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The Golden Son: A Novel by Shilpi Somaya…
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The Golden Son: A Novel (original 2015; edition 2016)

by Shilpi Somaya Gowda (Author)

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3903964,632 (3.99)23
Fiction. Literature. HTML:

The New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of Secret Daughter returns with an unforgettable story of family, responsibility, love, honor, tradition, and identity, in which two childhood friendsâ??a young doctor and a newly married brideâ??must balance the expectations of their culture and their families with the desires of their own hearts.

The first of his family to go to college, Anil Patel, the golden son, carries the weight of tradition and his family's expectations when he leaves his tiny Indian village to begin a medical residency in Dallas, Texas, at one of the busiest and most competitive hospitals in America. When his father dies, Anil becomes the de facto head of the Patel household and inherits the mantle of arbiter for all of the village's disputes. But he is uneasy with the custom, uncertain that he has the wisdom and courage demonstrated by his father and grandfather. His doubts are compounded by the difficulties he discovers in adjusting to a new culture and a new job, challenges that will shake his confidence in himself and his abilities.

Back home in India, Anil's closest childhood friend, Leena, struggles to adapt to her demanding new husband and relatives. Arranged by her parents, the marriage shatters Leena's romantic hopes, and eventually forces her to make a desperate choice that will hold drastic repercussions for herself and her family. Though Anil and Leena struggle to come to terms with their identities thousands of miles apart, their lives eventually intersect once moreâ??changing them both and the people they love forever.

Tender and bittersweet, The Golden Son illuminates the ambivalence of people caught between past and present, tradition and modernity, duty and choice; the push and pull of living in two cultures, and the painful decisions we must make to find our true sel… (more)

Member:scoutlee
Title:The Golden Son: A Novel
Authors:Shilpi Somaya Gowda (Author)
Info:William Morrow Paperbacks (2016), Edition: Reprint, 432 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:read 2017, book club, India, Texas, family dynamics, audiobook 2017, new author 2017

Work Information

The Golden Son by Shilpi Somaya Gowda (2015)

  1. 00
    Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda (vancouverdeb)
    vancouverdeb: Both books are by the same author.Though they are different stories, each one features characters from India trying to adapt to life in North America. Obviously ,similar story telling.
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» See also 23 mentions

English (36)  French (2)  All languages (38)
Showing 1-5 of 36 (next | show all)
Family Saga
  BooksInMirror | Feb 19, 2024 |
Dr. Anil Patel works serving his residency in a hospital that serves the poor in Dallas. An error he made in his first year killed a patient. The wife comes to the hospital and says goodbye to her dead spouse, sobbing and praying.
P.107:
"she kissed him gently on the forehead and smiled before her face crumpled and she fell onto his chest with a heart piercing wail that Anil could hear echoing even after he left the room to Pace the corridor outside. When he returned, a priest was holding a rosary and blessing the body. The wife's expression was pained, her eyes searching every inch of her husband's corpse for an explanation.
"Anil was grateful for the presence of the priest and social worker to help shoulder the woman's grief. But was God there in that cold room filled with metal machines and halogen lights? It seems unlikely. Anil was used to the idea of a capricious God, a spiritual order in which Death often came to the undeserving. He'd seen the destructive hand of Shiva and the earthquake devastation of Gujarat, and in the slow death of a disease-ridden body. It wasn't that Anil thought God merciless for taking Calhoun at 57, leaving behind a widow and three fatherless children. He simply didn't sense God's presence there at all. The man had suffered a ruptured aneurysm because of Anil's oversight. His death was caused by a catheter tip and human error. The whole concept of God had been irrelevant."

Leena, Anil's childhood friend from his village in the state of Gujarat in India, comes from a poor family. Her parents, arranging a marriage for her, can't find a match in their village, so they advertise in further villages. A possible match is found with what her parents, and Anil's father, the village elder believe is a son from a good family in a village two hours away by car. The future groom, his older brother, and their father come to Leena's house and question Leena's father closely on Leena's health history, her habits, her experience cooking and cleaning, and demand a high dowry.
Leena's husband turns out to be a cruel wife beater. In fact, the whole family is abusive to her, and her mother in law and sister in law steal her fine saris and jewelry. Nothing she does is good enough, though she works hard, and after nearly a year being beaten physically and mentally, Leena asks her husband if she can visit her parents. He becomes furious with her, so Leena figures it's a lost cause.
P.136:
"Lena stepped out of the bedroom. 'I should get the tea started before the others wake.' Girish followed her into the kitchen. Her hands shook as she lifted the heavy cistern outside to the water pump. Her arms had grown strong from doing this task every morning, but now they trembled as he watched her.
"Outside, the Horizon was streaked with pale pink and deep orange, and the birds were calling to each other. The air felt very still; it was going to be a hot day. Leena was lowering the cistern below the water pump when she heard the door Creak open behind her. She did not turn around. She would not give Girish the satisfaction of seeing fear in her eyes. She would do her work, as she always did. Leena gripped the thick iron lever and began pumping it up and down, relaxing into the familiar rhythm, using the strength of her legs to take the pressure off her arms. The lever groaned, and finally water began to trickle, then pour, into the cistern. It was because of the water that Lena did not hear the liquid splashing at her feet and onto her sari. She did not hear it, nor did she feel anything. She smelled it first, the shark familiar scent of kerosene.
"when the pungent odor entered her nose, she dropped the lever and turned around. Girish stood there, holding the square tin from next to the kitchen stove. with a wild lurch of his arm, he splattered the last of the oil at her, then tossed aside the empty tin. His eyes were narrow and their black pupils Glinted at her. He was chewing lazily on something.
"Leena opened her mouth, then closed it again without speaking. She had gone too far, crossed him, she now understood. Slowly, she began to move away from girish, taking small steps backwards. He advanced on her, as if they were joined by an invisible rope. He reached into his pocket and, in a movement too quick for Leena to follow, lit a match, the orange flame flickering at the end of his finger. His lips opened into a sneer, and Leena was struck by how his expression transformed his face. It was so clear to her now - this man was evil. How had she not seen it before?
"Leena never saw him throw the match. She believed there was still time to turn and run. She must have closed her eyes for a moment, or looked up to the heavens to pray for Mercy, because when her eyes opened, she saw girish's back as he walked toward the house. Bright flames licked up at her feet - bright yellow, deep orange and red, the same colors of the morning's radiant sunrise.
"warm at first, as the flames crept towards her. They leaped to the Hem if her sari, soaked through with oil. Heat, scorching heat, was spiraling around her. Leena looked about frantically. Girish had poured a ring of kerosene on the ground around her. She was trapped in a circle of fire, with nowhere to go. Her eyes burned with smoke. Her throat tightened. She was so tired of crying, tired of not crying. She wanted to lie down on the ground and close her eyes.
"everything was spinning around her, then the ground came up hard under her cheek. Searing pain in her foot unlike anything she had ever felt before, climbing up her leg. A sickly odor she had never smelled - thick and sweet and oily. It penetrated her mouth and nose; she choked on it. The odor of flesh burning. Her flesh. Leena tried to stand, but her foot was aflame..."
Leena runs down the road, her sari burned, in her petticoat, ashamed and in excruciating pain. Further down the road, she sees a house, and knocks on the door.
Leena's parents are called by the kindly woman who took her in and cleaned and dressed her burns. They come and take her home, but they are ashamed. In Indian culture, a woman who leaves her married home is a disgrace, and the whole family is shunned.

I loved this fictional book. The characters are well-drawn, so much so that they become lifelike, and I became involved in them. I may not be the only reader who wanted Anil to marry Leena, stay in India, and open a village clinic. Instead, the ending had him rushed into marrying a coworker's sister and becoming a citizen of the U.S.
( )
  burritapal | Oct 23, 2022 |
Anil and Leena, childhood friends growing up in India face two different paths in life. Anil moves to America to pursue his dream of being a doctor. He feels like he doesn’t belong there, but at the same time he feels that he no longer belongs in India either. There is an “undeniable push and pull between the land that had borne him and the one he had chosen.” “He was a dweller of two lands.” We follow his journey in America and his trips back to India and the inner turmoil he suffers.

Meanwhile, Leena is married to a horrible man and suffers greatly. She endures some truly horrible things. Without spoiling anything, I was really rooting for these two to end up together in the end, but I won’t say if they do or not.

I loved the colorful and vibrant setting in India. I sympathized with Anil’s struggles and I hoped for Leena to escape her horrible marriage. This was a great book! ( )
  dawnlovesbooks | Jul 30, 2021 |
Five stunning, incredible stars. This book goes on my Best of All Time list, no question. These characters will stay with me for a long, long time. I don’t want to leave Anil’s world. Highly recommend this book to just about anyone. A beautiful, moving, heart-wrenching story. ( )
  Slevyr26 | Sep 1, 2019 |
This is a compelling story about an oldest son who dreams to leave the prosperous farm and become a doctor in the US. It is also about his childhood friend, a young women, and the awful treatment she receives from her in-laws, and how few the options for women. Interesting from many perspectives, including being an immigrant in the US. The writing was pedestrian, but seemed to become smoother as the story progressed. Really good read overall. ( )
  WendyLbird | Aug 12, 2019 |
Showing 1-5 of 36 (next | show all)
In her second novel, Shilpi Somaya Gowda again deploys rich plotting and finely embroidered storytelling to reveal fascinating and sometimes disturbing elements of Indian culture...Gowda keeps her readers tethered to compelling, universal human themes — heartbreak and avarice among them.

“The Golden Son” wrestles with dilemmas faced by many immigrants who come here to fulfill their dreams. The protagonist, Anil, is a conflicted young Indian — the titular “golden son” — attempting to adjust to America. And the perils of being a woman in India are also explored in the novel, which interweaves the tale of Anil’s childhood friend Leena, who lives a traditional rural life back home. (The author was born in Canada to Indian immigrant parents.)
 
Like The Secret Daughter,The Golden Son is also a page-turner. Gowda is a gifted storyteller, bringing together various related story strands into a fully integrated whole.... Gowda gives readers a glimpse of what life might be like for someone arriving in America for the first time after growing up in a small Indian village....
The portrait Gowda draws of the people of India is also interesting, with the many layers of society and traditions ruling the everyday life of almost everyone.In The Golden Son, Gowda has created another well-crafted and interesting story

 
Her specialty is a formula based on parallel stories made up of a not-so-subtle mix of tragedy and hope, and then more tragedy and more hope with a few more obstacles and mishaps thrown in before a happy ending...Gowda can write up moments that break your heart whether it is when Leena’s mother first sees her daughter on her return or when Anil learns from a woman dying from cancer that medicine is not just about technology....The Golden Son combines the immigrant novel with a fascination for the insecure and dependent lives of rural women in India. The book does not finish with the most predictable ending, but a version of happily ever after does take place. And yes, it evoked a few tears, too.
 
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Epigraph
When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he has forgotton, not of the light he was unable to see.
Baltasar Gracian
Dedication
For Anand - My best decision, then and always.
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Anil Patel was ten years old the first time he witnessed one of Papa's arbitrations.
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Fiction. Literature. HTML:

The New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of Secret Daughter returns with an unforgettable story of family, responsibility, love, honor, tradition, and identity, in which two childhood friendsâ??a young doctor and a newly married brideâ??must balance the expectations of their culture and their families with the desires of their own hearts.

The first of his family to go to college, Anil Patel, the golden son, carries the weight of tradition and his family's expectations when he leaves his tiny Indian village to begin a medical residency in Dallas, Texas, at one of the busiest and most competitive hospitals in America. When his father dies, Anil becomes the de facto head of the Patel household and inherits the mantle of arbiter for all of the village's disputes. But he is uneasy with the custom, uncertain that he has the wisdom and courage demonstrated by his father and grandfather. His doubts are compounded by the difficulties he discovers in adjusting to a new culture and a new job, challenges that will shake his confidence in himself and his abilities.

Back home in India, Anil's closest childhood friend, Leena, struggles to adapt to her demanding new husband and relatives. Arranged by her parents, the marriage shatters Leena's romantic hopes, and eventually forces her to make a desperate choice that will hold drastic repercussions for herself and her family. Though Anil and Leena struggle to come to terms with their identities thousands of miles apart, their lives eventually intersect once moreâ??changing them both and the people they love forever.

Tender and bittersweet, The Golden Son illuminates the ambivalence of people caught between past and present, tradition and modernity, duty and choice; the push and pull of living in two cultures, and the painful decisions we must make to find our true sel

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