If Today Be Sweet: A Novel
Not like the old days. So many times Rustom and she had visited the children in America and always it had been a good time. The light shifted in the trees across the street and it reminded Tehmina of something. An incident from last year.
Something happy for you kids to think of, when we oldies are no longer around. The two men were standing knee-deep in the water, while Tehmina and Susan lay poolside in lounge chairs. Little Cavas, whom everybody called Cookie, had been napping next to Susan.
MORE BY THRITY UMRIGAR
Tehmina looked at the blue water and at her husband and son. Water glistened off their brown faces and chests. She noticed idly that Rustom's belly was firmer than his son's. Too many years of this pork-beef diet for Sorab, she thought. I need to remind him again about his cholesterol. He turned to Susan. About the moving finger writes and then moves on? Do you think he had a--a feeling or a sense--about his death?
Even behind her dark glasses, Teh-mina could feel her daughter-in-law stiffen. The suddenly cold silence buzzed around them. When Susan spoke, her voice was tight as a ponytail. About how you're not to keep thinking about the past? What's the point of thinking about--the sad stuff--if it just brings you down? She wanted to say: When you have known Sorab and loved him for as long as I'd known my husband, then you will know what it's like to miss someone so badly it's like your own organs betray you. Your heart, your skin, your brain, all turn into traitors.
All the things you thought belonged to you, you realize you shared with the other person. How to explain to you, Susan, what the death of a husband feels like? Such a shock it is, like experiencing your first Ohio winter, with that bitter wind slapping you on your numb face. That's what's wrong with you Americans, deekra, you all think too much of laughter and play, as if life was a Walt Disney movie. Something a child would make up. Whereas in India, life is a Bollywood melodrama--full of loss and sadness. And so everyone rejects Bollywood for Disney. Even my Sorab was seduced by your Disney life--all this pursuit of happiness and pursuit of money and pursuit of this and.
Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher. Make this your default list. Specialty Booksellers Interest-specific online venues will often provide a book buying opportunity. International Customers If you are located outside the U. Harper Perennial On Sale: Christmas on the Island by Jenny Colgan.
Christmas Camp by Karen Schaler. Find Me Gone by Sarah Meuleman.
Questions?
The Christmas Key by Lori Wilde. Everybody's Son by Thrity Umrigar. No One Cancels Christmas: The most laugh out loud romantic comedy this Christmas! Year Year X Tell us more about what you like to read so we can send you the best offers and opportunities. What kind of books do you like to read?
If Today Be Sweet has ratings and reviews. Erica said: I really enjoyed this book. Great infomation about Indian donnsboatshop.com Umrigar's tender. donnsboatshop.com: If Today Be Sweet (P.S.): Thrity Umrigar: Books.
Scene of the Crime mystery fans. In perusing other poster's reviews of the author's work it seems this book happens to be much different compared to her previous works. Perhaps I will try one of her other works instead. This one gets returned today. Aug 14, Susan de la Vergne rated it liked it. It's a sweet story, about a recently widowed woman from Bombay who tries to decide whether to move to suburban Ohio to live with family. But she spends the entire book deciding. Fortunately, she's an interesting character, but often annoying because she's indecisive.
Finally something happens she rescues two children and gets off the fence, literally: Her deciding moment comes as she's climbing a fence, trying to decide on which side to jump down. Too literal a metaphor for me. But the charact It's a sweet story, about a recently widowed woman from Bombay who tries to decide whether to move to suburban Ohio to live with family. But the character's observations about life in the US clean, fresh, organized, detached, lonely, overly fearful, sterile are the most interesting parts. Her ambivalence is driven by that--do I go home to the warm exciting difficult swirl of Bombay or stay near my son in the well-ordered blandness of suburbia?
But If Today Be Sweet was just an okay read. Thrity is at her best writing about India and Bombay. This book took place in Ohio no offense to my friends in Ohio with flash backs of life in Bombay, some of the best parts of the book. But for me not enough time in India. This definitely is a book for book clubs, lots to discuss. Oct 19, Shelley rated it it was ok. It wasn't the best writing and it did go on and on quite a bit about some things and it was quite predictable as well, but it's not too often that I find myself wanting to laugh out loud as I did in this story as it was just too cute to hold back.
It's about a 66 year old Parsi woman who can't make up her mind where to live as her beloved husband, Rustom, passed away the year before.
If Today Be Sweet
She has to choose whether to live in Ohio with her son, Sorab, and white wife, Susan, and their son, Cavas, "Cookie", where everything is so different from her ways of life in India, or return back in India where she has always lived, and has her daily routine and friends. It was interesting to see through the eyes of Tehmina, the ways some things are done here in the states where it's the "normal" way and the way things are done in India where it's their "normal" way.
Tehmina is such a sweet natured character that anyone reading this book will either want to have her as a mother, grandmother, or friend, and want to be around her, not to mention want to try all of her delicious sounding Indian dishes she makes. I didn't get this same good feeling from Susan.
I didn't feel that Sorab and her marriage seemed geniune and actually found Susan to be quite harsh and mean. Cookie seemed like a spoiled brat as well. Jun 14, June rated it liked it. This is the 3rd Umrigar book I have read and my second favorite. I still believe "The Space between Us" is by far her best book so far. I am not sure if it was true in "The Space This was more so a problem in Bombay Time when there were many more characters but it happens quite often in this novel as well.
But this book succeeds in its wonderful an This is the 3rd Umrigar book I have read and my second favorite. But this book succeeds in its wonderful analysis of the immigrant experience of Indian Americans. There are some descriptions of America and Americans compared to life in Bombay that rang so true to my own experience as an American born Chinese who has visited Malaysia and Taiwan.
Umrigar has transported the reader into the mind and heart of Telmina as she decides whether to leave her home in Bombay to live with her son and daughter-in-law in the US following her husband's death. Dec 15, Sarah rated it liked it. This is an incredibly sweet-natured and even corny book, and I enjoyed it despite the stereotyped characters and occasionally wooden writing and imagery. Umrigar is writing about an older Parsi woman who comes to the USA to stay with her son and daughter-in-law after her beloved husband dies. She must decide whether to move to the US, or return to her life in Bombay.
The whole book involves her sitting "on the fence," including a literal fence-sitting scene.
- .
- KIRKUS REVIEW.
- IF TODAY BE SWEET by Thrity Umrigar | Kirkus Reviews.
But I enjoyed the details about India This is an incredibly sweet-natured and even corny book, and I enjoyed it despite the stereotyped characters and occasionally wooden writing and imagery. But I enjoyed the details about India and the analysis of trying to fit into a new world and a new family, as the protagonist tries to decide what parts of her life and personality she can retain and what has to be jettisoned as she grows into a new place and family. I thought The Space Between Us was a far superior novel. May 27, Susmita Bhattacharya rated it it was amazing.
Poignant, heart-wrenching, humourous and poetic. Thrity Umrigar at her best.
Dec 17, Louise rated it liked it. Umrigar is one of my "go-to" authors. So many good books. This one, not as good but still worth reading. It's about a widow trying too find her place in the world without her husband. A popular and touching topic but I think Umrigar approached the subject with an overly simplistic viewpoint. Possibly she was trying too hard to combine numerous story lines into a satisfying conclusion.
It clicks together in a way that reality never does. Jul 19, Marcy rated it really liked it. Tehmina was in deep despair after her husband died. They were quite the lovable couple. They were both caring enough to take in another child, they already had a son named Sorab , into their home when his beloved mom died, and his alcoholic father could not adequately take care of him.
Both of Sorab's parents saw the loss of their son to America, but they were happy he was happy married to a white American woman who loved him and bore their son. Tehmina and her husband lived in Mumbai, but visi Tehmina was in deep despair after her husband died. Tehmina and her husband lived in Mumbai, but visited America to see their family four weeks a year. When Tehmina's husband suddenly died of a heart attack, Tehmina suffered. Thrity Umrigar's words show Tehmina's grief and despair: Like riding in a Mercedes-Benz, Tehmina now thought, with tinted windows that kept the outside squalor at bay and shock absorbers that smoothened and muted all of life's bumps.
And now, without Rustom at the wheel, she suddenly felt as if she was traveling in the old Ambassador her father used to own, with its rattling doors and the kind of shocks that made you feel every pothole at the base of your spine.
Her fall from grace had been as quick and astounding as Rustom's heart attack. Thrity Umrigar clearly shows throughout this book how hard this decision is for Tehmina. Tehmina is vulnerable and sensitive. This decision is also hard for her Indian son and American wife. A cultural tension pervades Sorab's home, for his wife is White American, their son is American, and Sorab stands between his now American, and once, Indian culture. May 06, Ellen rated it liked it Shelves: A bit fairy-tale-esque in a way, what with Jerome and Josh getting a wonderful new chance with their loving aunt in the countryside.
A lot of things were squeezed into the final chapter; certain things, such as Rustom's Omar Khayyam messages, could've been a continuing occurrence throughout. The dialogue was weaker than I've come to expect from Umrigar, though certain characters Grace were characterized quite well through dialogue. On the subject of Grace! I am of two minds about her.
I used to know someone who could be her slightly-older sister and I relate completely to her awfulness as a boss. In a perfect world I wouldn't be criticizing Umrigar's portrayal of the awful, snobby, career-woman boss: But something about her screwing up with such frivolity and being summarily fired by the benevolent CEO Then again, Susan is also a career woman, though her career is not focused on as much. And Grace is pretty dismissive of Joe's political views in an irritating way.