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Weather Permitting & Other Stories (122)
The stories in this collection centre around new immigrants -- spirited people prepared to leave their home and hearth to travel to distant lands in pursuit of dreams of a better life. But often times there's a reality check, and they are left to grapple with unexpected challenges: cultural shock, lack of Canadian work experience and jobs, absence of affordable daycare, and non-recognition of their educational credentials. Despite this, the stories show the determination of these immigrants to survive on alien soil.
- GenresShort Stories
200 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 18, 2016
4.5 Stars. I received this book for free from via author, in return for a review.
Life isn’t always what you’d expect when you leave the country, full of dreams and hopes for a better one on a new soil. Reality can be anything but a dream and life as an immigrant can be very different from what you expected.
‘Weather Permitting & Other Stories’ is a collection of stories about different people settling into immigrant life in Canada. The author Pratap Reddy, being an immigrant himself, has written this collection all focused around Indian immigrants in Canada. Being the daughter of Polish immigrants into the UK, and knowing some of the struggles my family has had in finding work and being accepted, I was keen to read this book.
I have to say I enjoyed this collection of stories and it grew on me the more I read. The book focuses on Indians living their new lives in Canada but what I liked is that most of the stories are more about relationships and dealing with difficult circumstances. You don’t have to have gone though the difficulties of emigrating to feel for the characters in these stories. Most of the tales are about the immigrants who have moved to Canada, some being there longer than others, but I liked the fact that other stories dealt with what happened back in India, to those left behind and the story titled ‘The Tamarind Relish’ did a good job of showing what the separation did, and I liked the ending of that one though it was a bit weird.
There are twelve stories in the collection. There are a mixture of first and third person perspectives and some of the stories are also in the present tense, though most are not. I’m not a fan of the present tense especially when two of the stories, told in past tense, suddenly switched to this present tense when concluding. Perhaps it was for the effect of showing that it was now and not the past but it felt a little jarring for me. The first story in the collection is told entirely in the present tense and although I enjoyed the tale I didn’t enjoy it as much as the other stories due to how rushed it felt at times and I would recommend reading another story or two before deciding whether you like this book.
Not all the stories have a happy ending, some do and are light hearted while others are quick to end and leave you shocked but despite this they all have what I’d call a decent ending. I’ve read many short stories over the years and sometimes there isn’t a real ending to the stories and abrupt as some of these may be, they all do have a good and decent ending. ‘Weather Permitting’ is my favourite. It focuses on the reality of life as an immigrant and it’s not only a good story for people to read to learn the harsh truth of what moving to the west can be like, but it also has a great story and I liked the character of Maya and what happened at the end.
‘For a Place in the Sun’ is an interesting final story and it feels like the author may have put a lot of personal experience into the tale as it is about Ananth, a writer desperate to make it in Canada.
Only one story contains any swearing. ‘That Which is Written’ contains occasional use of the f and s words but there is good reason for this and I really liked the ending of this tale and would say it’s a second favourite of mine.
Overall I would recommend this book. At 200 pages it’s not too long a read and it certainly grows on you the more you read. All of the stories have characters that anyone can relate to and you end up feeling for many of them through their struggles and triumphs. All of the stories are stand alone too, but there’s another fun aspect in this book. If you read them in order you’ll see a few of the same characters making brief appearances in other stories. This character linking made me enjoy this all the more and I’d certainly look forward to more stories from this author.
Life isn’t always what you’d expect when you leave the country, full of dreams and hopes for a better one on a new soil. Reality can be anything but a dream and life as an immigrant can be very different from what you expected.
‘Weather Permitting & Other Stories’ is a collection of stories about different people settling into immigrant life in Canada. The author Pratap Reddy, being an immigrant himself, has written this collection all focused around Indian immigrants in Canada. Being the daughter of Polish immigrants into the UK, and knowing some of the struggles my family has had in finding work and being accepted, I was keen to read this book.
I have to say I enjoyed this collection of stories and it grew on me the more I read. The book focuses on Indians living their new lives in Canada but what I liked is that most of the stories are more about relationships and dealing with difficult circumstances. You don’t have to have gone though the difficulties of emigrating to feel for the characters in these stories. Most of the tales are about the immigrants who have moved to Canada, some being there longer than others, but I liked the fact that other stories dealt with what happened back in India, to those left behind and the story titled ‘The Tamarind Relish’ did a good job of showing what the separation did, and I liked the ending of that one though it was a bit weird.
There are twelve stories in the collection. There are a mixture of first and third person perspectives and some of the stories are also in the present tense, though most are not. I’m not a fan of the present tense especially when two of the stories, told in past tense, suddenly switched to this present tense when concluding. Perhaps it was for the effect of showing that it was now and not the past but it felt a little jarring for me. The first story in the collection is told entirely in the present tense and although I enjoyed the tale I didn’t enjoy it as much as the other stories due to how rushed it felt at times and I would recommend reading another story or two before deciding whether you like this book.
Not all the stories have a happy ending, some do and are light hearted while others are quick to end and leave you shocked but despite this they all have what I’d call a decent ending. I’ve read many short stories over the years and sometimes there isn’t a real ending to the stories and abrupt as some of these may be, they all do have a good and decent ending. ‘Weather Permitting’ is my favourite. It focuses on the reality of life as an immigrant and it’s not only a good story for people to read to learn the harsh truth of what moving to the west can be like, but it also has a great story and I liked the character of Maya and what happened at the end.
‘For a Place in the Sun’ is an interesting final story and it feels like the author may have put a lot of personal experience into the tale as it is about Ananth, a writer desperate to make it in Canada.
Only one story contains any swearing. ‘That Which is Written’ contains occasional use of the f and s words but there is good reason for this and I really liked the ending of this tale and would say it’s a second favourite of mine.
Overall I would recommend this book. At 200 pages it’s not too long a read and it certainly grows on you the more you read. All of the stories have characters that anyone can relate to and you end up feeling for many of them through their struggles and triumphs. All of the stories are stand alone too, but there’s another fun aspect in this book. If you read them in order you’ll see a few of the same characters making brief appearances in other stories. This character linking made me enjoy this all the more and I’d certainly look forward to more stories from this author.
February 23, 2016
This book is a collection of short stories written about immigrants from India that move to Canada. From the description of the book though, I thought this book was about immigrants who came from all over the world to Canada. I connected with the description of the book since I am an ESL teacher and I grew up next door to migrant workers. I think this type of literature is needed to help people understand the types of sacrifices immigrants make and I did feel like I learned more about Indian culture. I feel the author did a great job humanizing different trials that immigrants may experience when moving to an experience from job hunting to having to be separated from family and children to work. Some short stories were much better than the others, and my personal opinion is that the author didn’t lead with his strongest story. The book is a fast read and may be helpful in helping people empathize with immigrants; I think some of the short stories would be great for a middle or high school classroom environment to open up a discussion about cultural understanding.
August 7, 2016
Overall, I really enjoyed all the stories in this volume. I'm sure Mr. Reddy spent many late hours writing and honing these stories down after working full-time during the day. What you have in Weather Permitting & Other Stories is an obvious labour of love, effected for the love of writing and for recounting the plight of South Asian immigrants.
My full review is posted here: http://wp.me/p60sTD-GZ
My full review is posted here: http://wp.me/p60sTD-GZ
November 19, 2016
Reddy's prose is beautiful and his storytelling compelling. He is a keen observer of human emotion and behaviour, and captures both tragic and comedic aspects of new immigrant experience. These are stories about love, marriage, parenting, loss and hope, and also, weather. This collection is both deep and entertaining. I look forward to seeing what this talented author will publish next.
June 26, 2016
A great collection of stories about Indian immigrants in Canada and the challenges they encounter in an effort to integrate.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Guernica Editions via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Guernica Editions via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
April 24, 2016
Great insight into lives of new Indian immigrants in Canada. Full review on my blog, link below.
http://indianfictionforyou.blogspot.c...
http://indianfictionforyou.blogspot.c...
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews