Serving Crazy with Curry Book

This book. I just can't even formulate a response.

Something about this was just the perfect mix of everything. Maybe it's because I'm Indian, too, but really, all the problems, all the characters, even the dialogue resonated with me.
This somehow answered a lot of the questions I formulated myself, and the characters' ambition, hopes, attitudes were like putting a mirror up to myself.

The story starts with a young Indian girl who attempts to suicide but fails upon her mother finding her and 'saving her'. (Honestly, this was one of the best suicide scenes I've ever read. The feelings were captured almost perfectly, as were the conflicts in the narrator's head. Her actions, such as registering the heat of the bathtub and then realizing it doens't matter anymore. Or her feeling that her failure at life extends to her failure to end life because she failed to die. It was all so well written, something I could definitely understand even if I don't agree with her course of action.)

However, instead of trying to show directly how wrong Devi was in trying to suicide and giving up a life she could have had, the character does not immediately bounce back - instead there is a bout of escapism, where Devi returns to her childhood response of refusing to communicate while she sorts out her emotions. Through a long, incremental process, Devi sees her screwed up family in a new light, appreciating her mother, understanding her grandmother who breaks all social norms, and breaking through her sister's tight facade of a successful VP who is driven by her work life. She takes up cooking to stream her identity and create a fusion of food, a mix of culture that represents her.

Shoba's ambition is literally what I want for myself in the future, and I constantly battle the fear of losing my social life and everything else I value by pouring myself into the drive for this. Reading this, I answered some questions, raised others, and otherwise really thought about where my life can go from here.

In terms of the Indian culture throughout the book, I felt that the honor, values, traditions, and attitudes were all portrayed very well. Usually, reading these books, I'm wary of how exaggerated the culture is, or I feel insulted to be related to such whiny, uptight peole and want to scream out that not everyone is like that. The stereotypes, however, managed not to permeate this book. It was uniquely its own, something that showed individual people, the life of an Indian living in the Silicon Valley, constantly struggling to maintain her roots and keeping face with some of the more conservative views of the older generation, while acknowledging that after living here her whole life, she truly is an Indian American.

The cultural identity helped me look into myself and realize some things that I couldn't contemplate previously. Divorce, a negatively connoting shame to an Indian, is addressed through Shoba's relationship to her husband and the loveless marriage. Meanwhile, arranged marrianges, a long-standing tradition that continues to baffle me, manifests in Saroj's relationship and it truly shows the effect of perseverance, trying again, and enduring. The judgmental older generation and the importance of impressions in the Indian community makes more sense to me.

Overall, this book just makes sense to me, and holds great personal value, a trove of vicarious experience. I definitely recommend this for the depth of the novel, the accurate portrayal of a culture, and the general values beyond the culture, including suicide, family, recovery, love, lineage, passion, etc. Well-written, polished, and enjoyable, this book has entered my list of favorites, and hopefully it will enter yours too!