The Hindi-Bindi Club [Kindle Edition]

Monica Pradhan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The age-old intergenerational struggle between mothers and daughters gets a curried twist in Pradhan's debut, in which the subcontinent meets the modern West. As children, first-generation Americans Kiran Deshpande, Preity Chawla Lindstrom and Rani McGuiness Tomashot gently mocked their Indian mothers, collectively nicknamed "The Hindi-Bindi Club" for their Old World leanings. Though the three are now successful adults, they aren't necessarily seen as such by their parents. For starters, none married Indian men. But now, Kiran's parents may get their chance to "semi-arrange" a marriage for their divorced daughter as she considers the possibility that there may be something to the old ways. Preity, mostly happily married to business school beau Eric, carries a small torch for a long-lost love—a Muslim her parents didn't approve of—and considers seeking him out. Meanwhile, rocket scientist Rani's passion for art starts to pay off as she becomes spiritually listless. Pradhan's debut is breezy (there are enough recipes dotting the narrative to fill a cookbook), though it touches on not-so sunny issues—prejudice, breast cancer, infidelity. The prose isn't dynamite and the characters are stock, but the novel easily fulfills its ready-made requirements. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Like Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club (1988), Pradhan's first novel, which features six alternating narrators, speaks to the cultural and generational tensions between immigrant mothers and their Westernized daughters. Recently divorced Kiran Deshpande, a family doctor who longs for a family of her own, is finally willing to admit that her Indian parents might have been right to disapprove of her marriage to a musician with a wandering eye. She's come home after a long estrangement to discuss with her parents her wish to consider an arranged marriage. Her mother, recently diagnosed with breast cancer, is more than willing to play peacemaker between her authoritarian husband and her headstrong daughter. The narrative also encompasses two other young women, childhood friends of Kiran, and their individual struggles with their parents, including battles with clinical depression and anorexia. Although Pradhan's novel is much lighter than Tan's, her pages are alive with the sights, sounds, and smells (recipes included) of a vibrant Indian culture. In addition, her young characters speak with fresh but cutting humor about the difficulties of assimilation. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 467 KB
• Publisher: Bantam (May 1, 2007)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000QBYETG
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,728 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars JOIN THE CLUB!, May 25, 2007

By 

Sachin Waikar (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Hindi-Bindi Club (Paperback)

I have to admit to being skeptical about this book: I'm a male Indo-American writer, and I usually don't reach for what could be considered women's fiction. But after seeing Monica Pradhan speak at a local South Asian literary festival, I bought a copy. And couldn't put it down. HBC is a very fast read with just the right balance of drama, humor, culture, and insight, like a spiced-right curry. Much of the characters' journeys is internal, but Pradhan's skill with words and her ability to juggle multiple intertwined storylines kept me engaged. As an added bonus, this was the first book I've read that includes Marathi, the language I grew up speaking. Side note: the recipes are tempting enough to make this total non-cook consider trying them. Good reading and good food. Can't go wrong with that combination.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Credible portrayal of mother-daughter relationships, with bonus recipes!, October 14, 2007

By 

Z Hayes (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Hindi-Bindi Club (Paperback)

My favorite writers on the theme of the migrant Indian experience are Jhumpa Lahiri [The Namesake, Interpreter of Maladies] & Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni [Arranged Marriage etc]. The Hindi-Bindi Club was a pleasant surprise by first-time novelist Monica Pradhan. It explores the complexities of relationships between mothers and daughters, specifically Indian mothers and daughters, and the struggle to reconcile the mothers' migrant experiences with their daughters' more liberal outlook, as well as other conflicts within and without.

The stories here are told from multiple points of view - the daughters are represented by Kiran Deshpande, a medical doctor who is also divorced from her American rock star husband and yearns to be a mother, contemplating the unthinkable [an arranged marriage], Preity Chawla Lindstrom, the so-called perfect daughter who seems to have it all yet is haunted by the memories of her first love, and Rani McGuiness Tomashot, an artist who seems lost.

The mothers are Meenal Deshpande, who hopes to reconcile with her daughter whilst coming to grips with her own physical pain, Saroj Chawla who is blessed with divine cooking skills, and puts it to good use in a thriving catering business, yet harbors a dark secret, and finally Uma Basu McGuiness, who suffered the humiliation of being disowned by her father for following her heart.

Though the stories alternate from one voice to another, the narration flows seamlessly, and the end of each part is marked by an authentic Indian recipe that is mouthwateringly delicious [chicken curry, chutneys, desserts, lassi etc].

The subject-matter of human relationships in general and mother-daughter relationships in particular is explored with poignant detail and brought tears to my eyes, as being Indian myself, I saw a lot of my own family dynamics within the story. It is well-written, and so human, and yes, brings to mind works like The Joy Luck Club and Like Water for Chocolate, but is unique in its own right. I highly recommend it!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't finish it, December 26, 2008

By 

N. Patel (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Hindi-Bindi Club (Paperback)

I really wanted to like this book. Despite giving it a fair shot, I couldn't even force myself to finish it.

Beyond the stories just falling flat for me, there was something that was really irking and annoying me about this book. I finally figured it out about 250 pages into it. The dialogue is stilted and completely unbelievable. It made me feel as if I were reading some high schooler's attempt at writing dialogue or even like a cheesy young adult novel.

The other thing that bothered me was that she really hits you over the head with the history. I appreciate her attempt to educate those readers who may not be familiar with Indian culture and history. However, it felt as if her tone was more like a school teacher than a novelist. There are many others writers, such as Tan, that successfully educate readers who may not be familiar with that particular culture in a more poetic fashion. I know many people will disagree with me on this, especially those that knew nothing of India prior to their reading of this book.

The last thing major criticism I have is the simplistic explanation of things Indian to non-Indian readers. For example, she describes Mumbai as "New York City and Hollwood combined", teen pathi as "The Indian equivalent of poker", and bhangra as "hip Indian music, kinda like Indian disco". I think she is being condescending to insulting the intelligence of her readers by her insistence on finding a Western equivalent of all these things that are distinctly Indian, as if no one would understand it otherwise. It would've been better if she had never included these details at all than to give such trite and one-dimensional descriptions that end up Westernizing these things anyway.

I did enjoy the recipe pages, and thought they were a pretty creative touch.

Overall, I was excited to read this book when I started it. However, the stories were just not riveting enough for me to keep going, and the dialogue significantly contributed to my giving up on Hindi Bindi Club. After about 150 pages, the book began to become a chore to me rather than an enjoyable escape.