Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Often I avoid things that have been hyped too much to me, so I admit to avoiding this novel after seeing it everywhere. I picked it up because well, it aint easy for a a first novel to rocket to the top of the NYT Best Sellers list. There had to be something there… And so a few nights ago when I couldn’t sleep I flicked past it on the ereader again and decided to give it a look.
Wow. Shilpi Somaya Gowda grabs you right off the bat and just doesn’t let go. In her open, almost brazen style, she leads us through the tangled web of global life, where cultures don’t just clash, but knot together in tangles that take generations to harmonize.
The white woman loves her Indian husband, but cannot embrace his culture which seems frighteningly alien and complex to her. The husband who never takes the time to teach either her or their adopted Indian daughter about that culture- too deeply sunk in the western cult of success. The daughter who doesn’t fit into either world, raging and rebelling until finally she comes to understand that there is no need to choose.
Gowda forces an acknowledgement that racism and sexism still exist, just on a level so subtle and complex half the time we dont even realise the quiet ways it shades our cultures. Perhaps it’s more apparent when one contrasts the “American Way” with the older, more intricate culture of India.
Immigrants from all over the world cluster more and more tightly in microcosms of their own nationalities here in the west. They are considered suspicious, their way of life under fire, attacked for not surrendering their cultural identities and languages. Perhaps the message here is one that needs to be heard. You can, and should be both.
And yes Mother, I know you hate the smell of curry. Shut up and sit down, I love me some Chicken Korma. Pass the Naan.
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