First, this is a well written book, and I was drawn to the characters. This book also seems to be mostly about sharing Indian culture. For the first three-quarters of the book, the story seems unremarkable; mainly a vehicle for conveying the experience of Indian culture and immigrant culture. The last quarter of the story, however, does build in interest and delves info deeper issues. It is a quality story, and yet it does not touch me deeply enough that I think it needs to be read. Since I have visited India, and had exposure to the culture, I think this story beautifully conveys Indian culture. It also attends to sociology, relationships on all levels (parents, children, siblings, friends, dating, marriage, gay orientation), racial considerations, and death and loss.
— Rebecca ( )

Stories set in India or Pakistan or centered on characters from those regions appeal to me. I can relate to the characters to some degree.

Like the narrator, Preeti Desai, my parents emigrated to the United States when my brother and I were very young. It was an adjustment for all of us and we each had our individual struggle with culture shock, assimilation, identity, and tradition. Added to that were family conflict. Mismatched expectations, resentment, and double-standards. That is where the similarity ends.

She doesn’t come across as particularly likable. Rather, she is self-absorbed and dismissive. In her mind, her ethnic background and appearance make her a misfit. Either she adheres to traditional beliefs and values or she becomes “westernized.” Both are mutually exclusive. She condescends to wearing “panjabis”(a term I am hearing for the first time to refer to the long top or “kurta” and either the leggings-type “churidaar” or harem pant-type “shalwar” along with a long scarf or “dupatta), eating the cuisine, and showing her face at family functions.

Her not following the prescribed life-plan puts her on a collision course with her parents. She also feels betrayed by older brother, Neel. It used to be the two of them against their parents until he switched teams.

Her only saving grace is her approved “practical” career choice as a lawyer in a prestigious law firm. It is a demanding position where Preeti feels she has to work at least twice as hard to get the coveted carrot stick : partnership. And she must make sacrifices such as not joining her family on a trip to India for her cousin’s wedding.

Then…a family emergency compels her to return to her homeland. Even though it is the country of her heritage, she feels like a fish out of water…at first.

But, the trip is life-changing, not only for her, but for her entire family.

As mentioned in the book, the apt title is based on a translation of an Indian proverb : what does a monkey know about the taste of ginger. It means one can not understand or appreciate that which they don’t know. Overall, the book was good, but could have been better. The plot was engaging. The characters were well-developed. The settings, descriptions, and dialogue were, for the most part, true-to-life. The end was realistic, but it was a long time coming. It was a bit over with the wordiness and soul-searching. ( )

The Taste of Ginger is Mansi Shah’s debut novel. While advertised as the story of a first generation American trying to figure out where she belongs, it touches so much on race that it is hard to view the book as traditional Indian fiction. The main character is Preeti Desai, a thirty year old woman living in Los Angeles who is working seventy hours a week as an attorney. She has an older brother Neel who she is close to as they shared the experience of emigrating to the U. S. from India when they were children. The two of them emulated their white fellow students in an effort to assimilate into American culture. How much that affected both of them is not discussed between them until the family returns to India for a family wedding.

Neel's wife Dipti is pregnant with their first child when the family travels to India for a wedding. During a rickshaw ride through town, a car crashed into them and Dipti is injured. She is immediately hospitalized and soon falls into a coma. Neel calls Preeti to give her the news and she agrees to fly to India immediately. For two weeks Dipti hovers near death until a decision is made to terminate her pregnancy in order to save her life. While Preeti is in India she has to deal with her mother whom she has been estranged from for several years. Her mother did not like that Preeti lived with a white Christian American man without the benefit of marriage. It was bad enough that she chose a white man but living with him pushed her mother over the edge. Preeti refused to give Alex up. Alex was her first relationship with a man and she took the relationship seriously. While supporting her brother, they begin to talk about the difficulties they had in moving to America. It was never spoken out loud before. The reasons that their parents made the decision to leave India did not make sense to them as they suffered financial problems that they would have avoided by staying put.

I enjoyed this book immensely but feel that the race card was played too heavily. Preeti saw everybody in terms of the color of their skin. She attached judgments also based not only on color but also on the darkness of a person's skin. Sure, she developed these feelings from her parents but no one else in the family had as many issues with race. She worked hard to be like the white people she worked with and thought it made her happy. During her trip to India she saw her countrymen in different ways depending how light or dark their skin was. Darker skins were from a lower class while Preeti was a Brahmin. Around the halfway point in the story I got tired of the use of labels and decided that I no longer liked the Preeti character. As the main character she should be admirable but her constant thoughts of race turned me off and I don't think that she was happy with all of her hangups.

There was one other problem that I had with the book. The author writes about Preeti finding an old photo of her mother with a man that she did not know. Preeti asked several family members who the man was but they all told her to ask her mother. She never asked her mother and the book does not tell us anything more about the photo. It seemed like to photo was going to reveal a family secret but we never discovered what that secret could have been.

All in all, this was a good read. I am rating it 4 out of 5 stars. ( )

"Survival required blending in."

The Taste of Ginger by Mansi Shah has been pulling on my heart strings from the opening scene. This is a beautiful story about family, identity assimilation, culture clash, Indian caste system, grief and the sacrifices of immigrant families. The writing is chock full of emotion and Indian culture. The story is so compelling and well written I can hardly believe this a debut novel. There is just so much depth in the storytelling and the characters are so layered. I literally traveled to India with this family and am wrapped up in their every thought and emotion.

If you're looking for a captivating tale about family and survival look no further. The themes in this one will leave you longing to start a conversation and reconnect with family. This wonderful tale highlighted:

🇮🇳 Indian representation and culture
🇮🇳 First generation immigration
🇮🇳 Indian caste system & Hinduism
🇮🇳 Assimilation, identity & racism
🇮🇳 Arranged marraiges vs. Love
🇮🇳 Sacrifices & shame of immigrants
🇮🇳 Clash of culture, old vs. new
🇮🇳 Complicated mother-daughter relationships
🇮🇳 American dream vs. Reality
🇮🇳 Parental expectations of success of immigrant parents
🇮🇳 Grief and loss of a child
🇮🇳 Disparities between men & women
🇮🇳 Family values & responsibilities
🇮🇳 Homophobia

I highly recommend this one because it is such a powerful depiction about the bonds of family. Shah has an exciting and unique voice and I am curious to read what she has in store for us next. Thanks to @tlcbooktours @lakeunionpublishing @tlcdiversity for the gifted copy. ( )

Preeti was only seven years old when she moved to Chicago with her parents and brother from their family home in India. The parents stayed in an area made up of Indian families and stayed true to the customs that they grew up with. Preeti and her brother knew that they needed to be Americanized as quickly as possible to keep other kids from making fun of them. This, of course, caused a lot of friction between her and her parents - primarily her mother. The end to her relationship with her mother was when her parents found out that she was living with a white Christian man She was a lawyer in a prestigious law firm and wanted to believe that she was on track to become a partner in the firm so she billed more hours than anyone in the firm. Her family was traveling back to India for a wedding and she made a decision not to go with them. When a terrible accident happens to a member of her family while in India, she asks for time off to go to India and her supervisor reluctantly agrees to as short of a time as possible.

In India with her immediate family and many other relatives, life seems very different and strange for Preeti. She had forgotten many of the customers and rituals that were part of normal life but the longer she's there, the more familiar it gets. Preeti is surprised as she learns more about her family and their battle with castes tradition, and sacrifice. She is torn between being an American and life in India and has to make some major decisions to figure out where she belongs and what home really means to her.

This beautiful novel mostly takes place in India and I learned a lot about the food, the rituals and the clothing that were part of life in India. It also gave me a better understanding of how much work goes into becoming Americanized so that immigrants will fit into our culture. Plus the homesickness they feel for their homeland and the family that they left behind.

This debut novel by Mansi Shah made me laugh and also made me cry, It's so beautifully written that I am looking forward to whatever she writes next.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. ( )