really enjoyed about this book is how each of the characters tries to reconcile how they were raised, their parents expectations, their hopes and dreams along with being Hindu.
Unlike some of their counterparts, being Hindu is more than just a religion, it's also a way of life. There are challenges the N.R.I.s face due to growing up in the US (or anywhere outside of India) with trying to adapt to their new home while trying to preserve their culture and way of life. Th...more
Unlike some of their counterparts, being Hindu is more than just a religion, it's also a way of life. There are challenges the N.R.I.s face due to growing up in the US (or anywhere outside of India) with trying to adapt to their new home while trying to preserve their culture and way of life. Th...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to Dev by:
Public Libraryrecommends it for: Everyone
A must read for anyone who loves Indian food -Monica puts her mother's own recipes at the end of each chapter! YUMMY!!! I have read some reviews comparing this book to The Joy Luck Club -it is somewhat of the same premise; however, I liked this one much better! Maybe it is because I learned a lot about Indian culture, history, and geography -something a lot of people do not know much about. I learned in the novel that one must never buy the "spice" curry. I told this to my British-born...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommended to Elana by:
library newsletter
I highly recommend this book. Great Indian history that I never knew told very interestingly through the lives of American born Indian children as well as Indian born American emigrated women. One of the best parts of this book though has to be the amazing Indian recipes. I'm still working my way through them, but everything I have tried so far has been delicious. But give yourself tons of time with the recipes. They are worth it though. This really isn't your typical chick type of book. It's mo...more
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone
Despite myself, I liked it. Less literary in scope then Joy Luck Club, but more enjoyable- maybe I connect more to the indian side of things and it does detail a lot of very interesting indian history. It also connects very specifically to my parents and my generation in terms of immigrant patterns- the characters are interesting- that is, the mothers... the daughters fall a little flat. Somehow their dramas are just more like a foil to explain the mother's story... The recipes are spectacular a...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
any mother &/or daughter
Loved this one. Have read many indian/ indian american authors try to describe the journey their family took and the differences between the outlook of the generations. But this one is very simply a look at a mother-daughter relation. Just just happens that the families have an Indian background. There isnt any melodrama associated with the difficult adjustment periods the parents as immigrants had to go through and how the children now dont understand that or their native culture.
Each charac...more
Each charac...more
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Read in June, 2007
A very fun book, unique too. I tend to really enjoy novels about women and also about struggles of 1st and 2nd generation Americans. This novel has both. And to top it all off, while is chick-lit, it is also interspersed with Indian recipes! The recipes serve also as part of the narrative, which made it even better. (I've tried a few of them and can vouch that they are delicious.) An interesting note: There is a whole subculture associated with this book. There is a retreat for the book...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
Kristine
I chose to buy this because the author belongs to one of my local writing organizations and I like to support my sister writers. Also, I love books that have cultural experiences different than my own. This book was filled with Indian (India) recipes that I'd love to try (taste) but the ingredients are pretty exotic and I'd have trouble finding them. Also, while I enjoyed the references to religion, food, clothing and Hindu language, it got to be a bit overwhelming. Nearly every paragraph co...more
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I couldn't figure out where to put this one. yes, it is a take off on the much better and more literate Joy Luck Club and there is a lot of interesting information about India (and Pakistan and British colonialism and immigrant culture and even current politics), but sometimes it got to be too much and I found my eyes crossing. The history and politics were obscuring the human story rather than illuminating it. A bit preachy, even though I could agree with the politics of it. The recipes are bet...more
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Read in December, 2007
There's no doubt that this book will draw comparisons to Tan's The Joy Luck Club. This mother-daughter narrative is lighter, with more humor. I have a little bit of trouble with these kinds of books because they seem to try so hard to encompass a culture within its pages which is an impossible task and a set up for some level of failure. Despite this, it was an enjoyable read and is a good recommendation for people who are seeking novels with components of family drama, intergenerational immi...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone who likes Indian culture
Overall I liked this novel. I have generally enjoyed reading books by Indian/Indian American authors. I appreciate Indian culture and its history. However, this book did not really set itself apart. While the story was nice, the daughter-characters seemed to mesh in the beginning and did not really seem like different people until the end (though they did seem to have the same 'voice' throughout -- to me). The mother-characters were more diverse. One of the highlights of this book is the recipes...more
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Read in January, 2008
AAAAAAAHHHHHH! I LOVED this book!!! It does a great job portraying the lives of 3 Indian immigrant women and the ups and downs they have raising their children in a Western society while trying to instill the Eastern beliefs they were raised with. They learn to get past some things, but others they cling to. Ah. It was so great--imagine "Joy Luck Club" for Indians but with more closure at the end. (Have we discussed my obsession with "closure" in novels? I need it. I get far ...more
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Read in July, 2008
It's not brilliant, but I did like it a lot. Being a Bengali-Canadian, I could relate to the subtleties and nuances of the immigrant South Asian communities. I knew what the author was talking about, and where she was coming from. The personalities of the "aunties" and "uncles", the prejudices of religion/geography/education, the inexplicable bonds :)
As I was reading the book, I also had the ghastly realization that some of my other bengali-canadian friends and I are a...more
As I was reading the book, I also had the ghastly realization that some of my other bengali-canadian friends and I are a...more
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