Completed: 1/1/2022
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: Several Best Book of the Year lists
Review:
The characters, in general, seemed flat to me. <SPOILERS> Sneha opens up, eventually, to some about her life, but cannot find a lasting intimate relationship because she refuses to be vulnerable. When finally given a chance to build a lasting relationship, it seems like she does her best to put her "Jersey girl" love interest into a "fish-out-of-water" scenario that dooms what is left. I ended the book thinking that Sneha had learned nothing over the course of the book. Similarly, her friend Tig (who marries, has children, and enters into relationships with two others as part of an open marriage) seems like a frenetic ball of energy, just like when they started. Another friend, Tom, starts out rejecting his parents' lifestyle and ends....you guessed it...rejecting his parents' lifestyle. This book takes place over years with huge changes for the characters and yet none of them seem to be affected by the ocean of change occurring underneath them. Maybe it is a generational thing (this is a coming of age story for twenty-somethings in aughts). There is no talk about these kids reflecting on years of shooter drills in school, some about gay bashing, and some about immigrants being left on the outside. It feels like a narrow, insular, book (think the preppie coming of age books in the 50s). Not a reflection of an entire generation--the diversity of background features in this book, but not the diversity of thought.
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