Good, but it felt long. It took me a little while to get through it, more because I had other things going on than because the book wasn't good. ( )

Because so much of the story revolved around Indian culture and food, often I felt lost in the details of the story. Yet at the same time it allowed me to look into a very wealthy Indian family and compare their lives to those Indians living in poverty. But I slogged through this book having little compassion for any of the family and their struggles. ( )

I'll be honest. I debated about whether or not to review this book. For that matter, I debated about whether or not to bail on reading the novel itself. I'd invested so much time reading, I kept thinking, surely I can keep going. Right?

In a word: no.

After spending several days wading through the book, being bored, and dreading the next time I had to open the cover, I bailed after 400 pages.

I suspect that a reader's response to this novel entirely depends on her/his level of tolerance/comfort for dense literary prose. It might also help if the reader is familiar with King Lear; I read that play in high school but can't remember much beyond the basic trope of father-pitting-daughters-against-each-other. Sibling rivalry, all that. I don't know how closely Taneja adhered to the original plot.

If literary fiction is your thing and you love lyrical writing, then you should stop reading my review. You might enjoy this book. Give it a try.
If you're a plot junkie, and prefer a bare-bones get-to-the-action narrative style, you won't like this book.
If you're not completely on either side, this review is for you. Maybe you like lyrical writing but you also like to have active, sympathetic characters. Or maybe you like Shakespeare retellings. My thoughts might help.

Before you say, "Oh, you just don't appreciate great writing!" or, "You just want fluffy entertainment!" I'll point out that I have a bachelor's and a master's degree in English lit. I've read plenty of great writing, lengthy books, and agonizing plots with horrible people populating the pages. I'm fine with all that to a certain extent. But my tolerance level has lowered. I want to be able to connect with someone in the book, preferably more than one, and I want to be interested in what they are doing, even if it is evil.

I didn't get that here.

I suspect that I would've been more tolerant of the prose had this been a translation, but it isn't. I'm not sure why, but knowing that a work is translated makes a difference. It's as if I realize that the work wasn't originally intended for someone of my demographic and I'm only eavesdropping on a different cultural's conversation. I expect to be slightly confused by geographic or political references and to be ignorant of the language or food or culture, and I'm willing to take the time to figure it out. But I really don't expect that in an English-language novel, even one about a different culture.

None of the sentences seem direct or to the point. There are no quotation marks. Certain passages are written in (presumably) Hindi (or some dialect) and not explained. If done sparingly, I would be okay with that. At length? Repeatedly? No. I realize this is a different culture, okay? I don't need a constant reminder of our differences. I need something that shows how we're connected as humans.

Absolutely none of the characters are likable, sympathetic, or even really interesting. They're not unique in how they act, either. They're doing a lot of what literary characters do in a lot of literary novels: cheat others, do drugs, drink too much, act miserable, etc. As best as I could tell, everyone hated and resented everyone else, including those they claimed (or believed) to love. I had high hopes when Jivan was introduced at the beginning, but after the initial section from his point of view, he wasn't as interesting anymore.

I wanted to like this book. I just couldn't. But I couldn't help but wonder what target audience Taneja thought she was aiming for. Apparently it wasn't me. I hate that. I really want to learn about other cultures and promote non-white authors, but this book alienated me no matter how I tried to embrace it.

In my opinion, it's not fair to rate a book that I didn't finish. I also hate being this negative in a review. Taneja obviously worked hard on this novel. If I run across another book of hers, I'll try to read it. Also, obviously some people like this novel (read the rave reviews on the back cover) so if you like more literary style writing, consider giving it a try.

This is an absolutely brilliant read. It's a rich Indian family saga which is also a retelling of King Lear. I read a precis of King Lear early on so I could do a better job of spotting the parallels, but in the end it inspired me to read King Lear as well. The descriptions of modern India are very vivid, the family are all terrible, and it's harrowing in places. ( )

Loved the idea of another Shakespeare retelling, except set in contemporary India. Sounds like a great read! The youngest daughter, Sita, disappears and her father's company is then divided between Radha and Gargi. I liked the idea of the update set in the present day (so we're not dealing with a kingdom and royalty in a traditional sense) and was curious to see how the idea translate to the current day.

Unfortunately...that's not it. I thought and wondered if maybe I just didn't have enough knowledge of India and/or needed to re-read Lear to really "get it." I think the negative reviews nail it. The book needs so much editing and I wonder if this was an attempt to sell the book as a big (literally!) family epic. Trying to translate Shakespeare across time and cultures can be difficult and many adaptations (I feel this way about Jane Austen retellings among others as well) try too hard to recreate too much of the original work in the retelling.

The multiple character POVs frustrate me to no end. Maybe sticking with the three sisters only, telling from Devraj's POV, having an third party narrator, etc. would have worked a lot better. It might account for why this book is too long.

Had been very much anticipating this book a lot and was disappointed. Borrowed from the library and would recommend that as the best way to pick up. ( )