Jyoti

Beautiful plot, superbly flawless writing and relatable as an immigrant.

Starts good, but becomes repetitive. There is a reason some things should only be written as blogs or longform essays and not a whole book when there's not enough content.

It's generally an engaging book, but the ending is so underwhelming and sort of felt out of place. Disappointing since most of it is brilliant.

It seemed like Desai was hopping from one character to another, one timeline to another, one place to another more than her character Biju did from one NY restaurant to another. Which, if had been done better would have made it a gripping read- even with the sheer lack of a plot.
Desai is a beautiful writer in terms of descriptions and observations, but eventually the hodgepodge of her thoughts in an incredibly distracting writing style with overuse of lists as humor makes this book a boring read. Better leave it alone.

What a brilliant, nuanced story!!