Great story and description of life in Bombay/Mumbai seen from the point of an American born Indian trying to make sense of her life, past, present and future. Descriptions of customs, attitudes etc.

Set between 2 timelines following a mother and daughter, between Mumbai and Buffalo in the 50s, 60s and 70s to drought stricken Mumbai in 2006. This diaspora novel brought a rich description of the bustling city of Mumbai taking me back to my visit over 10 years ago.

There was a sense of realism with the characters- from the pressure of being married for Shamayala to keeping up with society expectations, and giving up dreams for her mum and struggles with motherhood as well as the character of her aunt, who always remained unmarried.

Alternatively, there is the storyline of Vini's house help who live in the slums and their lives there which I found interesting. I also liked how romance was not the main theme but was nicely depicted.

Dry Spells by Archana Maniar is a powerful, yet gentle story of identity and learning to understand and enjoy all aspects of your culture.
In Dry Spells, we travel from Mumbai in 1959, to Los Angeles in the 1960, right up to today.
We see the growth and chances in both countries- and also the people.
I loved reading the rich descriptions of Mumbai (I could imagine being there) and how Shyamalan learns to accept and love all elements of our cultures.

This book was a hard one to go through. It caters to every cliche of India that an outsider can think of and then doubles down on them. The story moves at a very slow pace and is fairly predictable.

Shyamala's job has relocated her to Bombay for at least a year. She is a bit apprehensive about going as she hasn't been in years and doesn't think she will quite fit in. Her maasi (mother's sister) insists that Shyamala stay with her at her flat in the city. While in India, Shyamala experiences the stark contrast between the rich and poor. She is uncomfortable seeing her aunt's young maid working when she should be in school. She also meets new friends who show her different perspectives of life in India.
This book was just ok for me. It moved at a pretty slow pace. I didn't care much for the main character, or any of the characters for that matter. The overall gist of the story was that our fate is not always decided, sometimes our actions decide our fate.

Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Dnf!

Struggled to hit the 20% mark and then I gave up. Not worth my time!

The stereotypical portrayal of India as stinky, hot, and crowded… the description of the ‘various smells and sounds of India her people being loud and noisy, focusing on the rich-poor divide, hot weather, and pronouncing “always” as Al-vays, open drains welcoming one as soon as they step out of the international airport (really?!!)

I was excited to read this but gave up! this is one of those books that is written to appeal to a certain kind of audience… the one that thinks Slumdog Millionaire is exactly how entire India is!

This book takes you to Mumbai both in the 60ies and the early 2000s. It tells the story of Shyamalan who is the daughter of an indian couple that emigrated to the U.S. so she was born and brought up there. Now she has to move to Mumbai for work and moves in with her aunt. While spending time there she learns a lot about her family's past and the way of life in India.
I enjoyed reading this book. I could relate to the characters and I found it fascinating to read about how people were living in Mumbai and how the women of the family found their place in life.

Dry Spells by Archana Maniar is such a beautiful story of a mother and daughter’s relationship.
The details here are amazing.
The characters are beautifully written.
And the writing was so well done.
I will be keeping my eyes open for Maniar’s next title in the future.

Thank You NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!