Book: Seeking Fortune Elsewhere
Author: Sindya Bhanoo
Pages: 241
Read on: Kindle
Read in: 2.5 hours
Plot Summary: Traveling from Pittsburgh to Eastern Washington to Tamil Nadu, these stories about dislocation and dissonance see immigrants and their families confront the costs of leaving and staying, identifying sublime symmetries in lives growing apart.
In “Malliga Homes,” selected by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for an O. Henry Prize, a widow in a retirement community glimpses her future while waiting for her daughter to visit from America. In "No. 16 Model House Road," a woman long subordinate to her husband makes a choice of her own after she inherits a house. In "Nature Exchange," a mother grieving in the wake of a school shooting finds an unusual obsession. In "A Life in America," a professor finds himself accused of having exploited his graduate students.
Sindya Bhanoo’s haunting stories show us how immigrants’ paths, and the paths of those they leave behind, are never simple. Bhanoo takes us along on their complicated journeys where regret, hope, and triumph appear in disguise.
Things I Liked:
1. A beautifully written and moving collection of short stories focused on South Indian immigrants in the US. Each and every story will make you think and feel really connected with the characters, which is a huge achievement, in my opinion, for short stories, given you have a limited amount of words in which to do this.
2. Most of the stories are women-centric; told from the perspective of women characters across a large range of ages. Our youngest protagonist is barely 8-9 years old and the oldest is in her 70s. So, we see women across life stages and with different fears, concerns, aspirations, dreams and regrets. There is only one story told from a man's perspective and that is such a fun yet thought-provoking one.
3. There is also a very surprising story about a very popular public figure and it was one of our favourites in this collection. This story really helped us understand, even if it is not real, why this person was the way they were. You need to read the book to figure out why!
4. The stories, characters, settings, concerns, heartbreaks, regrets, joys captured in this book felt very real. The author has been able to really step into the world of these diverse characters and bring a core of reality to life, which is always so difficult to do but is so fulfilling when it happens in a work of fiction. You'll find yourself laughing, nodding, crying along with these characters.
Rating: 4.5/5
A really lovely collection of short stories for fans of Jhumpa Lahiri and, really, for anyone, who enjoys reading about people and their little (or not-so-little) lives.
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