Serving Crazy with Curry

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. You can't hear my voice, but try to imagine it with a pleased and mildly surprised tone. I generally don't read a lot of contemporary fiction. I find myself drawn instead to the classics or highly acclaimed literary fiction and authors or my genre reading, like mystery and fantasy and children's fiction. Often, when I read a mainstream fiction novel that I don't know much about, I find myself disappointed. I didn't know what to expect with this one, but it grabbed my attention right away and kept me interested throughout the whole story.

The novel opens with the protagonist, Devi, contemplating and then attempting suicide. She faces the prospect with amusement and humor masking her deeper emotions. Very show more black humor - it's odd to find myself laughing during a chapter where the character tries to kill herself. It helped that I knew she lived; the book was about her, after all.

Her mother intervenes, as she has so often before in Devi's life. After she is released from the hospital she goes to live with her parents, but she refuses to speak. Instead, she starts to spend time in the kitchen, experimenting with her mom's traditional Indian dishes and creating some of her own new concoctions. As the story unfolds, we learn the reasons for Devi's desire to commit suicide, which are intricately connected with her family relations with her mother, father, sister, and brother-in-law.

I loved many factors of this story. The relationships between the characters are complicated and heart breaking, but also redeeming and lovely. It is a family with huge flaws, but a family, and they work to build bridges to each other throughout the story. It is realistic, but not hopeless. I also like Indian culture, and since this book is about an Indian family, the culture plays a large role in the plot. Finally, the food recipes and scenes made my mouth water. I had to eat Indian food!

Reading this made me realize that I should read more multicultural novels. It is fascinating to learn more about people, but more than that, it's important to try to empathize with other ways of life that are both similar and different from our own. Also, if I see more work by Malladi, I'm likely to snap it up. show less

This book begins with Devi, 27 year old, American-born Indian daughter of Avi and Soraj, writing a list of the pros and cons of committing suicide. The pros win and, with careful consideration and planning, she fills her bath tub, climbs in and equally carefully slits her wrists. All the planning in the world is ruined by her mother, who comes calling, lets herself in with the key Devi has long wished she hadn't given her, and finds her daughter in time to save her life.

On her release from the hospital, Devi goes back to live with her parents and her grandmother Vasu, who is visiting from India. Unable to face the things that drove her into the bath tub in the first place, or the explanations everyone wants of her, Devi simply stops show more talking. And she soon starts cooking. To Soraj's horror, she invades her mother's perfect kitchen and starts creating her own curious brand of fusion cooking - dishes such as blueberry chicken curry. As she cooks, she begins to heal. And around her, her mixed-up, confused family begins to rediscover itself, from her sister Shobha and her failing arranged marriage to Soraj's hurtful relationship with her own mother and a whole lot more in between.

This come to a head when a stranger arrives at the door to reveal Devi's most painful secret, the one that was the final straw that drove her into the bath tub. As her family faces this, everything cracks apart so that it can come together again in a new, better way.

This sounds like it should be a depressing book. It isn't. It's bright and thoughtful and just a bit crazy like its title. I truly can't remember how I found out about it, but I'm sure it came from browsing around the internet. One of my nice librarian friends tracked down a copy for me and I devoured it in a couple of days. Now I want to share it with everyone, especially my mother and my Indian "sister" who I think would relate to quite a bit of it.

It's written in an occasionally non-linear fashion, where it can take a moment to work out if the current anecdote is current or in the past. However, I didn't have an real troubles with that. While Devi is the main protagonist, the book doesn't focus solely on her. Instead, all the characters get a share of the limelight, usually giving the reader secret knowledge the other characters don't share and thereby making everyone a little more honest.

The things you might expect to find are in here, especially the clash of cultures and generations as Soraj tries to live her Indian life in America and keep her daughters, who think of themselves as American, Indian. We see how Soraj's own childhood with Vasu has shaped her into the person she is, and how her own raising of Shobha and Devi has shaped them. All in all, this book is about love. The love for one's husband or wife, one's lover, one's family, one's heritage. The different characters have all found different kinds of love to be their first priority and each is show to be neither less nor more than any other, but all their choices gave a profound affect on the people around them.

Then there's the appendix at the end where the author has a chat with her characters, which is just delightful.

This is a delightful book; go out, find a copy, read it and then share it with your friends. show less

The moments in this book range from funny to heart-wrenching to tantalizing (in the foodie sense). The story of a messed up Indian-American family is believable even in it's "she couldn't have!" moments. And the glimpses of the recipes made my mouth water.

This was an enjoyable read, and an easy one too - like others have said before me, I will definitely snap up other books by the author if I see them. The recipes included, the family relationships contained with the book, the expectations and pressures of family life for second generation migrant children are captured and explored with delicacy, humour and truthfulness.
The only criticism of this book (and perhaps it isn't a criticism, but rather a reflection on my personality type) is that I wouldn't be as forgiving as the protagonist's sister is....but any more details would be a spoiler alert, so I will stop there.

Devi can't stand the pressure (to marry and as a result of losing her job in Silicon Valley), so she commits suicide - but is saved by her meddling mother and forced to live with her parents as she "recoveres." She refuses to speak but begins cooking - nonstop - new twists on traditional fare (blueberry curry chicken or Cajun prawn biryani). When a stranger appears her secrets begin to come out. And the entire family's "tradition" of miscommunication further complicates things.

I enjoyed this story and would like to read more of Malladi's work.

I couldn't get past the first 2 pages. The main character was talking to herself about killing herself. This inner dialogue was light as though suicide is a light matter. Just couldn't read it.

Light, fun read, despite the subject matter. Couldn't put it down, will be looking for more from this author. Recommended.