Miss New India

Sep 28, 2011 Lisa Sansone rated it 3 of 5 stars

Random thoughts:

- It was kind of light, and easy to read, which I appreciated. The writer writes, for the most part, with an engaging touch. In a way, it's kind of a "pop" novel that deals with real, interesting themes.

- Conversely, though it deals with fairly serious, "large" themes (especially the tensions between old and new in a rapidly changing India), I'm not sure it qualifies as "great literature". In fact, it was the author's attempts at "great literature" that made it ultimately fall a...more Random thoughts:

- It was kind of light, and easy to read, which I appreciated. The writer writes, for the most part, with an engaging touch. In a way, it's kind of a "pop" novel that deals with real, interesting themes.

- Conversely, though it deals with fairly serious, "large" themes (especially the tensions between old and new in a rapidly changing India), I'm not sure it qualifies as "great literature". In fact, it was the author's attempts at "great literature" that made it ultimately fall a bit flat for me. I thought the book was at its best when it was just kind of a fairly light-hearted take on a young girl's transition from small town to big city life in modern India. I felt like I got a good sense of the issues at hand. But mid-way through, I began to realize that the author had slightly "greater" ambitions. Basically, every character in the book, as well as every location, every scene, even every casual detail, "represents" something, or serves a largely symbolic/theoretical/one-dimensional role: there is a gay friend, an ex-patriot, an old colonialist lady, an entrepreneur, a traditional father, a colonial mansion, a call center, a terrorist, a nouveau riche benefactress, a free-thinking young man. Even the casual details (a look-alike roommate, a t-shirt, etc) come to serve a purpose. For me, it ended up reading like a "teen lit" book you might read in high school, where everything serves a purpose, and has an obvious meaning (or lesson) -- but nothing really is fleshed out or feels "real". I don't necessarily mean this as a criticism (I, for one, like teen lit, and think it serves a valid purpose). It's just that the book kind of bogs down, and rings a bit false, when the author tries to force her story (or story-telling) to be "great" and "profound". I feel like she was trying too hard (swinging for the fences), and that she didn't really succeed.

- Additionally (and related to the above), I never felt that I got a real handle on the main character. A small-town girl, she is supposed to have some obvious quality that endears her to an almost never-ending parade of super-interesting and influential people -- but it was never clear to me just what exactly was so special or endearing about her. Early on, we are told that she is not particularly attractive (except for her smile), but she somehow winds up as a cover girl, a style icon and artistic muse. We are also "told" that her high school teacher thinks she is unusually smart, but there was little in the actual description that made me feel she was all that smart (indeed, during a lot of the narrative she comes off as rather stupid, shallow and unlikable). I kept feeling that I was being "told" she was intelligent, sassy, and interesting, instead of actually experiencing it for myself. She was simultaneously supposed to represent a kind of universal "every girl", while being endlessly fascinating to everyone. Like the plot, I'm not sure that she successfully resolved herself between being a metaphor and a real character. The author just tried too hard to force the metaphors, force the symbolism, even force the plot, instead of letting the meanings (and story) just arise more naturally and lightly.

- Again, I'm not trying to bash the book. It's not "great", but there were things about it that I really liked, and I *really* appreciated the author taking on an interesting topic in a very, very easy-to-read and simple way. You could do a lot worse if you are looking for an easy way to get to know modern India.

(One last comment. In a way, the style of this book reminded me of Indian cooking. There is a touch of a lot of different flavors: melodrama, comedy, social commentary, farce, extreme seriousness, light-heartedness, mystery, etc.)
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Nov 01, 2011 Mosmi rated it 3 of 5 stars

In this book Miss New India author basically takes you on the trip through the life of a19yr old girl. The book is fun because the main character Anjali is pretty charismatic playful and very descriptive - kinda takes you there. The story starts of as the typical scenario, Anjali who is about to be married of to the perfect boy but she wants more out of her life then to be housewife in some remote town. As the pressure from continues, she find a friend and support in a professor, who motivates h...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Louise rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, india-fiction

There are some very good parts of this book. One is the narrative of Anjali's family and her father's poor matchmaking skills and another is the description of call center training program in Bangalore. There is an interesting, if unrealistic, presentation of social changes going on in today's India as young people from small towns leave those places and the long held values of their parents behind. These show the potential of this writer and the goals of this novel, but the muddled character of...more There are some very good parts of this book. One is the narrative of Anjali's family and her father's poor matchmaking skills and another is the description of call center training program in Bangalore. There is an interesting, if unrealistic, presentation of social changes going on in today's India as young people from small towns leave those places and the long held values of their parents behind. These show the potential of this writer and the goals of this novel, but the muddled character of the heroine and the continuous co-incidences don't match the promise of Anjali Bose's daring journey to Bangalore.

Anjali, on whom this story depends, is not at all believable. She is ambitious and independent, but she can't seem to borrow a cell phone to make an important call. She is Peter Champion's best student and allegedly savvy, but she can't understand the basic premise on which call centers operate. Her attitude is a contradictory mess of daring and withdrawal. If you give some margin for the confusion that could beset a young girl with such a radical change in her life, you would expect a set of different responses than she seems to have. At times she seems passive aggressive, a strange attribute for a supposed heroine, particularly one that people in high positions extend themselves to help. She is not described as beautiful, but she catches the eye of India's best catches, a computer genius takes his life presumably over her and her photo seems to launch a 1000 suitors.

The interconnection of people is far too coincidental for a populous country like India and the city of Bangalore with over 5 million people. How realistic is it that on day one this country girl would meet the likes of Girish Gujral who would know and admire the work of someone from her small town, and that the Bengali Svengali Monish Lahiri would know anything about Subodh Mitra or that Anjeli would meet Rabi Chatterjee in Gauripur and that he would re-emerge in Bangalore or that the seemingly wealthy Husseina Shiraz would be in boarding house of Minnie Bagehot? Each of these (and more... I won't divulge the plot) is only vaguely plausible.

While the protagonist and the plot don't add up, there are a lot of interesting elements to the book to keep you reading it to the end. The portrait of social changes in India provides food for thought. (less)

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Aug 18, 2012 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very interesting book, although I'd love to talk to an Indian woman who has read it to get her perspective. Anjali Bose, a young Bengali woman with good Engish skills runs away from her parents' home in a small town to Bangalore, where she expects to begin a new, modern life working in an out-sourcing call center. I found the mix of tradition, arranged marriages, the after-effects of divorce, the limited options for a woman, the need for a woman to protect her reputation in a small town to be...more

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Mar 15, 2012 Rosemary rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting story of the emerging women of India,although not very likeable, Anjali Bose is the author's view of the new Miss India. Angie has been brought up to expect a successful arranged marriage, despite her sister's disastrous example. Growing up in a small town, she nevertheless catches the interest of an expat teacher who sees potential in her. From the description, I just see a spoiled brat who expects Prince Charming, selected by her father, to sweep her off her feet to riches and glor...more

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Jan 24, 2012 Darshan Elena rated it 3 of 5 stars

I found this book troubling but worthwhile and interesting. Anjali/Angie, the novel's central character, is riddled with anxiety and often numb to the violence she endures. Her insecurities always grate against the expectations of her friends, mentors, and parents. Yet, she is inscrutable to everyone, herself included. That element of the book reminded me of orientalism (the east as mirror and archive of western fantasies), both embodied and old-school. The novel's scope and focus also made me r...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Genevieve rated it 2 of 5 stars

2.5 stars if Goodreads allowed halves. I was really intrigued to learn about a young Indian woman's journey from bucking the chauvinist old school society where her father was to choose her husband from newspaper ads to a new independent life in Bangalore where the "new India" is emerging and giving women a chance to choose their own destiny. But ultimately I really struggled to identify with Anjali. I think she was supposed to come across as a Bridget Jones type character, someone a bit silly b...more

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Jan 04, 2012 Agatha rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book is hard to pin down to one genre. In one sense, it's like chick lit. But in another sense, it's so Indian, that it's like reading a foreign book. So, I suppose you could call it Indian Chick Lit (?) but for US readers. The author is an Indian English prof at Berkeley. I haven't read any other reviews but I found it kind of a confusing read. For as many Indian books I read, I just find it a difficult country to wrap my brain around, and the names (of people, places, events in history, e...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Donna Desroches rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was the book that mom and l listened to to as we drove down the Alaska Highway. I found it an intriguing read as I struggled to identify with the main character, 19 year old Anjali. She is alternately strong and admirable and naive and immature. She overcomes several obstacles (including rape and prison) on the way to achieving her dream of working in a call centre in Bangalore but she is also portrayed as self-centred, lacking in curiosity about the world around her, and dependent on other...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Heidi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, read-2011

I picked up this book after reading the starred review in Booklist. Sadly the book did not live up to that review, at least for me. Anjali (Angie) leaves her home and upcoming arranged marriage for the city of Bangalore, home to call centers looking for workers. Anjali finds a housing arrangement due to contacts of her expatriate teacher, a writer held in some esteem in India. She lives off the teacher's monetary gift and when she finally seeks employment at a company the teacher had introduced...more

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Jul 18, 2011 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Miss New India is a novel whose intent seems clear – the dissolution of traditional India via a social revolution steeped in the “benefits” of materialism. It is the new India, a feminine universe, whoring herself out to the westernized world; namely the USA. In this regard, India is young and naive, like the protagonist, Anjali. India has not yet matured from her experience. It is adolescent growth in progress - the outcome yet unknown. Like Anjali, it is still being invented. India’s purpose i...more

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Jul 15, 2011 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Nineteen year old Anjali Bose lives with her lower middle class family in a small village in India. Her father's dream is to arrange a marriage for her with a suitable boy but Anjali has bigger dreams than that. With the help of her English teacher, Anjali moves to Bangalore with the hopes of becoming a customer support specialist at a call center. She quickly learns that big-city life is not as easy and carefree as she thought it would be.

Anjali was a hard character to like. She floats through...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would - yes, the characters have no emotional depth, BUT the plot moves along so quickly that I couldn't put it down. It is the (fictional) story of a young Indian woman who leaves her backwater town to escape an arranged marriage and ends up in Bangalore trying to get a job at a call center. As one of the Americans on the other end of the phone line I found this part to be the most interesting in the book. The training these people receive: practi...more

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Mar 06, 2011 Brigdh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, poc

Anjali Bose is a small town girl in rural India who has big dreams. Her teacher, an ex-pat American, encourages her to make something of herself by heading to Bangalore, which they both see as the best new city in India. Anjali eventually heads there, and ends up in more trouble than she anticipated.

The writing in this novel is quite good, very poetic, in the first few chapters, but gradually heads downhill and becomes very pedestrian by the end. The problem, I think, is that there is just way t...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Robert E. Kennedy Library rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this book better than I did: it started out strong, with a young Indian woman from a mofussil (provincial) town on the brink of deciding to flee an impending marriage arranged by her family. An American teacher takes an interest and offers to help her go to Bangalore instead and make her own way in the world.

Once Anjali arrives in Bangalore, though, the story fell apart for me. While it dealt with interesting topics -- Indians immersing themselves in American culture in training...more

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Jan 16, 2012 ChiTownLizard rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads

Mukherjee is a good writer. I enjoyed reading this book for the cultural context, and somewhat for the plot. The clash between old and new India is fascinating. However, I kept waiting to like Anjali, the main character...and I just never could. I felt empathy for her situation--especially at the beginning during her encounter with a potential husband (I won't reveal details at the risk of spoiling it). But...that was about it.

*sigh*

All of the people who believe in Anjali and keep talking about...more

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Jul 16, 2011 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: india-south-asia

India is on fire, Anjali keeps hearing, and if she gets married off, she’ll miss it. She’s young, and her inner conflicts and contradictory impulses are believable. I cheered for her the whole way through. The plot is very familiar, very 19th century. Maybe there are only a certain number of ways for an author to get a sheltered but spirited young woman onto a path of independence. Or maybe Mukherjee deliberately wanted to echo the growing pains of other eras.

The writing is mostly light, simple...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Robyn rated it 2 of 5 stars

Some things work really well in this novel; for instance, the author does a great job of depicting the internal conflict of modern-day India, with revered rituals and traditions on the one hand, and technology/modernity on the other. Anjali, the main character, represents the generation caught in between these two poles of identity--modern vs. traditional.

Unfortunately, the character of Anjali is also where the novel breaks down. She is continually influenced by other people. She thinks she kno...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Marie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: asia, indian-subcontinent, fiction

http://mariesbookgarden.blogspot.com/...

I picked this up at the library, intrigued by the premise and undeterred by the lukewarm (and sometimes outright negative) reviews on Goodreads. A novel about Bangalore, call centers, and the new Indian woman? Sure--sounds promising. I've read other Mukherjee novels and liked them, so I thought this was worth a try.

Sadly, this was not a winner. The main character, Anjali, is not likable and she's completely shallow...which I could live with, perhaps, if I...more

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Jul 20, 2011 HKd rated it 2 of 5 stars

I went to a reading by Bharati Mukherjee at which she ready the opening chapter of this and liked it enough to try the book. It didn't live up to the promise.

Part One (which ends with Anjali leaving Gauripur) was good but then things go a bit awry. Mukherjee crams as much as such can into the story - arranged marriages, rape, transvestites, gays, ex-pats, meditations on light and photography, call centres, terrorism and more - but the overall impact is that it all runs together and nothing much...more

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Feb 23, 2012 Kiwiflora rated it 2 of 5 stars

All those off shore call centres - don't we just love to hate them and for all sorts of reasons. But probably what is the most annoying thing is they claim to be speaking to you from your home town and you just know that aint so. And do we ever think about the person behind the voice so desperately trying to sound Kiwi, American, English, Australian? Not really, because we just know that the voice is just another Indian voice out of probably a million voices in that vast land mass working in a c...more All those off shore call centres - don't we just love to hate them and for all sorts of reasons. But probably what is the most annoying thing is they claim to be speaking to you from your home town and you just know that aint so. And do we ever think about the person behind the voice so desperately trying to sound Kiwi, American, English, Australian? Not really, because we just know that the voice is just another Indian voice out of probably a million voices in that vast land mass working in a call centre. Google 'call centres India': reading what is there will provide a most informative backdrop to this story.

But this story is not about call centres and not really about the people who work in them. It is about a young girl who wants to work in one, who thinks that once she has that job with a steady income, she has made it, she has escaped. Escaped from her preordained provincial rural small town life, escaped from the marriage that her parents are desperately trying to arrange for her, escaped from the tyranny of a future mother-in-law, domestic drudgery, and the chance to use her intelligence and sparkling personality.

And this is the core of the story and of so much of what modern day Indian society is like, especially for young women with some education and expectations. How do you marry the past with the future? Often one gets these sorts of conflicts when people from one culture or ethnic group move into another and the younger generation rebels against the values and expectations of their parents. But in India, this is happening within the country itself, as young people are better educated than their parents, see the Western consumer culture infiltrating all aspects of their lives, and want a piece of it.

So who is Miss New India? She perfectly captures this conflict. She is Anjali Bose, second and unmarried daughter of a traditional lower middle class couple who live in a small town in India's poorest province Bihar. Her father has always been a lowly clerk in the enormous and cumbersome bureaucracy of one India's many bureaucracies. His over riding mission is to have Anjali married off, and unlike his older daughter who was married and left her husband and whose name is now never mentioned, he hopes his daughter will be happy, that the marriage will be fruitful and that when he dies there is a son-in-law to preside over his funeral in good Hindu tradition. In her head however, Anjali is Angie. Beautiful, irresistible to men, perfectly poised to take on the world thanks to her excellent education from an American man who has lived and taught in the town for many years. He sees the potential in his young student and encourages her to take control of her life. Which she does.

After a 'journey', she finds herself in Bangalore, or Bang-a-lot as it is called by the young who have migrated from all over the country to escape the lives their parents have carved out for them. In Bangalore they have jobs, money, Western clothes, cell phones, a phone number, plenty of eating and drinking places to go to, some even a car, and no one to curb or manage their behaviour. No wonder the place is called Bang-a-lot.

So Angie finds herself literally thrown in the deep end of this very cosmopolitan, over populated, fast moving and to her eyes very sophisticated call centre city. She finds life is not quite as peachy as she has been led to believe it would be. How surprising. Constantly she is having to marry what she sees going around her with whether she should be doing it or not, what her parents would think, what her teacher would think. In fact I think she even stops thinking at times and just does! The New India is really quite a different place from the Old India.

So her life experience might be completely different from mine, but I found Anjali/Angie intensely irritating and stupid. Her whole life as she wants it to be has been learnt through Bollywood movies, although how she knows what to do on her first kiss when those movies never actually show one I don't know! As one would expect she is incredibly naive, having come from some little town in the middle of nowhere, and I really expected with her innocence of the world, and her misplaced trust in those around her, that more bad stuff would have happened. Parts of it are so fantastic it is ridiculous, and just like a Bollywood movie there is something momentous going on all the time.

But nevertheless, despite the contrived story line, there is actually a very good message in this book. The author is Indian herself. Fortunately for her, her parents saw the value of a good education and she now lives in America, as a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. I would say she is very well placed to be able to write such a story, having a foot in both worlds. Having lived in Bangalore myself, I was instantly drawn to reading this book. I can see exactly where the author is coming from and felt how she wrote about the city was very real. But I just wish she had chosen a character more believable and smarter than she thinks she actually is!(less)

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Dec 14, 2011 Susy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am intrigued by the vast sub continent of India and its cultures. Most of the novels I've read deal with the more traditional values: arranged marriages, very proscribed behaviors etc. This novel introduced me to 21st century India and its grasp of technology & a "world is flat" culture of call centers and virtual offices for every imaginable form of business. The story is told through the eyes and events of a young woman who flees her town after a meeting with a potential suitable marriag...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Catherine Siemann rated it 3 of 5 stars

The story of Anjali Bose, a young woman escaping her backwater town and the future her parents plan for her, Miss New India has a lot to say about the new economy of India and the impact it's having on society, as she moves to Bangalore in search of a brighter future. It was an absorbing, engaging read, but Anjali is so naive that it's hard to understand why her American teacher, and subsequent potential mentors, see her as potentially extraordinary. Because the third-person narrative is very mu...more

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May 04, 2011 Doret rated it 3 of 5 stars

19 yr old Anjali Bose lives is Gauripaur. Her future is already preset. Anjali father is searching for her future husband. Anjali doesn't want to get married early or have her husband selected. She's also very smart, though living in a small town and being a woman she can't be too smart. Angjali is too big for Gauripaur but she doesn't know how to get out.

Peter Champion a former teacher encourages Anjali to leave and make a life for herself in Bangalore. After an awful encounter with the chosen...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Jeanne rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was not what I expected. I really thought it was going to be a fluff piece. Instead the story follows Anjali Bose, whose father tries to arrange a marriage for her according to custom. This becomes the trigger for Angie's move from her backwoods city to modern, thriving Bangalore.

Angie has an idea that she will become a call center associate in order to pursue a different kind of life than that of her parents. The descriptions of the culture that has evolved around the youth of India,...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Frances Greenslade rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. I may have been influenced by the fact that I was in Bangalore when I read it. For me, it captured the paradox of that city and of India in general: cows grazing on garbage beneath billboards advertising Tag Heuer Swiss watches; women in saris riding sidesaddle on the back of husbands' and sons' motorcycles, and women in jeans and helmets riding their own; chai wallahs and Barista cafes. Anjali, the protagonist, is convincing as a young woman who has escaped the traditional ex...more

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May 29, 2011 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-fiction, india

This has been getting a lot of press lately, and I keep seeing it on summer must read lists which makes me a little curious. I enjoyed this story, but had trouble with some of the characterization. Anjali is a small town Indian woman who leaves her hometown after being raped by a potential marriage mate. She ends up in Bangalore, but continues murkily without a clear plan. The story of New India, commercialization, westernization, family and cultural awakening were all very interesting. I though...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Jan rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this book better than I did: it started out strong, with a young Indian woman from a mofussil (provincial) town on the brink of deciding to flee an impending marriage arranged by her family. An American teacher takes an interest and offers to help her go to Bangalore instead and make her own way in the world.

Once Anjali arrives in Bangalore, though, the story fell apart for me. While it dealt with interesting topics -- Indians immersing themselves in American culture in training...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Karlan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult, older-ya

I've wondered about those who answer phone calls in Indian service centers. How do they do it? This is the story of a young woman who leaves her family to escape an awful arranged marriage and goes to Bangalore at her English teacher's suggestion. He helps her with letters of introduction and a new life begins. Some scenes are tough and upsetting but vivid and believable. The author's ability to convey the thoughts of Anjolie as she struggles to appear mature and succeed in a difficult situatio...more

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Jul 11, 2011 A rated it 3 of 5 stars

What I find interesting about this book is that I read it right after India Calling -- and this fictional novel illustrates the tension discussed in the nonfiction book. Anjali is a young woman forced by her father into an arranged engagement with a brutal man, so she makes the decision to run away to Bangalore where she enters into the modernized world of call centers and independent living. While generally well written, this book has flaws that bothered me quite a bit -- Anjali's shallowness,...more

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