Thin and disappointing, despite vivid scenes of immigrant life and recollections of home.
Overwrought and sluggishly paced sequel to Sister of My Heart (1999), continuing the tale of two Indian cousins who now find their close relationship threatened by old loves and new sorrows in California.
Divakaruni excels at creating distinctive characters and nicely evoked settings, whether in San Francisco or Calcutta, but the story she tells here is much less uncompelling. The mention of significant events happening elsewhere (Mandela’s election, the war in Sarajevo) seems annoyingly pretentious when counterpoised against the melodrama of the characters’ lives. The year is 1993. Anju, married to Sunil and living in San Francisco, is having difficulty recovering from a recent miscarriage. Her marriage is also suffering, and so homesick Anju decides that a visit from her cousin might help. Sudha, who left husband Ramesh when he supported his mother’s demand that she abort the female child she was carrying, arrives with baby Dayita. The cousins are delighted to see each other, but tensions soon strain their former closeness. Sudha, distressed to observe that Anju and Sunil are unhappy, is even more distressed when Sunil tries to kiss her. He’s been in love with his beautiful cousin-by-marriage since they first met in India. Soon, though, Sudha acquires an admirer with no strings attached: Lalit, an Indian doctor. She is more preoccupied with Anju’s unhappiness, however, not to mention her own dilemma: always the dutiful daughter, she has no professional skills and no money. Sudha tentatively begins to make an independent life while Anju starts college; then, however, Sunil seduces her and she realizes she must move out. She finds work as a live-in caregiver for an Indian family, and the cousins who once called themselves sisters are no longer on speaking terms. Not to worry: reconciliation and independence are soon in order.
Thin and disappointing, despite vivid scenes of immigrant life and recollections of home.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-385-49729-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2001
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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