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Everything Was Good-Bye

by Gurjinder Basran (Goodreads Author)

3.85 of 5 stars 3.85 · rating details · 306 ratings · 87 reviews

Everything Was Good-bye centers around Meena, a young Indo Canadian woman growing up in the lower mainland of British Columbia and traces her life as she struggles to assert her independence in a Punjabi community. Raised by her tradition bound widowed mother, Meena knows the freedoms of her Canadian peers can never be hers, but unlike her sisters, she is reluctant to subm...more

Paperback, 336 pages

Published October 2nd 2010 by Mother Tongue Publishing

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Jul 19, 2012 Winnie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was very easy to read and the storyline was something I could relate to, being I grew up with alot of that culture. It's a great read!

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May 06, 2013 Raquel rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, may

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 08, 2013 Celia Kennedy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

On the back of the book the comment, "A heartbreaking novel about a young woman faced with a formidable choice: follow tradition or follow her heart," could not be more accurate.

Though amongst the saddest books I've ever read, I would recommend this book. This is the story of a family from India, who are deeply entrenched in their culture even though they now live in BC Canada. The story revolves around the youngest of six daughters, Meena, and how she is caught between wanting to please her fam...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Leslie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had trouble falling asleep after finishing this book last night. I read most of it this weekend because I couldn't leave it. I immediately felt attached to young Meena and even Liam and Meena's mother in her sorrow and perseverance. I saw my own hopefulness in Meena, yet hopelessness. I rooted for her the whole book, rejoicing in her victories.

The narrative flows perfectly never saying too much and always just enough. It is heartbreaking - to experience, to finish, to not be reading anymore....more

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Jun 21, 2012 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-fiction

Penguin Group Canada|March 6, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-14-318257-3

Story Description:

The youngest of six daughters raised by a widowed mother, Meena is a young Indo-Canadian woman struggling to find her place in the world. She knows that the freedom experienced by others is beyond her reach. But unlike her older sisters, Meena refuses to accept a life dictated by tradition. Against her mother’s wishes, she falls for a young man named Liam who asks her to run away with him. She must then m...more

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Mar 04, 2012 Carol Anne Lawry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: lately

Excellent read. I thought often of "The Jade Peony" written by Wayson Choy. Both take place in the Lower Mainland of Vancouver, B.C. and have strong female elders. The intersection of these immigrant women and their young families being raised in a Western Society and the choices the children make brings a bright light to their struggles.

Meninder, the protagonist of Basran's story, leads a double life. She wears the garb, speaks the polite phrase of ritual but is constantly biting her tongue, c...more

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May 09, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sometimes I wonder if I just keep reading novels because I’m searching for exactly the right story that I want to read, and I read a lot of good books, but it’s never quite what I was hoping for. And then I read one like Everything Was Goodbye that is exactly right. It’s beautifully written, with imperfect characters and an achingly tragic love story. I got to cry all through the last few chapters--sometimes with happiness, sometimes with despair, sometimes with both at the same time.

Meena is t...more Sometimes I wonder if I just keep reading novels because I’m searching for exactly the right story that I want to read, and I read a lot of good books, but it’s never quite what I was hoping for. And then I read one like Everything Was Goodbye that is exactly right. It’s beautifully written, with imperfect characters and an achingly tragic love story. I got to cry all through the last few chapters--sometimes with happiness, sometimes with despair, sometimes with both at the same time.

Meena is the youngest of six daughters. Her parents immigrated from India to Canada when she was young, her father dying not long after so she has no memory of him. Everything Was Goodbye follows her from the time she is a teenager as she struggles with the conflict between what is expected of her by her family and the larger Indian immigrant community, to the time she is an independent adult, still struggling but having grown. She’s a character that truly matures over the course of the novel, sympathetic but imperfect.

I am fascinated by Indian culture, and stories by Jhumpa Lahiri, Anuradha Roy, and now Gurjinder Basran give me a peek inside a world that is just so beautiful, with customs and intricacies that I find mesmerizing. Everything Was Goodbye captures the uniqueness of the Indian culture blending into (and in some cases being unable to blend into) a western culture, and also what seem like universal emotions and desires. This story is the best kind of love story, with conflict and tragedy and romance.

I’m not saying the entire book is perfect. The language and descriptions are gorgeous, but sometimes I wonder if Basran overdoes it a bit. “The first snowfall held the city in its breath, casting a tinsel chill across the sky, a silvery glaze on windows, and a rosy glow on children’s cheeks.” It’s a fantastic description, colorful and rich, but also almost distracting. But then on the next page she writes, “He’d smiled, that smile that always made me feel two steps behind,” and I’m distracted again, but this time by how exquisite that description is, capturing something so simply yet stunningly. She describes a person as “illiterate in two languages,” another as “a shadow made real” and “more than a memory and less than a dream.” The descriptions of love are never trite, just emotionally true: “It seemed that the longer I knew him, the less I knew of him, yet the closer I felt to him.” I read these descriptions and the truth of them quite literally took my breath away.

It’s so hard not to say more, but to say more might ruin the story which is so beautiful and unpredictable and complex.
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Dec 13, 2012 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rating: 3.5 stars
Early Reviewer's boook via LibraryThing.com

Everything Was Good-Bye is about a traditional family of Indian women living in western Canada. The mother is a widowed illiterate with six daughters who want more out of life, especially the protagonist, Meena. The difficulty Meena’s mother must deal with is how to raise her children in this locale while preserving their strict culture.

This tale covers a familiar problem. The dilemma facing the author is how to write a proverbial tale...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Mandeep rated it 4 of 5 stars

A 3.5 stars overall - and a very solid 1st book. I found it a quick read. The author's writing was a delight - and she was able to build up a quiet, intense sort of atmosphere. I had some issues with the plot, and thought the ending could have been less melodramatic (hello bollywood).

It's set at the time of the author's adolescence, which would have been a more traditional time in that Indo-Cdn community, and when the community was smaller.

Meena is the youngest daughter of a widowed, uneducated...more A 3.5 stars overall - and a very solid 1st book. I found it a quick read. The author's writing was a delight - and she was able to build up a quiet, intense sort of atmosphere. I had some issues with the plot, and thought the ending could have been less melodramatic (hello bollywood).

It's set at the time of the author's adolescence, which would have been a more traditional time in that Indo-Cdn community, and when the community was smaller.

Meena is the youngest daughter of a widowed, uneducated mother with 6 daughters (the mother's fate being horrifying to the Indian community and necessitating a sort of unending period of mourning). Meena's stuck not knowing what she really wants, and feeling torn between the different directions she's being pulled. I thought this was portrayed really well - the reader wasn't beaten over the head with it, but rather shown. The characters are also really well drawn, and I liked the language the author used. Liam and Meena's love is believable. I found the proposed arranged (or "introduced") marriage between Sunny and Meena a little harder to swallow. Wouldn't a materialistic, wealthy family want to secure an equally privileged match for their only son (and thus a wife who was also an investment bringing to them more $$ from her parents)? But it did serve to illuminate values and pressures affecting Sunny and Meena and Kal.

Overall the characters, descriptions, and conveyance of feelings was excellent. Little plot questions, and sensationalization were what took away from the book for me. The subject matter is almost too heavy to fully do justice to, so I can forgive the stereotypes. And I would def recommend this as a read - if you're interested in books about women finding themselves, and not just for the multicultural subject matter.

SPOILER below

Also I found Meena and Liam attending Kal's reception really hard to swallow too. Wouldn't her conservative family (and Meena herself) consider that distasteful (since Kal is Sunny's cousin and the culture frowns upon divorce, adultery, and interfaith/race relationships - and she wasn't even formally divorced yet)?(less)

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Feb 22, 2013 Edwin Lang rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed this book immensely. I hope Ms Basran has the energy to write more and as well. I found the heroine and the choices she made believable. Sometimes we’d wish that other decisions and paths be taken but life is generally not like that. We tend to make questionable choices, suffer some harm and, if we are lucky, learn.

Meena seemed to me, as were almost each of Ms Basran’s characters, a prisoner of her culture. I recall – I think correctly – that the Talmud instructs us that we are product...more I enjoyed this book immensely. I hope Ms Basran has the energy to write more and as well. I found the heroine and the choices she made believable. Sometimes we’d wish that other decisions and paths be taken but life is generally not like that. We tend to make questionable choices, suffer some harm and, if we are lucky, learn.

Meena seemed to me, as were almost each of Ms Basran’s characters, a prisoner of her culture. I recall – I think correctly – that the Talmud instructs us that we are products of the times we live in. We are prisoners too, and perhaps it can become a rather comforting prison: and, that it takes a miracle, a prophet, a tragedy, or maybe a good book, to help us escape, presuming there’s a spark of an idea that we want to, that we should. I wonder if that’s why conscientiously reading books – or even newspapers – can be a challenging and sometimes unnerving endeavour, and may be a reason why some people find it difficult to do either.

I remember a colleague and friend, who was a good man, a family man and a Muslin, tell me that the scope of the call to be charitable during Ramadan only applied to one’s extended family, which of course might include hundreds. I realized what a treasure we have in the catholicity of Christianity, which is so deeply embedded in much of Western thought and governance, where every person, regardless, is precious, and where the outreach is inclusive. It seems that cultures that are as insular as Ms Basran describes might have difficulty understanding this desire to help even the strangers in our midst and, implicitly, our enjoyment of diversity.

Possible spoiler alert

It was interesting that Liam – that light in the darkness – was the one that had to go, and in spite of Meena’s embryonic emergence towards a mature adulthood in her late teens, that she should relapse into the acceptance and comfort and identity of her closed society. And that Sunny was the one to emerge victorious: I could imagine him with a smirk saying to his friends, with an adoring Jasmine on his arm, ‘That’ll teach them to try to fuck with Sunny!’.

Edwin(less)

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Dec 10, 2012 Madeline Solien rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was so pleasantly surprised by this book. I wasn't sure what to expect and I've been given so many similar books to review lately that I really wasn't looking forward to reading this...but now I want to pass it on to almost everyone I know...

The book focuses on Meena, a typical Canadian teenager growing up within a very traditional Indian family and community. As one of 6 sisters, there is a very strong interest in finding her an acceptable arranged marriage and embracing community values. Thi...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Shirley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Meena's story is one of cultural diversity, of societal pressure, of understanding and the lack thereof, and of a young girl's desire to find herself. Her heritage and upbringing dictate an arranged marriage, and though her heart belongs to another, a fact that she is not yet certain of, she abides and enters into the marital covenant with hope and yet with longing to be somewhere else. Years pass and marriage has become a comfortable arena until Meena again meets the young man who stole her hea...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Ashley Arthur rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

I won an ARC of this book from a Goodreads giveaway listed by Pintail Books.

I really enjoyed this debut novel by Gurjinder Basran. It's the story of Meena, one of six daughters, who is raised by a single mother in an Indian community in Canada. Meena is in high school when the book begins, and it spans about ten years of her life. Although this book is a love story about Meena and Liam (who is, unfortunately for Meena, not Indian), I thought the heart of the story was Meena's struggle to decide...more

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Jun 30, 2012 Teena in Toronto rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canadian

This story starts off in the 1990s when Meena is in her last year of high school. She is going to school with Liam and they become friends, which displeases her mother because he is white so she has to sneak around with him. Liam's homelife isn't great and he runs away. He asks Meena to go with him. She's torn and has a difficult decision to make. Does she defy her mother and culture and go with Liam or does she stay home and stay on the track? That's just the first section of the book and I don...more

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Jun 28, 2012 Sue rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an excellent first novel. This book really speaks about racisim and sterotypes. It helps to understand what ignorance still exists even today.

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Jan 01, 2013 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nae_reviewed

I feel like I became good friends with Meena as she navigated the struggles in her life born of her heritage and religion that connect her with her family's earlier life in India. Meena, although living in Canada, is drastically torn between the freedoms afforded young Canadian women and the strict manners, ethical rules, dress codes, and arranged marriages of the Indian culture her mother clings to and expects Meena to follow. Meena says good-bye to stages of her life time and again, only to ri...more

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Nov 07, 2012 Heather K (dentist in my spare time) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: won-on-goodreads, mixed-emotions, exploring-a-different-culture, fiction-literature, paperback-or-hardcover

First off, I won this book on Goodreads First Reads.

On the back cover of this book, the novel is described as "heartwrenching." That is certainly the case. This novel is like bitter, expensive chocolate. It is rich, decadent, but not 100% enjoyable. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't put this book down. The writing is the best I've read in a while and I'm always fascinated by books that explore cultural divides. However, this book is a bumpy ride and the lives of the main characters are filled with...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Lorraine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Lorraine by: someone on Goodreads

Shelves: z2011, canadian

I haven't sat and read for long stretches at a time in a while, but I finished this one in under a week, almost the whole second half in one stretch. That speaks to my interest in the book more than my own words can.

I do admit to liking the first half of the book, particularly the first section when Meena is a teenager, the best. Those chapters highlight the struggle of second-generation immigrants, torn between two cultures, very well. Once Meena is married, the story is less "Indian immigrant"...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Nelda Brangwin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

First novel by a Vancouver BC author. Meena, from a Canadian-Indian family finds the contrasts of living in a traditional society very taxing. Her mother has raised Meena and her sisters alone, and the father died early in Meena's life. The goal of every mother who has a heritage from India is to see her daughter married, even if that is a loveless marriage or one with physical abuse. Meena, lets customs dictate her life, until a boy she knew in high school comes back in her life, and she finall...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Dawn Ang rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, contemporary-fiction, fiction, middle-class-life

If it wouldn't have come off as obnoxious to write this review in All Caps, I would've done it. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK! Yes, you should imagine me yelling that last sentence. It is amazing. AMAZING! Don't miss out on the greatest thing you're going to read this year.

Seriously.

It is that good.

This book is incredibly underrated. I can't understand why it hasn't received more five-star reviews! I have nothing but PRAISE for Basran's marvelous debut novel.

"Everything Was Good-bye" is a wor...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Andrea rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, boston, 2013, claimed

I was so disappointed in this. It seemed like it could have been interesting, but the plot was predictable and dull. I skipped forward but couldn't bring myself to devote the time to finish reading it properly. If the writing style had more going for it, I would have forgiven the plot. But the writing was uninspired, and none of the characters felt like anything more than a few plain words on a page, a flattened idea of a person, while the chronology skipped ahead in fits and starts without warn...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Alexis rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

Some things I liked, some things I didn't. I am currently working on a project with a Sikh man, so it was lovely to read about the Sikh diaspora living in Canada. I really enjoyed that. I also enjoyed the Delta, British Columbia setting.

I really liked the beginning of the book, but felt that the middle floundered a little bit. However, the story went in a direction that I didn't expect, which I really enjoyed.

The book is about a Sikh girl living in Delta, British Columbia, and the path that her...more

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May 06, 2012 Celia Hayton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Torn between giving it 2 or 3 stars...This novel lacks the tension necessary to a good read. For the longest while, I couldn't figure out the point of the story. Was it just relating Meena's rather unremarkable life? I found it dwelled too much on the main character's growing up without creating empathy for her or adding to the rather muddled plot. Was there a plot?
In the end, I thought it was a promising story line that the writer didn't deliver on.
I read the book because I was curious about...more

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May 19, 2012 Sabrina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a stunning novel. I can’t remember the last time I used that adjective in regards to a book, but it’s the only one that can accurately fit it. The story is bold, truthful, and compelling. It’s fictional but might as well represent the thousands of young girls and women that struggle in a fight between cultural duties and personal needs. Certain instances rang very true to my own life, and usually I hate books like that. I read for escapism, knowledge, and to fuel my imagination; being re...more This is a stunning novel. I can’t remember the last time I used that adjective in regards to a book, but it’s the only one that can accurately fit it. The story is bold, truthful, and compelling. It’s fictional but might as well represent the thousands of young girls and women that struggle in a fight between cultural duties and personal needs. Certain instances rang very true to my own life, and usually I hate books like that. I read for escapism, knowledge, and to fuel my imagination; being reminded of my own life is not something that pleases me in a book. Here however, there was enough distance that I could understand and sympathize while at the same time wondering if everything would turn out all right. In case you don’t wish to read the rest of this post now, let me just say it here: Gurjinder Basran’s Everything Was Goodbye is absolutely worth a read. Perhaps more than once.

Meena’s story is broken into four parts: One for Loss, Two for Sorrow, Three for Love, Four for Tomorrow. Each part represents a different age for her. The book starts with Meena in high school and continues to find her in her early thirties. I wasn’t sure how I would enjoy that, but the transitions are so smooth that I never once felt a bump. Her strong yet vulnerable personality stretches across the pages like a sweet melody.

Meena comes from a very Punjabi society. Her mother refuses to speak in English, despite having lived in Canada for over thirty years. Her sisters have all succumbed to lives of arranged marriages and servile domesticity. For Meena, it seems as though there is no other choice. She lives to please outwardly, while on the inside she struggles constantly with hating her own identity and wishing for everything to be different. There were times when I understood Meena better than I ever would have understood her or myself at our high school ages, as we both struggled to show the world–and more importantly, our families–who we really were, without bearing the disappointment of anyone.

I won’t delve deep into the characters or the plot line because I firmly believe that this is a story that everyone should explore for themselves. At times, I wondered how the book could ever become famous among people that weren’t Indian and that didn’t understand the necessity of certain customs and oddities that are ingrained in our society. As I put it down, I realize that every society has these issues. Family expectations, a struggle to find out who you really are as an individual, the need to please, the need to fit in, the need to become your own person–we’ve all gone through it, Indian or otherwise. It also helped me learn that “coming of age” isn’t a phase that occurs during high school. Coming of age stays with us as we grow from our teens to twenties to thirties and over. We’re constantly learning more about our impulses, making harder decisions, and ever-struggling to let ourselves live to the fullest. So really, this is a novel for every girl and woman that I can think of.

I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Gurjinder Basran at a Wine and Cheese event hosted by Penguin Group Canada and Chatelaine Books.

We had a lovely group discussion about Everything Was Goodbye and it was followed up with some more private chats. She stressed throughout that this was not a novel about herself, although some characteristics between her family and Meena’s might be similar. The novel still felt so real to me, that I couldn’t thinking of Meena as a real person and admiring how brave she was for putting pen to paper and being so honest. There are many things from my teenage years and my own ‘coming of age’ that I would love to purge myself of and put on paper. The truth is, I wouldn’t be able to handle it. So whether it was Gurjinder living out some part of her that was previously unexplored in her imagination, or just Meena coming alive to write her story, I admire the bravery of truth and the poetic beauty of her confusion and honesty. I admire the fact that she recognized the fears she held for her own doubts and rebellious thoughts, and decided to bare them for the world to read regardless. It’s simple but beautifully written.

“The smell of chai–fennel, cloves and cinnamon–tucked me into my blanket like a seed in a cardamom pod. I steeped myself into the warmth of waking, listening to the sounds of Sunday morning.” Gurjinder began her reading with that sentence and I was hooked instantly. I was and still am always fascinated by sounds, smells, and colours, wishing I had a way to record every bit of it in words. This opening line drew me back into distant memories so quickly that the air around me became thick with them. That’s the beauty of her writing. So steep yourself into the warmth of this book and recognize the importance of not being afraid of yourself while learning to balance who you are socially and who you are inside.(less)

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Aug 03, 2011 AKJ rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a local author to the Lower Mainland, BC. It was nice to read a book with local references. The author presents the struggles of growing up with cultural challenges and integrating them into the western lifestyle. The book is a simiple, and quick read, which I beleive to be a positive in the writing style of this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the read and related to some of the cultural struggles experienced by a few of the characters. Regardless of which culture, some of the experiences an...more

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Mar 19, 2013 Kailey Mccarron rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When fingering through the shelves of my local bookstore, I stumbled upon Everything Was Goodbye, by Gurjinder Basran, the colorful and thoughtfully designed cover was what truly intrigued me. Everyone has heard the expression, “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but honestly, the cover was what enticed me to devote myself in this novel. When I got home I was not certain to whether I would actually enjoy reading Everything Was Goodbye, but astonishingly enough I found I could not keep myself from...more When fingering through the shelves of my local bookstore, I stumbled upon Everything Was Goodbye, by Gurjinder Basran, the colorful and thoughtfully designed cover was what truly intrigued me. Everyone has heard the expression, “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but honestly, the cover was what enticed me to devote myself in this novel. When I got home I was not certain to whether I would actually enjoy reading Everything Was Goodbye, but astonishingly enough I found I could not keep myself from turning the page.
Everything Was Goodbye is a rather complicated novel of finding one’s self and/or self-acceptance. Gurjinder Basran artfully sets this novel around the main character, Meena, who is the youngest of the six daughters in which her mother, a widow, must raise and place in suitable Indo-Canadian arranged marriages. The novel begins while Meena attends as a senior in high school; she finds that she never quite fit in, until Liam. Also an outcast, but made Meena feel she belonged. It was soon that Meena’s Mother forbid she see him, for fear of the close knit Indo-Canadian aunties would see and spread the word that Meena was seeing a white boy. Liam asks Meena to run away with him, but Meena hesitates and Liam is gone before she has a chance to answer. Trapped by family, Meena obeys her mother without the influence of Liam. Meena later marries Sunny, a successful bachelor who is quite honestly a conceited jerk. The two know they are not happy, but ignore the feeling and continue with the marriage to satisfy their parents’ wishes. While Sunny is away on vacation, Meena accidently runs into Liam and rekindles a friendship that never found closure. Suffocating from a meaningless marriage Menna remembers what Liam once provided, happiness. Meena Soon rebels against her religious traditions landing herself face first, not in the struggle of finding one’s self, but rather accepting herself for who she is. Meena was never able to appease her mother fully in following traditions, but needs to accept she can never become the woman her mother is longing to see.
While I truly enjoyed the duration of reading this book, I have reasons as to why I rated Everything Was Goodbye four stars rather than five. I would not state that this novel was either an easy or difficult read, but rather a read that was enjoyable because one does not have to dwell on a passage to find its meaning. What I did in fact find confusing was when I began reading the second part of the novel it took me a while to realize that the novel had skipped a few years, having Meena jump from 17 to 24. For when I began reading the third part in the novel I expected another leap in years, when I believe only a few months had passed. If you are still debating to whether you should devote yourself in Everything Was Goodbye like I had, I will tell you that Gurjinder Basran left me in tears when finishing this book and that without doubt in my mind I will continue to invest my time into reading future novels throughout her career.
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Apr 23, 2012 Dee at EditorialEyes rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autographed, literary-fiction, reviewed-on-my-blog, women-s-fiction, canlit

~*~
For this review and others, visit the EditorialEyes Blog.
~*~
3.5 out of 5

I first heard about Everything Was Good-bye through an invitation to join Penguin Canada and the Chatelaine Book Club for an evening with author Gurjinder Basran. Having a chance to hang out in the Penguin offices, sipping wine, chatting with other bloggers, and listening to Gurjinder read from the book and then answer questions was a not-to-be-missed experience, and I suggest you read the great recaps on Nicole About Tow...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Forgotten Realms Queen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, donated

** spoiler alert ** Here we meet Meena, I think one of the youngest of six girls of a single mom who immigrated to Canada with her husband and six daughters when everyone was still very young, too young to remember India or England where they were born/lived respectively.

First off, this is a very powerful book, exploring the generational gap a lot of children have with immigrant parents, the parents often wanting to hold on to old ideas, customs, and traditions, and the children often wanting to...more ** spoiler alert ** Here we meet Meena, I think one of the youngest of six girls of a single mom who immigrated to Canada with her husband and six daughters when everyone was still very young, too young to remember India or England where they were born/lived respectively.

First off, this is a very powerful book, exploring the generational gap a lot of children have with immigrant parents, the parents often wanting to hold on to old ideas, customs, and traditions, and the children often wanting to break away or feeling stifled in their family dynamic. It is a wonderfully done, beautifully moving book. The only downfalls are that it doesn’t have much of a happy ending, and it seems to enforce all the negative stereotypes of immigrant Middle Eastern families. I know, I know, it is ‘fiction’, but still. All the horror stories you hear about in urban legends and on the news are here in this book so it is a little disconcerting. And here’s why:

For the most part, Meena and her sisters follow their mother’s wishes, marrying young to the sons and nephews of family friends, popping out babies as quickly as possible, and keeping mum about abusive situations at home. I think it’s Meena’s eldest sister who keeps showing up with bruises throughout the story.

One of Meena’s sisters does rebel, and runs away from home, but only after she is raped by some white boys from school and no one will listen to her side of the story. All that happens when she gets home afterwards is she gets in trouble for ‘getting into a van with young boys’, as reported by nosy neighbor ladies, who completely ignore the fact that she’s being forced into the van against her will. Yeah. That’s always fun.

And Meena rebels in her own way too, but it’s not a very healthy way. She gets married like her sisters, changes her name to please her in-laws, and puts up with the ridicule of her in-laws when she can’t have a baby because of her husband’s low sperm count. So how does she deal with the unhappiness at home? She has an affair with her childhood sweetheart, a guy named Liam, gets pregnant by him, and leaves her husband for him but only after husband beats her for her infidelity.

Normally this would be a ‘yay!’, except for the fact that the ex husband kills her lover Liam a few months later at a wedding they’re all attending. Now officially, it was an ‘accident’, but you could view this in the light of ‘honor killings’ which is no end of creepy.

So at the end of it all, after everything she has gone through, at the age of 30/35, Meena has a six month old daughter she needs to raise on her own, her daughter’s father being killed by Meena’s ex husband, and a few years down the road she start having another affair with the cousin of her ex husband. And this is really ironic, it was the wedding of the ex husband’s cousin where Liam was killed.

And she doesn’t seem happy. It’s three years later after Liam’s death, her daughter is growing, she has another man who loves her and she could love in return, but she still seems all kinds of depressed and lonely. Some of it I can understand because she still misses the love of her life, but there is some point where you need to move on and find your own happiness, because if you truly love someone the way that I think Meena and Liam did and one passes first, I don’t think they would want the other left behind to feel like that forever.

A good book, a great read, but I personally have mixed feelings on it. You’ll have to decide for yourself.

Enjoy folks.(less)

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May 31, 2012 Alana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, first-reads

This book was SO good. Firstly, I would like to mention that, in compliance with FTC guidelines, I disclose that I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads!

Now where to start? The reason I wanted to read this book so bad wasnt because it was listed as a giveaway. I am from Vancouver Island and born in Surrey BC. Meena, our MC lived in North Delta which is close. It's rare that I get to read a coming-of-age fiction novel from Canada, let alone pretty much right next door. The fact...more

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Mar 10, 2013 Chandni rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: firstreads, contemporary, reviewed

This was an incredible book. Everyone who has ever felt like an outsider, who has had to deal with stereotypes, and who has ever had to sacrifice a part of themselves for someone else will be able to relate to this book. Meena is a young Indo-Canadian girl who is desperate to follow a different path than the one chosen for her by her mother and the ones that her sisters have. She wants the freedom that other girls her age have and questions the rules that she has grown up with. With Liam, she fi...more

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About Gurjinder Basran

Gurjinder Basran’s debut novel, Everything Was Good-bye, was the winner of Mother Tongue Publishing's “Search for the Great BC Novel Contest” in 2010 and was awarded the 2011 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for the most outstanding work of fiction by a BC author. Gurjinder studied creative writing at Simon Fraser University and the Banff Center for the Arts.

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