The Golden Son
Ratings2
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings2
Average rating3.5
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 friends—a young doctor and a newly married bride—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 more—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 selves.
Reviews with the most likes.
Do no harm. It was not, as he'd learned, an easy principle.
This was mostly a pleasant read. It took a bit for me to get into this book, and even then it never actually grabbed me exactly, but I was entertained enough to finish. The book follows Anil, eldest son of an Indian family, going to America to be a doctor. Mild culture clash ensues as Anil finds his footing, but he also soon realizes that it's not easy to leave behind his Indian family and heritage. With one foot in America and one foot, by necessity, in India, he has to figure out how to reconcile the two parts of his life while also doing what he wants to do. It sounds cliché, and in some respects it is, but I think this book handles it well. There's lots of themes of family, of separation, of old ways confronting new ways, and the book also incorporates issues of racism as part of its plot.
I felt like the dialogue and writing was a little flat, and that's what stops me from giving this a higher rating. It sort of reads like a Hallmark movie, with everything seen, shown, nothing left to the imagination, or anything really to think about or contemplate. While the India portions are written with care and detail, the America portions, particularly the characters, felt flat and undeveloped. In particular, Anil's brief fling with Amber never really went anywhere except as a plot device to hang racism issues on. Once that plot point ends, Amber's written out and Anil never really thinks about her again.
A decent book. Not a lot of wow factor, but there's still a lot to like here.
